I grew up loving Joan Baez's recording of Matty Groves, but I recently decided to research the song in order to sing it in public - and discovered that Matty Groves is actually an American variant of a much older English song, Little Musgrave (and Lady Barnard) - and that Little Musgrave is a place fairly close to Barnard Castle, and that both names are probably a reference to the towns the protagonists lived in, and therefore that "Little" was part of a town's name rather than a reference to the person's stature.

So as I live in England, I decided to learn and sing the English song instead. But I can't find a traditional tune for it!

Almost all the recordings of Little Musgrave that I could find are sung to a tune written by Nic Jones and first recorded in 1970, but which is based on and closely related to the American tune as sung by Joan Baez.

Nic's sleeve notes said: "Musgrave's tune is more a creation of my own than anything else, although the bulk of it is based on an American variant of the same ballad, entitled, Little Matty Groves."

I would rather sing it to the Joan Baez tune, as at least it's a traditional tune for the song - albeit an American derivation of it - than to a tune derived from that American tune but written in 1970. I might feel differently if I strongly preferred the Nic Jones one to the traditional one - but I don't.

But I'd far rather sing it to a traditional English tune for the song, if such a tune exists.

Nic Jones' recording is here, and the following recordings all use the tune Nic wrote: Planxty, Christy Moore, Martin Simpson and Tinto Singing School.

Martin Carthy sang it to a very different tune (his recording is here), but he wrote in his sleeve notes: "The tune I pinched from a version of the Holy Well." So that's not a tune traditionally associated with this song either.

Raymond Crooke sang it to a different tune again his recording is here) but he says in the comments: "This tune is based on a shortened American adaptation of the song, known as "Shady Grove"." So that's another American adaptation.

Does anyone know if any traditional English tune for this song has survived?

It seems odd if not, because that would imply that for a long period the English song stopped being sung altogether - and presumably the English song would have been completely forgotten had the American Matty Groves variant of it not survived and continued to be sung.

Any insights into this would be greatly appreciated.

Dave