> Danny Spooner > Songs > John o' Grinfilt
John o' Grinfilt / Joan o' Grinfield
[ Roud V38524 ; Bodleian 22068 ; trad.]
Danny Spooner sang John o' Grinfilt on his 2008 CD Brave Bold Boys. He commented:
At the time that this broadside was made conditions in the British Army would have been pretty awful, but for the factory fodder of the Industrial Revolution, the army would have been a blessing. At least they would get fed and clothed and have a bit of money in their pockets. The jingoism of the song only highlights the appalling conditions of many factory workers, and also their susceptibility to the recruiting party that promised the earth until the victim signed up by taking the shilling and kissing the book.
Laura Smyth sang Joan o' Grinfield in 2014 on her and Ted Kemp's EP, The Charcoal Black and the Bonny Grey. They noted:
Joan O’ Grinfield is one of the oldest and most popular surviving Lancashire dialect songs. Writing in 1844, Samuel Bamford stated that the song sold more copies amongst the rural population of Lancashire than any other song known. It concerns a recruit who joins the army during the Napoleonic wars, and is believed to have been written by a contemporary, Joseph Lees, residing in Glodwick near Oldham.
The character Joan is a figure of fun and seen as somewhat backwards and dim-witted. Locals to the Oldham area will know that Greenfield is just over the border into Yorkshire, and we often wonder whether this placement by Lees was intentional!
Edward II's Jone o' Grinfield on their 2016 album Manchester's Improving Daily is quite another song with just the same title (Roud 937, starting with “I'm a poor cotton weaver”).
Lyrics
Danny Spooner sings John o' Grinfilt | Laura Smyth sings Joan o' Grinfield |
---|---|
Said Jone to his wife one hot summer's day, |
Said Joan to his wife one hot summer's day, |
“Dear Jone,” said Nan and her bitterly cried, |
“Dear John,” said our Nan and too bitterly cried, |
“Aye Jone, sin we've come into Grinfilt t'dwell, |
“Aye Joan since we've coming to' Grinfield to dwell, |
Then says me Nont Margit, “Ah Jone th'art so 'ot |
So I've come down to brew for I lived at the top, |
So down the ould road into Oudham I went; | |
He brought me t' a place where they measure yer height, |
So they took me to the place where they're measuring their height, |
So fare thee weel Grinfilt, a sodjer I'm made |
So fare thee well Grinfield, a soldier I'm made, |
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Garry Gillard for transcribing Danny Spooner's lyrics