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The Poacher's Fate
The Gallant Poachers / The Poacher's Fate
[
Roud 793
; Master title: The Gallant Poachers
; Laws L14
; Ballad Index LL14
; Bodleian
Roud 793
; Wiltshire
316
; trad.]
The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs The Folk Handbook
The Watersons sang The Poacher's Fate in 1966 on their album A Yorkshire Garland. Like most of the tracks from this LP, it was re-released in 1994 on the CD Early Days. A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album's sleeve notes:
As large-scale capitalist agriculture grew during the eighteenth century, more and more of the common ground and woods where ordinary people grazed a few sheep and shot a few rabbits were fenced off as private property. Especially in the Midlands and South Yorkshire, where commoners had a strong anti-authoritarian tradition since Robin Hood's days, the enclosures were bitterly resented, the more so as new rationalised farming methods meant widespread unemployment, and it was doubly hard to keep the family pot boiling. So from this time, and from this area, we get a large number of songs reflecting the widespread “poaching war” between the keepers, representing the landlords, and the poachers, whom the ordinary folk regarded as their champions against injustice.
The Poacher's Fate was published as a broadside by Pocklington of York, also by Walker of Durham. The Watersons sing it to the tune of James Waller the Poacher, communicated to Frank Kidson by a Mr. Anderson of Leeds.
Harry Cox's sang The Poacher's Fate in a recording by Bob Thompson and Michael Grosvernor Myer on 15 November 1970. This was included in 2001 on his Topic anthology, The Bonny Labouring Boy. Steve Roud commented in the liner notes:
Traditional songs, such as this which focus on confrontations between keepers and poachers, are always clearly on the side of the latter, as were the feelings of most of the working country populace in the 19th century. Under various titles such as The Gallant Poachers, this particular song was collected a number of times in England (and once in the USA), and well-known post-War recordings by Walter Pardon, George Dunn, and Becket Whitehead have been issued. It was also reasonably popular with broadside printers, and surviving sheets suggest a mid-19th rather than an early-19th century provenance, although Roy Palmer (Everyman's Book of English Country Songs (1979)) maintains that it must have been in existence from at least 1811 or 1812 as its textual influence can be seen on a Luddite song of that period.
George Dunn sang The Gallant Poachers in a recording made on 4-5 December 1971 by Bill Leader on his eponymous Leader album, George Dunn. Another recording made by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in 1971 was included in 2002 on Dunn's Musical Traditions anthology Chainmaker.
The Broadside from Grimsby sang The Poacher in 1973 on their album The Moon Shone Bright, taking the album's title from the verses of this song. Patrick O'Shaughnessy commented in the album's sleeve notes:
The Poacher, from the singing of Joseph Leaning of Barton-on-Humber, 1906. Broadside copies issued in the north of England during the first part of the nineteenth century were commonly entitled The Poacher's Fate. The song has rarely been collected from oral tradition. It reflects some of the bitterness of the long poaching war that followed the wholesale land enclosures of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Martin Carthy sang and recorded Gallant Poacher with the Albion Country Band in 1973. It took until 1976 for their album Battle of the Field to be releases, though. Martin Carthy also sang The Gallant Poacher at the Sidmouth Folk Festival in 1979. This BBC recording was released in 2013 on his digital download album Live in Sidmouth 1979.
Walter Pardon sang The Poacher's Fate in his home in a recording by Bill Leader on 11 May 1974. This was included both on Pardon's 1975 Leader LP, A Proper Sort, and on the Topic anthology To Catch a Fine Buck Was My Delight (The Voice of the People Vol. 18, 1998).
Peter Bellamy sang The Poacher's Fate on his 1975 eponymous LP, Peter Bellamy. He accompanied himself on concertina and commented in the sleeve notes:
Versions of this ballad have been collected all over the British Isles. This composite version is drawn partly from Harry Cox and partly from Walter Pardon, both of Norfolk, and I have myself taken distinct liberties with both the text and the melody, which is very similar (even before I got at it) to that of the Copper Family's When Spring Comes In.
Brian Peters sang The Gallant Poacher in 2003 on his CD Different Tongues. He noted:
The village of Delph, in the Pennines to the East of Oldham, about fifteen miles from where I live, was home to Becket Whitehead, weaver, singer and local historian, whose version of that bitter countryman's song, The Gallant Poacher was unearthed for me by Malcolm Taylor in the Vaughan Williams Library sound archive. Mr Whitehead sang only two verses (the rest I've added from broadside copies), but had some nice individual touches in his melody.
John Doyle sang The Gallant Poacher on his 2005 CD Wayward Son. He noted:
I heard Walter Pardon doing this song on an excellent collection of songs from Topic Records called Voice of the People compiled by Dr Reg Hall. Walter Pardon was 60 when he first started to perform in public.
What a great tragic story this is.
Danny Spooner sang The Paocher's Fate in 2011 on his CD The Fox, The Hare and the Poacher's Fate.
Bernie Cherry sang The Poacher's Fate, accompanied by Rod Stradling on melodeon, on his 2013 Musical Traditions anthology With Powder, Shot and Gun. Rod Stradling noted in the album's booklet:
Usually titled The Gallant Poachers, Roy Palmer (in Everyman's Book of English Country Songs, 1979) feels that the song dates from at least 1811 or 1812 as its textual influence can be seen on a Luddite song of that period. Given its generally fine tunes and wealth of resonant phrases, it's something of a surprise to find that it has only been collected from ten singers in the oral tradition, all but two from England; most of Roud’s 81 entries refer to broadside printings. Only five singers have been recorded; George Dunn, Walter Pardon and Harry Cox remain available on CD.
and Bernie Cherry added:
This is the only song in my repertory that I pinched from the Watersons, and what a cracking song it is! I used to do this one with Rod back in the Seventies and I’m glad that I remembered that. I won’t forget it again!
Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp sang The Poacher's Fate as the title track of their 2017 CD The Poacher's Fate. They noted:
Poachers are often seen as working class heroes, but in many instances poaching was done out of desperation and fraught with danger. This song was collected by Peter Kennedy from Becket Whitehead in Delph, Saddleworth, and we supplemented some lyrics from a Manchester broadside. We decided to repeat the first verse at the end to show that despite the outcome, the spirit of the poachers hadn't been broken.
This video shows Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp at the Green Note, Camden:
Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith sang Poacher's Fate on their 2018 CD Many a Thousand. They noted:
Learned from one of our absolute favourite Norfolk singers, Harry Cox, who was recorded singing it in 1970. The act of poaching in traditional songs seems to us to be an illustration of the age-old battle against land and power lying in the hands of the rich.
Lyrics
The Watersons sing The Poacher's Fate | The Albion Country Band's Gallant Poacher | |
---|---|---|
Come all ye lads of high renown |
Now come all you lads of high renown | |
I and five more a-poaching went The keeper heard us fire a gun |
Now me and five more a-poaching went | |
The bravest lad in all the lot For help he cried, but it was denied |
Now, the bravest youth amongst our lot | |
Deep was the wound that the keeper gave |
Now this youth he fell down on the ground, | |
Now the murderous man that did him kill, | ||
Harry Cox sings The Poacher's Fate | ||
Me and three more went out one night; | ||
The keepers heard us fire our guns | ||
He was a gay young youth, | ||
He rose no more to stand the test | ||
No more locked up in the castle cell | ||
No more locked up in the castle cell | ||
Walter Pardon sings The Poacher's Fate | Peter Bellamy sings The Poacher's Fate | |
Come all you lads of high renown |
Come all you lads of high renown | |
I and five more a-poaching; |
Me and five more a-poaching went |
|
And the moon shone bright, |
And the moon shone bright, | |
The keeper heard us fire a gun |
But the keeper heard us fire our gun |
|
'Twas the bravest youth among the lot |
And the bravest youth of all our lot | |
He was a brave young youth, | ||
In memory he ever shall be blessed. | ||
For help he cried | ||
It was the wound the keeper gave, | ||
That youth he fell upon the ground | ||
The murderous man that did him kill |
Now that murderous man who did him kill | |
Destructive things, | ||
He must wander through this world forlorn |
He must wander through this world forlorn | |
And destructive things, | ||
To prison then we all were sent, |
And to prison then we all got sent, | |
And for help we cried, | ||
But fickle fortune on us shine |
But fickle fortune changed her mind | |
No more locked up in the midnight cells |
And now no more locked up in the midnight cells | |
Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp sing The Poacher's Fate | ||
Come all you lads of high renown that love to drink strong ale that's brown I and five more a-poaching went to kill some game was our intent The bravest youth amongst our lot t'was his misfortune to be shot This youth he sank upon the ground and in his breast a mortal wound His case it makes the heart lament, our comrades all to gaol were sent The murderous hand that did him kill and on the ground his blood did spill Come all you lads of high renown that love to drink strong ale that's brown |
Notes and Acknowledgements
The Poacher's Fate was transcribed from the Early Days CD by Garry Gillard. This is somewhat different from the version in the Digital Tradition database. Digitrad here* has “Until the judgement day”. Other versions have: “By all his friends below”, “By all of us below” and “By all those he loved below”. Thanks to Wolfgang Hell, and to Tony Rees.
The lyrics of Gallant Poachers were copied from the Ashley Hutchings songbook A Little Music.