Lyr Req: Holmfirth Anthem

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Holmfirth Anthem
From: GUEST,Sarah
Date: 24 Sep 02 - 11:29 AM

When I said locally, I meant local to Holmfirth, as that is the area where I live. There is (or was) also a pub called the Pratty Flowers.

There are many different Yorkshire dialect words - dpon't know how far 'pratty' extends.

Cheers Sarah

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Holmfirth Anthem
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Sep 02 - 11:21 AM

I meant generally in this song. It's just a local pronounciation, so far as I know.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Holmfirth Anthem
From: Ringer
Date: 24 Sep 02 - 11:04 AM

Does the rest of Yorkshire pronounce "pretty" as pratty? (If they do I've never heard it.) The Watersons pronounce it "pretty". I once heard a know-it-all in a session try to maintain that pratty flowers were a specific variety of flower (cf gilly-flowers = antirhinums (sp?)). Any info?

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Holmfirth Anthem
From: GUEST,Sarah
Date: 24 Sep 02 - 05:19 AM

Locally, it's called Pratty Flowers!

Cheers Sarah

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Holmfirth Anthem
From: Wolfgang
Date: 24 Sep 02 - 04:57 AM

On Garry Gillard's Watersons site (with notes): Holmfirth Anthem

Wolfgang

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Holmfirth Anthem Sung by The Watersons on their 1966 LP The Watersons and re-released on their 1994 CD Early Days.

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Abroad for pleasure as I was a-walking
On one summer summer's evening clear
There I beheld a most beautiful damsel
Lamenting for her shepherd swain

The fairest evening that e'er I beheld thee
Evermore with the lad I adore
Wilt thou go fight the French and the Spaniards
Wilt thou leave me thus my dear?

No more to yon green banks will I take thee
With pleasure for to rest meself and view the lambs
But I will take you to yon green garden
Where the pretty pretty flowers grow

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Source-note: Although the liner notes to The Watersons (1966 Topic 12T125) do not indicate the Watersons' source for this song, the following is as likely a source as any: A Fine Hunting Day: Songs of the Holme Valley Beagles (Leader LEE 4056), recorded by David Bland on March 24, 1973, released 1975. It just doesn't get more authentic than this recording: the "The Holmfirth Anthem" sung by the citizens of Holmfirth itself. This beautiful rendition is led by a local sheep farmer, Arthur Howard, at the Village Hall in Upperthong (in the Holme Valley). If one needs any confirmation that the singers are a touch lubricated (this was the last song of the evening), one need only listen for the crash of a trestle table at the end of the song. The Watersons may well have learned this song from the Holmfirth singers themselves and not from the recording, but the harmonies and phrasing of the original seem to indicate a strong link. (Note by Bob Hudson.)

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New: 14 March 1998 | Now: 30 May 2001 | Transcribed by Garry Gillard, with thanks to Steve Willis for corrections, and to Bob Hudson for the note.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Holmfirth Anthem
From:
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 08:34 PM

Thanks Malcolm. I was just showing the reference at the bottom.

Seems like a nice song.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Holmfirth Anthem
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 08:28 PM

The DT texts are more-or-less identical (apart from the fact that the title of one is badly mis-spelled), and I imagine that "Home Firth" (!) was added by mistake; the text George has added here is also the same. We still sing it here in Yorkshire. "Pretty" is generally pronounced "Pratty", by the way.

Subject: Lyr Add: HOLMFIRTH ANTHEM
From:
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 05:36 PM

Also From http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/english/holmfirt.htm:

Holmfirth Anthem
The Pretty Flowers or Through the Groves
Melody - Traditional, from Yorkshire
J. Perkins?
 
|: Abroad for pleasure as I was a-walking
On one summer summer's evening clear :|
There I beheld a most beautiful damsel
Lamenting for her shepherd swain.
 
The fairest evening that e'er I beheld thee
Evermore with the lad I adore
Wilt thou go fight the French and Spaniards
Wilt thou leave me thus my dear?
 
No more to yon green banks will I take thee
With pleasure for to rest myself and view the lambs
But I will take thee to yon green gardens
Where the pretty flowers grow.

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This florid and idyllic fragment was called the Holmfirth Anthem because the people of Holmfirth, Yorkshire, were so fond of singing it and may still be heard in the Yorkshire Dales. J. Perkins lived near Holmfirth and was so musical he called one of his sons Mendelssohn Perkins. But he may not have really written the song at all, merely gained fame by arranging it for four voices, and that the song was far older than J. Perkins.

Subject: Holmfirth Anthem
From: Schantieman
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 01:22 PM

Hi guys

From time to time I sing 'Holmfirth Anthem' - a brilliant song in my humble opinion.

Trouble is, I'm not absolutely sure of the words. I've done a Digitrad search without success.

In particular:

Was it a 'sunny, summer's evening clear' when I walked abroad for pleasure?

?'The first evening thet e'er I beheld her
Was ever, ever, ever with the lass I adored' ?

.... We'd gone to Bradford for a curry one night and during the preceding pub crawl, sang this in an enormous smoke-stained Victorian pub, while the flamenco guitarist was having a rest. (There was virtually nobody else in the place). When we got to the bit about fighting he French and Spaniards, he got up and walked out!...

Anyway, back to the show: Can anyone put me straight?

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Click for lyrics in the Digital Tradition