This is an often-collected song, and Cecil Sharp found many versions of it in Somerset, but Keith Glover’s version is the only one to be found in Gloucestershire. Keith explains that he learnt the song from Rose Tritton, known as “Granny” Rose.   It was traditionally sung on May Day in the Chalford and France Lynch area and also on the family May walking on Rodborough Common.  Rose remembered singing it at France Lynch school when she was a girl in he 1920s, so there is a possibility that it was originally learnt from Cecil Sharp’s Folk Songs from Somerset, but if so the tune has undergone the folk process.

Notes by Gwilym Davies