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Running Up and Down Our Stairs

Cyril Poacher sang Running Up and Down Our Stairs to either Ginette Dunn or Neil Lanham at Grove Farm, Blaxhall, Suffolk in 1965. This recording was included in 1999 on Poacher’s Musical Traditions anthology Plenty of Thyme. Another recording made by Neil Lanham at The Ship Inn in Blaxhall was included in c.2000 on the Helions Bumpstead Gramophone album Songs From the Idiom of the People of Blaxhall (Voice of Suffolk Vol. 10). Rod Stradling noted:

A music hall comedy piece popularised by Frank Seeley … It was essential that every singer, no matter how serious his approach to the singing, should have at least one such bit of frivolity in his repertoire for judicious use in structuring a singing session. These are the cement which builds a social event out of what might otherwise be just a series of songs.

It’s interesting that Cyril Poacher is normally the stereotypical declamatory Blaxhall singer, very much in the classic style of Bob Scarce—from whom he learnt many of his songs. Bob Hart, on the other hand, though a close friend of both, used a noticeably different performance style. Yet on this song, Cyril employs exactly the same approach as Bob on first hearing Ginette Dunn’s recording of Running Up and Down our Stairs I wasn’t sure whether it wasn’t Bob Hart!

Alvar Smith sang Running Up and Down Our Stairs at Sheffield’s New Musical Traditions Club on 9 November 2025. This concert’s recording was released in May 2026 on his Veteran album of traditional singing from the Blaxhall Ship, A Sailor and His True Love. The album’s booklet noted:

First published in 1898, and popularised by Frank Seeley, from whom Alvar’s source Cyril Poacher had multiple songs, with only three traditional singers of this song listed in the Roud Index, its spread appears to have been limited to Suffolk, Lincolnshire, and Essex. The humour in this song is, at best, outdated,and is presented here for reference only, although it must be observed that the song is still favoured by the singer, and much of his regular audience.

Lyrics

Cyril Poacher sings Running Up and Down Our Stairs

Now my wife’s mother, she’s a big ?? stout
For an eighteen stoner, she’s a fair knock out.
She’s admired by the country farmers
When they see her in pyjamas.
Just for a bit of exercise
A fine idea she’s planned;
Every morning, three o’clock
Clock-weight in each hand

She’s a-running up and down our stairs,
A-running up and down our stairs.
One fine night she made a bit of fuss,
Puffing like a great big hippopotomus.
Suddenly a great big nail,
It caught poor Mother unaware,
She slipped and punctured her India rubber tyre
A-running up and down our stairs.

I had a very funny dream last night. Ha ha,
I dreamt I was in the ?? with a shah.
I had a turbot (turban?) on my barnet
… … … … … … ?
Suddenly I woke up in a fright,
My Missis pulled my nose.
There were fifteen firemen
With a blooming great big hose.

A-running up and down our stairs.
A-running up and down our stairs.
I jumped out of the bed in a fright,
Rushing round the room with me whiskers all alight.
Just to save our happy little home
I was shifting the tables and the chairs.
And I was very busy in me little short shirt
A-running up and down our stairs.

Now a lodger next door he made me weep,
Brought a lot of black sheep’s heads up cheap
… … … … … … ?
To keep them sweet ’til the following May.
They were ?? the whole night long,
They woke me from my snore.
And the next day morning when I awoke
What do you think I saw?

A-running up and down our stairs.
A-running up and down our stairs.
These sheep’s heads without a bit of doubt,
All of them had their tongue hanging out.
They didn’t seem to care for me,
For there they were in pair,
Singing Baa baa black sheep have you any wool?
Running up and down our stairs.

Now I’m the owner of a big black cat,
She’s always a-sitting on the front door mat.
Washing herself for the occasion
? the cats of the male persuasion.
I didn’t get a wink of sleep
From ten o’clock ’til four,
There was puss, puss, puss in company
With a young man cat she knew.

A-running up and down our stairs.
A-running up and down our stairs.
There on the landing they would sit and spoon,
Talk about the place for your honeymoon.
Their courtship came to an end
And I had to say my prayers.
There was ten little kittens and a pa and ma
A-running up and down our stairs.