Subscribe to our Newsletter

Wassail Song (Shurdington)

Back to browse page
Performer: Parsons, Dick
Place Collected: Shurdington
Date collected: 1974 (2 Jul)
Collector: Davies, Gwilym
Roud Number: 209

Dick Parsons was the last of the Shurdington waysailers.  Dick, his brother Bert and friends would go wassailling in the area of Up Hatherley and Shurdington on St Stephen’s Day (26 December), apparently up until the 60s, carrying a hand-carved bowl made of sycamore.  They sang unaccompanied but as “a tenor, two baritones and a bass”.  Dick’s tune is rather unusual and more sparse than the usual Waysailing Bowl type of tune.  On 28 July 1974 Gwilym and Carol Davies recorded some verses of the song from him at the Cheese Rollers pub, Shurdington, and Dick later dictated more verses.