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What Will Become of England?

[ Roud 1779 ; Mudcat 35883 ; trad.]

Harry Cox sang What Will Become of England? to Peter Kennedy in Catfield, Norfolk, in the 1950s. This recording was released in 1965 on his eponymous EFDSS album, Harry Cox. Another recording made by Alan Lomax in 1953 was included in 2000 as the title track of his Rounder anthology What Will Become of England?.

Johnny Collins sang What Will Become of England? on his 1993 album Pedlar of Songs. His version is a composite of Harry Cox’s verses and verses and the chorus of the song Song of the Times (Roud V29649). He noted:

‘Old’ Tom Brown (‘Old’ to distinguish him from the ‘youngish’ Tom Brown who sings harmonies on this recording), a fellow Norfolkman, was a fisherman and farm labourer who learned many of his songs from Sam Larner and Harry Cox—two fine traditional singers also from Norfolk. Before his death I was fortunate to spend many happy sessions with Tom who would, lubricated with a little whisky, regale me for hours with stories, interspersed with songs, of his younger days. It was in one of these sessions that he gave me What Will Become of England.

Georgia Shackleton sang What Will Become of England? on her 2023 CD Harry’s Seagull, followed by the tunes Yarmouth Hornpipe and her Harry’s Seagull. She noted:

Harry Cox was a fantastic traditional singer and song-writer born in Barton Turf, and raised in Catfield from 1890. Catfield is where he lived for the rest of his life. Sadly, ‘What Will Become of England’ doesn’t lose relevance. This is followed by one of many Yarmouth Hornpipes, which often appear in the East Anglian step dancing tradition. Harry’s Seagull is a tune I dedicate to Harry Cox. I was delighted to learn that Harry was an animal lover and kept a wounded seagull as a pet for some time.

Jim Ghedi sang What Will Become of England? in 2022 on a download single and in 2025 on his album Wasteland. Dan Dylan Wray noted:

Jim found the song in the Alan Lomax Archives from a field recording of the great English singer and farmworker Harry Cox taken in 1953 at his home in Catfield, Norfolk. Harry recalled learning and hearing it from a bloke in a pub who used to play a tin whistle and was the only singer he knew who sang it, originally it had eight or nine verses but Harry could only remember two of them.

Ghedi [is] an artist who has a unique talent for tapping into the rich history of folk music to extract and create timely, political and contemporary alternative folk music. This perhaps is the most direct and potent example of this skill to date. Not only do the lyrics hit with a devastatingly relevant blow—“What will become of England, if things go on this way / There’s many a thousand working man, that’s starving day by day”—but Ghedi’s sonic world has expanded, encompassing a brooding, darker, more electronic tone to capture the visceral tone of the piercing lyrics.

Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman sang their own song Eavesdropper, which was inspired by What Will Become of England?, on their 2023 album Almost a Sunset.

Lyrics

Harry Cox sings What Will Become of England?

What will become of Eng-e-land if things go on this way?
There’s many a thousand working man is starving day by day.
He cannot find employment, for bread his children cry,
And hundreds of these child-e-ren they now lay in their graves.

Some have money plenty but still they crave for more,
They will not lend a hand to help the starving poor.
They pass you like a dog and on you cast a frown,
That is the way old Eng-e-land the working man cast down.

Johnny Collins sings What Will Become of England?

You working men of England one moment pray attend
While I unfold the treatment of the poor upon this land
For now-a-days the factory lords have laid the label low
And daily are contriving plans to prove our overthrow

What will become of England if things go on this way
There’s many an honest working man starving here today
They cannot find employment for bread their children crave
And hundreds of those children they’re lying in their grave

Chorus (after every other verse):
So arise you sons of freedom the world is upside down
They treat the poor man as a thief in country and in town

Now some have money plenty but still they crave for more
They will not lend a hand to help the starving poor
They’ll treat you like a dog and on you cast a frown
That is the way old England the working man casts down

How altered are the times rich men despise the poor
Stand them off without remorse quite scornful at the door
And when a man is out of work his Parish pay is small
Enough to starve himself and wife his children and all

In former days when Christmas came we had a good fat loaf
We had beef and mutton plenty and we enjoyed them both
But now-a-days such altered ways and different are the times
For if a man should seek relief he’s sent to the Whig Bastille

So to conclude and finish these few verses I have made
I hope to see before long men for their labour paid
Then we’ll rejoice with heart and voice and banish all our woes
But before we do old England must pay us what she owes

Jim Ghedi sings What Will Become of England?

What will become of England, if things go on this way
There’s many a thousand working man, that’s starving day by day.
He cannot find employment, for bread his children cry,
and hundreds of his children now lay in their grave.

Some have money plenty, but still they crave for more
They will not lend a hand to help the starving poor
They pass you like a dog and on you cast a frown,
That is the way Old England the working man cast down
(That is the way Old England us all they do cut down)