Steve Gardham wrote: Hull, Yorkshire 1950s...

I asked my wife (b1950s Lancashire) what she thought the third line was. She said she didn't remember it from childhood but remembered my mother (b1918 Yorkshire) singing it to our children.

This 'steam up' line doesn't ring true to me at all. Tea pots don't 'get steam up'. Kettles do: maybe there's an earlier kettle version.

In the 80's, when we were passing these rhymes on to our children, we had a cheap book of nursery rhymes, large format, with Disney-style cartoon illustrations. My wife remembered that we didn't agree with some of the verses, and changed them to what we ourselves learned as children.