This song can be traced back to an 1850s broadside entitled “The Labouring Woman” with many more verses. The theme of a woman’s work is never done is found in other songs such as Roud 281 “The Capable Wife” or the Scottish “John Grumlie”, or more recently “The Rest of the Day’s Your Own”. This appears to the only version found in oral tradition.

Notes by Gwilym Davies