Songbooks

This famous sea song is a windlass and capstan shanty collected by Sir Richard Runciman Terry and published in 1921. It follows the form of solo and chorus.

The vicar of the title managed to keep his position through the reigns of a succession of variously Roman Catholic and Protestant monarchs (Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I). There wre prob...

This beautiful Northumbrian folk song is in the same vein as Maa Bonny Lad, except that it is the River Tyne that separates the lovers in this song.

The romantic notion of the highborn lady running off with the gypsies is a very popular subject and appears in various forms in the many versions of this song.

This famous and popular song is a windlass and capstan shanty collected by Sir Richard Runciman Terry.

This Devonshire folk song was collected by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. Widecombe-in-the-Moor is a picturesque village in a high fold of Dartmoor. Widecombe Fair is held on the second Tuesday in...

This fishing song comes from the Norfolk coastal village of Happisburgh (pronounced as in verse 1), which has a lighthouse.

Little is known about this song, but Aiken Drum may have been a Scottish gnome or brownie who would only accept payment in food and drink for his work.

This is probably not a genuine Scottish song, but one of the London imitations so popular around 1700.

This beautiful song possibly dates from 1485, when Rhys Bodychen led the men of Anglesey to and from the Battle of Bosworth.

The first published date of this piece,also known as Captain Morgan's March, is 1784, when it appeared in Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards in London. It is sung to honour the winning Ba...

This has invariably been seen as a 'march to battle' song, whereas in fact it refers to the siege of Harlech Castle. King Edward IV of England ordered the Earl of Pembroke to lead a powerful army to d...

Snowdon has always been a powerful symbol in Wales: as early as 1230 Llewelyn the Great proclaimed himself Lord of Eryri (Snowdonia).