> Folk Music > Songs > As I Was Going to Banbury

As I Was Going to Banbury

[ Roud 2423 ; Ballad Index Pea014 ; VWML CJS2/9/1957 , CJS2/10/2095 ; DT GOBANBUR ; Mudcat 46633 ; trad.]

Maud Karpeles: Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs The Crystal Spring James Reeves: The Idiom of the People James Reeves: The Everlasting Circle

John Tams sang As I Was Going to Banbury in 1976 on Ashley Hutchigns et al’s Harvest album Son of Morris On. They noted:

A “nonsense” song which uses a similar bar structure to the Black Joke family of Morris tunes.

Roy Harris sang As I Was Gpoing to Banbury in 1977 on his Topic album By Sandbank Fields. He noted:

From Gil Harper, a virtual founder of the folk scene in Nottingham.

Magpie Lane sang As I Was Gpoing to Banbury in 1994 on their CD The Oxford Ramble. They noted:

The Bampton morris tune [Banbury Bill] played on Sam Bennett’s fiddle leads into As I was Going to Banbury, a nonsense song which Cecil Sharp collected from a Berkshire nun, Sister Emma of Clewer, in 1909 [VWML CJS2/9/1957] .

Lyrics

Roy Harris sings As I Was Gpoing to Banbury

As I was a-going to Banbury
Ri fol latitee O
As I was a-going to Banbury
I saw a fine coddlin apple tree
With a ri fol latitee O.

And when the coddlins began to fall
I saw five hundred men in all

One of the men I saw was dead
I sent for a hatchet to open his head

Out of his head there ran a spring
And seven young salmon a-learning to sing

Now one of the salmon was big as I
And do you not think I am telling a lie?

One of the salmon was big as an elf
If you want any more you can sing it yourself