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Barley mow

DigiTrad:
GOOD LUCK TO THE BARLEY MOW


Related threads:
Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow) (56)
Lyr Req: Good Luck to the Barley Malt? / ...Mow (17)
Lyr Add: Zachery Bell, or The Barley Mow (1)
Lyr Req: Good Luck to the Barleymow? (6) (closed)
Lyr Req: Barley Mow (Green Willow Band) (6)


breezy 02 Aug 13 - 06:21 PM
breezy 02 Aug 13 - 06:25 PM
Mo the caller 03 Aug 13 - 03:30 AM
Mo the caller 03 Aug 13 - 03:32 AM
MGM·Lion 03 Aug 13 - 05:29 AM
GUEST,c.g. 03 Aug 13 - 07:48 AM
Steve Gardham 03 Aug 13 - 07:51 AM
GUEST 03 Aug 13 - 10:33 AM
The Sandman 03 Aug 13 - 12:22 PM
breezy 04 Aug 13 - 09:58 AM
Steve Gardham 04 Aug 13 - 12:19 PM
MGM·Lion 04 Aug 13 - 12:29 PM
MGM·Lion 04 Aug 13 - 12:31 PM
MGM·Lion 04 Aug 13 - 01:07 PM
Steve Gardham 04 Aug 13 - 03:12 PM
Steve Shaw 04 Aug 13 - 03:31 PM
GUEST,John Routledge 04 Aug 13 - 03:48 PM
GUEST,Ian Gill 04 Aug 13 - 03:58 PM
Bert 04 Aug 13 - 08:45 PM
KT 04 Aug 13 - 09:19 PM
Tradsinger 05 Aug 13 - 04:26 AM
Mr Happy 14 Nov 13 - 06:49 AM
Mr Happy 14 Nov 13 - 12:16 PM
Tug the Cox 14 Nov 13 - 12:32 PM
Tug the Cox 14 Nov 13 - 12:41 PM
Tug the Cox 14 Nov 13 - 01:05 PM
Mr Happy 15 Nov 13 - 05:26 AM
breezy 15 Nov 13 - 10:23 AM
Eldergirl 16 Nov 13 - 05:39 AM
Eldergirl 16 Nov 13 - 05:43 AM
GUEST 16 Nov 13 - 07:43 AM
Mr Happy 16 Nov 13 - 09:02 AM
Mr Happy 19 Nov 13 - 08:50 AM
GUEST,Robert Dawson 09 Nov 24 - 07:25 PM
The Sandman 11 Nov 24 - 04:57 PM
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Subject: Barley mow
From: breezy
Date: 02 Aug 13 - 06:21 PM

I learned a version when in Leeds in 64 and beyond

Not dissimilar to the one in the DT but differnt neer the less

The version I recollect started at

Here's good luck to the pint pot
Good luck to the Barley Mow
jolly good luck to the pint pot
gd lk 2 the BM
oh the
pint pot, half a pint, gill ?. half a gill, quarter gill,
nipperkin and the round? bowl , Heres god luck , goodluck
Good luck to the B Mow


acumalating until

Company
Brewer
the drayer
the slavey
the daughter
the landlady
landlord
the barrel
the half barrel
the gallon
the half gallon
quart pot
pint pot
half a pint
gill ?
etc half a gill
quarter gill
nipperkin
and the round/brown bowl
heres good luck = good luck
good luck to the B mow



can anyone confirm this version please ?

cheers


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: breezy
Date: 02 Aug 13 - 06:25 PM

guess it must be 'gill pot' for starters

so is is

round or brown bowl


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Mo the caller
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 03:30 AM

Round bowl / Brown bowl

Surely it's whatever the company sings. Isn't that what the folk process is all about? (Unless it's published in some little booklet that you sing it out of)

My memory says brown bowl.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Mo the caller
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 03:32 AM

My memory isn't sure if I heard 'good luck' or 'good health' or maybe both.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 05:29 AM

Always been 'rum bowl' to me.

Certainly 'gill-pot'; which raises again a linguistic difference ~~ a gill is a half-pint in a northern pub, but a quarter-pint down south. Generally. Wiki - 'a unit of measurement for volume equal to a quarter of a pint'; but northerners of my acquaintance would ask for a gill in a pub when they wanted a half-pint.

~M~


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: GUEST,c.g.
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 07:48 AM

Exactly the version I remember from Exeter in the 1970's. The missing word, I think, is gill pot, but sung fast it's difficult to make the words clear. For examplt, we actually sang 'Nipperkin anner rown bow'


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 07:51 AM

That's just about what I've been singing in Hull since the mid-60s.

Gill pot and brown.
The only difference is the order I now use but that could have been my own altering over the years.
Company
Brewer
drayer
slavy
landlord
landlady
barmaid
barrel
half barrel
gallon
half gallon
quart pot
pint pot
half a pint
gill pot
half a gill
quarter gill
nipperkin and the brown bowl


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 10:33 AM

With the addition of 'daughter' after Landlord, with suitable raised fist action. Didn't sing 'barmaid'. Sang 'slavy' there instead. This was the version I learned in Cornwall in the 60s.

Recent addition is 'drayer..... and his horse'! shouted by the audience, breaking the rhythm but giving the singer time to draw an extra breath.

Occasionally an audience member would sing 'Here's good luck to the singer' last, but they had to be able to finish it!

Tone


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 12:22 PM

breezy, i have heard your version , i think the tito gobbi of the balls pond road , used to sing more or less the same version as you


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: breezy
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 09:58 AM

Hi GSSCH

did you really hear my version ? and me singing it? or the version I have posted? -smile now.

thanks all.

I would think the order descending is Landlord , landlady, daughter - suitable gestures inc

The company refers to the assembled throng or the Ltd Co . Again who gives a toss anyway

Thanks for joining and contributing

Good luck, good luck


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 12:19 PM

breezy,
Here's a little historical snippet you can add to your intro if you do such things. The original 17th century song had bugger-all to do with barley or mowing. It was 'bella moy' (belle ami) presumably the butler (good friend) handing the drinks around. Oh, and the bowl was at that time black not brown.

Cheers.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 12:29 PM

Ah, now. I have always taken it that The Barley Mow was the name of the pub where the song was being sung & all those drinking vessels were in use and all these people were to be found; and the 'company' were the drinkers present. It is, still, a common pub name ~~ google "Barley Mow pub" and see how many come up.

barley mow public house -- About 29,100 results (0.19 seconds)

Hic*

~M~

*except that I don't actually drink' but you know...


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 12:31 PM

I mean, note the brewer, drayer, landlord, landlady, barmaid -- where would you find them all, now?


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 01:07 PM

And no need to look for arcane phrases which the term is a corruption of ~~~

Oxford Dictionary online:-

Definition of barleymow in English
Pronunciation: /ˈbɑːlɪməʊ/
noun archaic --

a stack of barley.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 03:12 PM

It was 'Barley Mow' by the end of the 18th century, Michael. At least 2 quite different broadsides.

The 1609 (Deutromelia) with tune version doesn't include any personnel except for the butler (bottler). It's all drink measures but accumulative like most modern versions.

I drink very little myself nowadays.

Your dictionary entry says 'noun archaic'. Wonder how far back the phrase/word can actually be traced. If it is indeed old then it's easy to see how quickly 'bella moy' would become 'barley mow' amongst the plebs like me.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 03:31 PM

The original post is almost the same as the one we used to sing in the 70s, though I think we stopped short of "the company". Also, I think I used to sing "round bottle" instead of "round bowl", but I guess that was my mishearing. Folk process, y'know!


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: GUEST,John Routledge
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 03:48 PM

"Gill pot" scans better and is what was sung in North East in 60's Thanks for reminding me - will sing it on wednesday :-)


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: GUEST,Ian Gill
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 03:58 PM

The original post is the same version Taffy Thomas used to sing at the Painter's in the 70's, also Tony Rose sings more or less the same on 'Exe'.
Perhaps more interestingly does anyone else know the term 'stick' for a quarter pint ? Old Black Country folks used it, including the esteemed George Dunn.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Bert
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 08:45 PM

If that is the way that you sing it Breezy, then I'll confirm it.

Everybody sings it differently and somebody once told me I was "singing it wrong".

Just like the Seven Dear Old Ladies, the CORRECT version is YOURS.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: KT
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 09:19 PM

I have no idea which is correct or most common, but - ever since seeing the title of this thread yesterday, I've had our own Seamus Kennedy's version playing in my head-and a wonderful version it is! Check it out!


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Tradsinger
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 04:26 AM

Here's the last verse of the Gloucestershire version I sing:

I drank out of the sea, me boys, good health to the barley mow
Here's success to the pub, good health to the barley mow
It's the sea, the river, the canal, the brook, the barrel, the bucket, the gallon, the half gallon, the quart, the pint, the half pint,
Tip it in and we'll have a drop more
Here's good health, good health to the barley mow.

Learnt from an old boy in the "Cheese Rollers" pub in about 1975.

Tradsinger


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Mr Happy
Date: 14 Nov 13 - 06:49 AM

Just a niggling query: the chorus consists of diminishing measures of beer until the 'brown bowl'

Is this a smaller measure than the 'Nippikin'?


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Mr Happy
Date: 14 Nov 13 - 12:16 PM

Doesn't anyone know?


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 14 Nov 13 - 12:32 PM

A nip was always a third of a pint, which is more than a quarter gill.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 14 Nov 13 - 12:41 PM

So obviously Nip and Nipperkin aren't the same
The nipperkin is a unit of measurement of volume, equal to one-half of a quarter-gill, one-eighth of a gill, or one thirty-second of an English pint. In other estimations, one nip (an abbreviation that originated in 1796) is either one-third of a pint, or any amount less than or equal to half a pint.[1]

but some brewers also bottled in nip (1/3-pint) ( Both from wiki)


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 14 Nov 13 - 01:05 PM

The 12 terms between landlord and round bowl are English units—particularly units used to measure the volume of alcoholic beverages. These are sung in descending order from largest (barrel) to smallest (round bowl). Round bowl (sometimes sung brown bowl) indicates either a humble, wooden bowl, or a person's hands cupped together into the shape of a bowl.(wiki)


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 Nov 13 - 05:26 AM

T the C,

Cheers!


Now here's Good Luck to the litre??


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: breezy
Date: 15 Nov 13 - 10:23 AM

c off


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Eldergirl
Date: 16 Nov 13 - 05:39 AM

So all of us who had a little bottle of milk at morning break in primary school were in fact having a Nip of cow juice? Hmm.


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Eldergirl
Date: 16 Nov 13 - 05:43 AM

And thinking about it (ooh the strain) most bowls are Round. At least, till the recent trend for Square dinnerware.
Don't mind me, just exercising my human gift for stating the obvious..


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 13 - 07:43 AM

I always knew it as "nipperkin, hand-around bowl..." - something like a communal quaiche containing ale instead of whiskey?


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Mr Happy
Date: 16 Nov 13 - 09:02 AM

Sounds like a mondegreen!


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: Mr Happy
Date: 19 Nov 13 - 08:50 AM

........& in the DT version the 'nippikin & a brown bowl' have morphed into 'give us a little bit more' - more mishearings?


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: GUEST,Robert Dawson
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 07:25 PM

"Bel" ami. Modern French usually uses "beau" as the masculine of "belle" but where this causes a vowel pileup it can be replaced by "bel."

And of course this doesn't imply that the speaker's hitting on the butler... beau/bel/belle has a lot of idiomatic uses in French. Pretty much like in English (see what I just did? ^__^)


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Subject: RE: Barley mow
From: The Sandman
Date: 11 Nov 24 - 04:57 PM

slightly different
pint pot half pot, gill pot half gill quarter gill nipperkin and the round bowl


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