In "Songs of the Riding", Arthur Wood of Middlesbrough is quoted as describing the song as "an old sea shanty ... learned at Littlebeck ... in 1930". He sang it on the Musical Traditions anthology "Songs of the North Riding" from the 1962 Colin Wharton Collection.

The Young Tradition sang "Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth" on their 1965 album "The Young Tradition", stating in the sleeve notes that "This version was collected in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire". So they may have got it from Arthur Wood.