Charles Benfield was the main informant for the Bledington tunes, many of which were noted by Cecil Sharp at Benfield’s house at Bould, Idbury,  (Oxon), a hamlet about a mile from Bledington (Glos). In the late 19th century George Hathaway was a member of the Young Bledington Morris, for whom Charles Benfield played the fiddle. In the 1930’s, he was leading the Bledington side. R Kenworthy Schofield noted a considerable number of tunes from his in August 1937.

The usual sidestep dance consists of four identical steps to the left, followed by four to the right. Over the Water to Charlie has the peculiarity that the 2nd half of the sidestep is cut short; hence the short bar no. 12 in 3/8, before the half hey.

In 1923 and ’25 R. Kenworthy Schofield visited Bledington with the Travelling Morrice and noted more tunes from Charles Benfield, including Over the water to Charlie. He published some of them in JEFDSS Vol 1, no. 3 p 147-151, Dec 1934. In manuscript RKS noted:
Mr Benfield played this on his fiddle & also sang it to the following words
Over the water & over the sea
Over the water to my Charlie
Over the water & over the sea
Over the water to Charlie
Over the water & over the sea
Over the water to my Charlie
He made it clear that there is no “my” in line four.

In RK Schofield’s manuscript, there are lines over the syllables marked in bold. This appears to show that the accent falls on these syllables.

Note by Charles Menteith