> The Watersons > Songs > Malpas Wassail
> Louis Killen > Songs > Malpas Wassail

Cornish Wassail / Malpas Wassail / Heavitree Wassail

[ Roud 209 ; Ballad Index RcWasSo3 ; Folkinfo 154 ; DT WASSCORN ; Mudcat 134560 ; trad.]

Peter Kennedy recorded Charlie Bate of Padstow, Cornwall singing the Cornish Wassail song in the 1950s, accompanying himself on the accordion. He also recorded the Truro “Wassail Bowl” singers of Malpas, Cornwall singing their Cornish Wassail Song in 1957. A combined version with the first two verses sung by Charlie Bate was included on the anthology Songs of Christmas / Ceremony (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 9; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970). The album’s booklet has a lenghty essay:

The Singers

Charlie Bate, who performs the first two verses of the Padstow Wassail, is the chief accordion-player of “The Old Oss Party” and one of the leading figures in the May Day Hobby Horse Ceremony (see Oss Oss Wee Oss, B.12).

The Truro “Wassail Boys”, up to the time when this recording was made, had maintained an unbroken tradition of wassailing around Truro and district between Christmas and New Year. Into the wooden “Wassail Bowl””, which they carry from door to door, went a wide variety of alcoholic drinks and coins, donated by the house-holders and landlords of public houses on whom they call.

“The Boys” consisted on this occasion (1957) of: Harold Tozer (Aged 52), lead singer; Thomas Jewel (Aged 64), bass; and Albert Jose (Age 67), descant. Mr. Tozer started going round with the “Wassail Boys” at the age of 16 and the other two joined ten years prior to the year of the recording.

The Songs

The custom of Christmas and New Year Wassailing is still practised from Cornwall, in the extreme South West, to Yorkshire in the extreme North East of England, in the same areas of England where May carols are sung, thus possibly giving the main areas of survivals of pagan ritual.

The word “wassail” comes from Anglo Saxon “Wes” (be) and “hal” (whole) and means: “Be of good health”. Like Christmas carollers, Mummers and Mayers, the wassailers visit from house-to-house and are given food and drink and this brings good luck to both visitors and visited. In most cases the wassailers carry some kind of emblem of good luck such as a wassail bowl, box, vessel, bough, or evergreen branches or seasonal flowers.

One of the earliest “wassails” was a Saxon toasting cry sung in the English camp on the eve of the Battle of Hastings by the Anglo-Norman poet (d.1180) quoted by Sir James Ramsay in Foundations of England, vol. ii.

Bublie crient e weissel E latcome e drencheheil Drinc Hindreward e Drintome Drinc Helf, e drinc tome

Rejoice and wassail Pass the bottle and drink health Drink backwards and drink to me Drink half and drink empty

Although Bishop Thomas Percy, after publication of his famous Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, when he was vicar of Easton Maudit in Northamptonshire (about 1760), wrote down the words of a Staffordshire Wassel Song (Percy Unpublished papers in Harvard University Library):

We have been walking among the leaves so green
And hither we are comeing so stately to be seen

With our wassel, our jolly wassel
All joys come to you and to our wassel bowl

Good master and good mistress, as you sit by the fire
Remember us poor wassellers that travel in the mire

Our bowl is made of the mulberry tree
And soe is your ale of the best barley

Pray rise up, master Butler, and put on your golden ring
And bring to us a jug of ale, the better we shall sing

Our purse it is made of the finest calves skin
We want a little silver to line it well within

Good Mr. X, good Mist(ress), if that you are but willing
Send down two of your little boys to each of us a shill(ing)

We(’)ll hang a silver knapkin upon a golden spear
A nd come no more a wassiling untill another year

The bowl of these wassailers was “mulberry”. Later versions have “rosemary” (Bramley and Stainer), “white maple tree” (Vaughan Williams), “elderberry bough” (see Gower Wassail Song) and “ashen tree” (Sharp), Cecil Sharp contended that this took us back to the period when all common domestic vessels were made of wood and when there was an ecclesiastical edict against the use of wooden vessels for the Holy Communion.

In some cases the carrying of greenery accompanied the singing of the song. A Yorkshire version in Broadwood’s English County Songs (1893) “The children carry green boughs and wave them over their heads asking for a New Year’s gift.” At Camborne in Cornwall, the local “Carol Party” were accompanied by a small child dressed in evergreens who was known as ”Lucy Green”:

Here we come a-wassailing long with our Lucy Green
And here we come a-wandering as fair to be seen
Love and joy come to you and to your wassail too
And God send you a happy New Year
(see Journal of The Folk Song Society No. 33 p. 120)

Dr. Dunstan in his Christmas Carols (1925) prints a West Yorkshire version sung by children, with blackened faces, decked with and carrying greenery who sang:

Pier, Tier, Wessel
And a jolly wessel

In Yorkshire too, until a few years ago, an image of the Saviour was placed in a box surrounded by evergreens and flowers and each house visited was allowed to take one sprig from the “Wessel Box”. All these would seem be survivals of the bearing of the Christmas vessel-cup.

There are numerous European equivalents of these various English wassails. For example the Romanian Calusari dancers carry with them a pole decorated at the end with silver or silken knapkins together with their potently magic garlic (V. Alford). Similar poems are sung in France by youths going from house to house during Advent and at Christmas time (Chants Pop. du Bas-Quercy 1889) and in Greece children sing a wassail song varying little from one sung by their forefathers in classical times (Broadwood).

The live Christmas Day 1957 broadcast on BBC Radio, Sing Christmas and the Turn of the Year, has a track with Charlie Bate and Bob Rundle on accordion, David Alford on bones, Bob Cann on melodeon and Cyril Tawney on guitar playing Boscastle Breakdown, followed by Charlie Bate singing two verses of the Cornish Wassail Song (verses 1 and 3 below). Peter Kennedy and Charlie Bate introduce them with the words:

The west of England has always been carol country, and here the people once abided by King Alfred’s decree that Christmas should last for 12 days, from Christmas Eve until the sixth of January— and so their “wassailing”, or making music for luck, might fall on any of these days. Charlie Bate here can tell you about that.

Well, we in Cornwall come out on Boxing Day. We black our faces and parade in the streets with accordions, tambourines, bones—any sort of instrument that’ll make a good lively noise!

(instruments play Boscastle Breakdown)

And this wassail song I’m going to sing has been sung from door to door in Padstow and neighbouring districts—in St. Merryn where I live—for a long, long time. My dad used to sing it, and mother used to sing it.

A more complete recording of Charlie Bate singing six verses of the Padstow Wassail, made in 1956, was included by Kennedy on his Folktrax cassette West Country Wassailers.

The Watersons sang Malpas Wassail in 1975 on their LP For Pence and Spicy Ale. This track was reissued in 2003 on The Definitive Collection. A.L. Lloyd noted on the original album:

A house-to-house luck wish song local to the Truro district of Cornwall. “Wassail” is an Anglo-Saxon expression (wes hael—to be healthy).

Louis and Sally Killen sang Malpas Wassail in the same year on their LP Bright Shining Morning. Louis Killen noted:

Wassailing (the word is Middle English: “be in good health”) is a custom still carried on in many parts of England on New Years Eve, when groups go from house to house singing the wassail songs and bringing luck in exchange for tokens of appreciation; that is, cakes and ale and money. James Madison carpenter, the American folklorist, collected several versions of this wassail around the Truro area of North Cornwall in 1929/30, and most of the text comes from his manuscript. Peter Kennedy recorded a version for the BBC in 1951 in the village of Malpas (hence the title we give it) in the same area. The tune we sing owes as much to the Waterson family of Hull as to the Malpas trio, with some unintentional variations of our own creeping in with the passage of time.

Barry Skinner sang the Wassail Song in 1978 on his Fellside album Bushes & Briars. He noted:

The word ‘Wassail’ in rough translation means ‘good health!’ Wassailers would go from door to door collecting money or bread and cheese or beer in return for the good wishes mentioned in their song. This is a particularly fine example of its type and is based on a West Country version collected by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould.

Kate Rusby sang Cornish Wassailing in 2015 on her Christmas CD The Frost Is All Over. She noted:

I have family down in Cornwall so think of it as a second home, because of this I became aware that they have a similar tradition of singing carols in pubs. After a bit of research concentrating on a collector called Ralph Dunstan, I came across this fantastic Cornish Wassailing song.

Andy Turner learned the Padstow Wassail from the singing of Charlie Bate and sang it as the 1 January 2016 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith sang the Cornish Wassail on their 2019 winter album Awake, Arise. They noted:

Wassailing traditionally occurs around Twelfth Night or Old Twelfth Night to welcome in the New Year. From the Old English “waes hael”—be thou in good health. A wassail is made and then carried from door to door accompanied by a song such as this.

Verses from two singers: Bessie Wallace in Camborne and Mr W.D. Watson in Penzance, both collected by James Madison Carpenter between 1928-1935.

Jim Causley sang the Heavitree Wassail on his 2021 CD Devonia and on his 2022 digital album Yule. He noted:

Traditional, Baring-Gould Collection. Sent to Baring-Gould by L. Priscilla Wyatt-Edgell of Cowley, Exeter.

Lyrics

Charlie Bate and the Truro “Wassail Bowl” Singers sing Cornish Wassail Song

O master and mistress, our Wassail begins
Pray open your doors and let us come in

Chorus (after each verse):
With our wassail, wassail, wassail, wassail
And joy comes with our jolly wassail

O master and mistress sitting down by the fire
While we poor wassail boys are travelling the mire

This ancient old house, we’ll kindly salute
It is the old custom you need not dispute

We are here in this place, we orderly stand
We’re the jolly wassail boys with a bowl in our hands

We hope that your apple trees will prosper and bear
A nd bring forth good cider when we come next year

We hope that your barley will prosper and grow
That you may have plenty and some to bestow

Good mistress and master, how can you forbear
Come full up our bowl with cider or beer

For our wassail…

Good mistress and master sitting down at your ease
Put your hands in your pockets and give what you please

To our wassail…

I wish you a blessing and a long time to live
Since you’ve been so free and so willing to give

The Watersons sing Malpas Wassail

Now the harvest being over and Christmas drawing in
Please open your door and let us come in

Chorus (after each verse):
With our wassail!
Wassail, wassail!
And joy come to our jolly wassail!

Here’s the master and mistress sitting down by the fire
While we poor wassail boys do trudge through the mire

Here’s the master and mistress sitting down at their ease
Put your hands in your pockets and give what you please

This ancient owd house we will kindly salute
It is the old custom you need not dispute

Here’s the saddle and the bridle they’re hung upon the shelf
If you want any more you can it sing yourself

Here’s an health to the master and a long time to live
Since you’ve been so kind and so willing to give

Kate Rusby sings Cornish Wassailing

O Mistress at your door our wassail now begins,
Come open your door and let us come in.

Chorus (twice after each verse):
For the wassail, wassail, wassail,
Great joy to our jolly wassail

To Mistress and to Sir sitting by the fire,
While we poor wassailers travel through mires.

To Mistress and to Sir sitting at your ease,
With hands in your pockets to give what you please.

Come men and maidens all, I pray you now draw near,
Come fill up our bowls with cider and beer.

Watch our faces now as we smile at our flowing bowls,
We started with nought but soon we’ll be full.

To you we wish you peace and a long, long time to live,
Because you’re so free and willing to give.

We wish you Christmas cheer and to you a happy new year,
With plenty of money and barrels of beer.

Andy Turner sings the Padstow Wassail

O master and mistress, our wassail begin
Pray open your doors and let us come in

Chorus (after each verse):
With our wassail, wassail, wassail, wassail
And joy comes with our jolly wassail.

O master and mistress sitting down by the fire
While we poor wassail boys are travelling the mire

Good master and mistress, sitting down at your ease,
Put your hands in your pockets and give what you please

Good master and mistress, now can you forbear,
I’ll fill up our bowl with cider and beer

We hope that your apples will prosper and bear
And bring forth good cider for this time next year

We hope that your barley will prosper and grow
And bring forth good beer for you to bestow

Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith sing Cornish Wassail

Now Christmas is over, the New Year begins
Come open your door and let us come in

Chorus (after each verse):
With our wassail!
Wassail, wassail, wassail!
And joy come to our jolly wassail!

Good mistress and master who sit by the fire
While we poor wassailers do walk through the mire

We at this door, we do orderly stand
Us jolly wassailers with a bowl in our hand

Good mistress and master, sitting down at your ease
Put your hand in your pocket and give what you please

We hope that your barley may prosper and grow
That you may have plenty, enough to bestow

It’s Happy New Year, and long may you live
Since you’ve been so kind and so willing to give

Last chorus:
Long live our wassail!
Wassail, wassail, wassail!
And joy come to our jolly wassail!
Wassail, wassail, wassail!
And joy come to our jolly wassail!

Jim Causley sings the Heavitree Wassail

In the friendliest fashion this house we salute,
And it is an old custom we need not dispute.
O ask not the reason from whence it did spring,
For we very well know ’tis an old ancient thing.

Chorus (after each verse):
With our wassail!
Wassail, wassail, wassail!
And joy come to our jolly wassail!

Good mistress and master our wassail begin,
Please open your door and let us come in.
Besides all on earth you’ll have apples in store,
Pray let us come in for ’tis cold by this door.

We hope that your orchards may blossom and bear
That you may have cider against the New Year.
And where you’ve one hogshead we hope you’ll have ten
That you may have cider ’gainst we come again!

We wish you great plenty and long may you live
Because you are willing and free for to give.
To our wassail so cheerful, our wassail so bold,
Long may you live happy and lusty and old!

Last chorus:
With our wassail!
Wassail, wassail, wassail!
And joy come to our jolly wassail!
Wassail, wassail, wassail!
And joy come to our jolly wassail!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Greer Gilman for the Waterson’s Malpas Wassail transcription and to Tim McElwaine for corrections.