The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169679 Message #4102966
Posted By: Joe Offer
21-Apr-21 - 11:36 AM
Thread Name: ADD: Jon Raven's 'Wedgefield Wakes' lyrics
Subject: ADD: Wednesfield Wake
I gather that Reinhard's post is from The Annals of Willenhall by Frederick Wm. Hackwood, 1908. But his post has significant differences from the text of Annals that I found. Did Reinhard find his in the Jon Raven book?
The Gutenberg Project has an OCR copy of the entire text here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31675/31675.txt - this has a very interesting but lengthy introduction about local wakes which I won't post here.
Google Books has an excerpt of the book that is much easier to read, and it's a little different from Reinhard's transcription. It has no title, so I'm going to call it "Wednesfield Wake." I'm going to post it here:
WEDNESFIELD WAKE
At Wednesfield at one village wake
The cockers all did meet
At Billy Lane's, the cock-fighter's,
To have a sporting treat.
For Charley Marson's spangled cock
Was matched to fight a red
That came from Will'n'all o'er the fields,
And belonged to "Cheeky Ned."
Two finer birds in any cock-pit
Two never yet was seen.
Though the Wednesfield men declared
Their cock was sure to win.
The cocks fought well, and feathers fled
All round about the pit,
While blood from both of 'em did flow
Yet ne'er un would submit.
At last the spangled Wedgefield bird
Began to show defeat,
When Billy Lane, he up and swore
The bird shouldn't be beat;
For he would fight the biggest mon
That came from Will'n'all town,
When on the word, old "Cheeky Ned"
Got up and knocked him down.
To fight they went like bull-dogs,
As it is very well known,
Till "Cheeky Ned" seized Billy's thumb,
And bit it to the bone.
At this the Wednesfield men begun
Their comrade's part to take,
And never was a fiercer fight
Fought at a village wake.
They beat the men from Will'n'all town
Back to their town again,
And long they will remember
This Wednesfield wake and main.