Lyr Req: Fugitive gets come-uppance-what song?

Subject: Lyr Req: Fugitive gets come-uppance-what song?
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 03:56 AM

We've scratched our heads to no avial. Can someone help out?

> Spot the following song from this plot...
>
> 3? blokes (murderers or rapists, can't remember) get pursued by a
> lynch mob. 2 get killed but the third finds sanctuary in a church on
> the road to dover? and does a deal to leave the country. However, the
> locals then kill him before he reaches the coast.. or something like
> that?
>
> What is the song and where did I hear it?
>
> Alternatively - I just imagined it and have accidentally written a
> brilliant new song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fugitive gets come-uppance-what song?
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 03:54 AM

...so that's no-one? :-o

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fugitive gets come-uppance-what song?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 07:37 AM

dai, do you remember any specific phrases or key words from it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fugitive gets come-uppance-what song?
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:44 AM

Not I. The 'road to Dover' nugget might be a clue... in days of old that would have been possibly the Radcliffe Highway.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fugitive gets come-uppance-what song?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 12:56 PM

Could it be a version of The Two Butchers ? I seem to remember hearing one in which the robbers are dealt summary justice at the hands of the mob.

Incidently, your geography's crap Dai - Ratcliffe Highway now called just The Highway runs north of the Thames from Wapping to Limehouse, and until relatively recently, London Bridge was the river crossing furthest downstream. The Dover Road was the Roman Watling Street (The Old Kent Road - A2). The stretch from Blackheath to Shooters Hill was notorious for Highwaymen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fugitive gets come-uppance-what song?
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 03:51 AM

Yes I was clutching at straws somewhat...

My first thought was a Two Butchers variant. Unfortunately my correspondent has not made any opinions known in this forum...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fugitive gets come-uppance-what song?
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 04:10 AM

A very similar tale is told in 'John of Ditchford' on Steeleye Span's Bedlam Born CD. The notes say - Tim Harries adapted from 'A Lynching (1322)' by Eric Jenkins from his book Northampton Murder Tales (1998).

11th verse reads

'They took from him all he had
gave him sackcloth for to wear
and a wooden cross for him to hold
on the lonley road to Dover'

Elfcall