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Needlecases

[ Roud 1300 ; Master title: Needlecases ; Ballad Index K233 ; GlosTrad Roud 1300 ; Wiltshire 171 ; Mudcat 51434 ; trad.]

Freda Palmer from Leafield, Oxfordshire sang Needlecases to Mike Yates on 10 June 1977. This recording was included in 2018 on her Musical Tradition anthology Leafield Lass. Rod Stradling noted:

Not a well-known song, with only 13 Roud entries. Alfred Williams found it in Southrop, Gloucestershire, in the 1910s, and Bob Arnold, of Archers fame, used to sing it (which is undoubtedly where Freda learned it), but Francis Shergold (VTC7CD) has the only other CD release available.

The Hemlock Cock & Bull Band’s drummer John Maxwell sang Needle-Cases, learnt “from the singing of Arthur Smith of Swinbrook, Oxfordshire” in 1981 on their Topic album All Buttoned Up.

Francis Shergold sang Needlecases in a recording made by John Howson at Bampton, Oxfordshire, in 1987. It was included in 2006 on the Veteran anthology It Was on a Market Day—Two on which Mike Yates noted:

Although there is a version of Needlecases, or Case of Needles to use its other title, in Kidson & Moffat’s English Peasant Songs (1929. pp. 112-13) the song is usually associated with singers from the Cotswolds. According to Alfred Williams, “Needle-cases was popular as well by reason of its pleasant air as by the words of the song. I have heard it in many villages around Lechlade.” In 1946 Francis Collinson collected a set from Bob Arnold of Burford (the actor who used to play the gamekeeper, Tom Forest, in the radio series The Archers). Arnold had probably learnt the song from Arthur Smith of Swinbrook in Oxfordshire, because, in 1952, he led the BBC to Swinbrook, where they recorded the song from Mr Smith. In the 1970s a version was also noted from the singer Freda Palmer, then living in Witney, but originally from the village of Leafield.

Andy Turner sang Needlecases as the 10 February 2013 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Lyrics

Freda Palmer sings Needlecases

Chorus:
Needle cases, won’t you buy one,
You will buy one I’m sure
Won’t you buy a case of needles
From Jack that’s so poor?

I’m a poor wandering fellow, my name it is Jack
My clothes are all tattered, scarce hang on my back
My belly is empty, my feet they are sore,
Won’t you buy a case of needles of Jack that’s so poor?

I once was a fellow and followed the plough.
Don’t think I’m a charmer, just look at me now,
All ragged and torn from belly to top.
Don’t you think that I’m a poor silly wandering rag shop?

Once I had a table all lined with good food
Both eating and drinking and all that was good.
But now I’ve no table, no things and all that.
I’m obliged to beg a crust with the crown on my cap.

Now since you won’t buy one I find I must leave,
But to leave such good company it does my heart grieve.
It does my heart grieve and if I should come back,
Won’t you buy a case of needles from poor wandering Jack?

Francis Shergold sings Needlecases

I’m a poor wandering fellow, my name it is Jack,
No shoes to my feet, scarcely a rag to my back.
My belly’s nearly empty, my feet they are sore,
Won’t you buy a case of needles from Jack that’s so poor?

Chorus:
Needlecases, will you buy one, you will buy one I’m sure.
Won’t you buy a case of needles from Jack that’s so poor?

I once had a table all lined with good food
Both for eating and drinking and everything that’s good.
But now I’ve no table, no friend nor not that.
I’m forced to get a crust from the crown on my hat.

I once was a farmer and followed my plough.
Don’t you think I’m a charmer, just look at me now,
All tattered in rags from the bottom to top.
Don’t you think that I’ve become a poor wandering rag shop?

Now since you won’t buy one I think I must leave,
But to leave such good company it does my heart grieve.
To leave you, to leave you, if I should come back,
Won’t you buy a case of needles from poor wandering Jack?