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Gaol Song
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Treadmill Song
Gaol Song / Treadmill Song
[
Roud 1077
; Master title: Gaol Song
; Ballad Index FaE022
; VWML HAM/3/20/9
; DT GAOLSONG
; Mudcat 18106
, 33528
; trad.]
Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd: The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.
The Gaol Song was collected by H.E.W. Hammond from William Davy, Beaminster Workhouse, Dorset in June 1906. Davy’s text was combined with a version of the song collected at the same time from Sam Gregory, who was also a resident in the Workhouse, with further changes made my A.L. Lloyd and Ralph Vaughan Williams when they published it in 1959 in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. For more details on William Davy’s life and for specifics of editorial changes see Malcolm Douglas’ reissue of this book (Classic English Folk Songs, EFDSS, 2003).
Ewan MacColl sang the Treadmill Song in 1957 on his and Peggy Seeger’s Riverside album of British ballads of crime and criminals, Bad Lads and Hard Cases and in 1960 on his Topic album Chorus From the Gallows. He noted on the first album::
This song, from Sussex, is an unusually detailed account of life in stir in the early 19th century. Prisoners’ attitudes about incarceration have apparently changed but little since that time.
A.L. Lloyd recorded the Gaol Song unaccompanied in 1960 for his album A Selection From the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Like all tracks from this LP it was reissued in 2003 on the CD England & Her Traditional Songs. Lloyd noted:
Few prison songs have been recovered from English tradition, and most of them are Irish. We haven’t found any other quite like this treadmill song, of which H.E.W. Hammond found two versions in the workhouse at Beaminster, Dorset, in 1906.
The Critics Group sang The Jail Song in 1966 on their Argo anthology of London song, Sweet Thames Flow Softly. They noted:
There are several prison broadsides all deriving from the same Catnach original The County Jail. Few are as effective as The Jail Song in dealing with prison life and in capturing what must be the prisoner’s worst enemy, the boredom created by the same endless routine. Known alternatively as The Treadmill Song, Sharpe collected a version from Marylebone workhouse in 1906. This version is taken from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. The chorus is based on the work cry of “Whip Up” issued by the foreman to the prisoners on the treadmill and the horses outside on the bar, to pull together.
Barry Skinner sang Gaol Song in 1971 on his Argo album Bed, Battle & Booze. He noted:
A song from Dorset, about life in a treadmill in the English prisons of the 18th century.
I learnt this song when at school.
Bernard Wrigley sang this song as Treadmill Song in 1971 on his Topic album The Phenomenal B. Wrigley. A.L. Lloyd noted:
Stubbly-chinned, this song, hypnotic too, and monotonous as the treadmill tread it once accompanied. Like some sailors’ group songs, this most powerful prison chant, based on a minor tetrachord with a rhythm-varied refrain, belongs in type to the very earliest European folk songs. It trudges along with a sardonic grin. Suits Wrigley.
The Etchingham Steam Band sang the Gaol Song at the Lenzburg Folk Festival in Switzerland in June 1975. This recording was finally released in 1995 on their eponymous Fledg’ling album, The Etchingham Steam Band.
The Oyster Band sang the Gaol Song in 1986 on their Cooking Vinyl album Step Outside.
Several versions of this song involved Martin Carthy: In 1995, Roy Harris with Martin Carthy recorded the Gaol Song for the Fellside anthology, A Selection From the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs; Steeleye Span, with Martin Carthy singing lead vocals. recorded it in 1977 as Treadmill Song for their tenth album, Storm Force Ten And in 2006, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, recorded the Treadmill Song again for their CD Straws in the Wind. Carthy noted on the latter album:
The person who wrote Treadmill Song surely had a bleak view of real life. It’s a rare song, as are prison songs in England, and sounds somehow to have derived from somebody’s personal experience. If people survived such a term, they must have developed huge leg muscles and probably nothing else. I say “if”. The unimaginably dull, repetitive work was expressly (!) designed to destroy the soul and the prison food was rank. Just the sight of the occasional engraving of a treadmill is enough to bring a comfortable 21st Century body out in the coldest of sweats.
This video shows Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick live at The Frazer Theatre, Knavesborough, on 20 March 2009:
MichaelAnnJillo sang Gaol Song in a probably 1990’s home recording in Mike and Ann Waterson’s kitchen. It was included in 2023 on their CD I’ll Give You One More As You Go.
John Tams and Coope Boyes & Simpson sang Doing Time to Fit Your Crime on Ashley Hutching’s 2001 Topic album of dark traditional songs re-imagined in the present day, Street Cries. This track was also included in 2007 on John Tams’ The Definitive Collection.
Hannah James and Sam Sweeney sang the Gaol Song, as “collected by Henry Hammond from William Davy of Beaminster, Dorset”, on their 2009 Rootbeat CD Catches and Glees. This track was also include in 2009 on the Bellowhead family’s anthology Umbrellowhead. This video shows them at a House Gig in Bedfordshire in October 2011:
Coope Boyes & Simpson combined Gaol Song with Robert Burns’ The Slave Lament in 2010 on their CD As If …. The details on this song in the first paragraph above are mainly based on Georgina Boyes’ comments in this album’s sleeve notes.
Jon Boden sang the Gaol Song as the 6 April 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.
Magpie Lane sang a medley of the Treadmill Song and Hanging Johnny, together with John Kirkpatrick’s tune Shreds and Patches, on their 2011 album The Robber Bird. They noted:
Ian [Giles] works at Oxford Castle—now a visitor attraction, but until the 1990s, a prison. We played a concert at the Castle a few summers back, and learned the Treadmill Song for the occasion. In some nineteenth century prisons the treadmill did useful work in grinding flour. In Oxford however it was purely a punishment, as the treadmill was not attached to any productive machinery. Following on with the crime and punishment theme, we have the sea shanty Hanging Johnny. Then round things off—for no reason except we really like the tune—with John Kirkpatrick’s Shreds and Patches.
Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith sang the Gaol Song in 2014 on their first Fellside album Let the Wind Blow High or Low.
This opening set is a slightly odd folk journey that starts with an English prison song taken from the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. It was originally collected, aptly, from William Davy in the Beaminster Workhouse in Dorset, in 1906. We then skip through an Irish polka and into an Appalachian fuddle tune. The song and tunes bear no relation to each other but over time they have merged into a set for us and we enjoy playing them together.
Stick in the Wheel sang the Jail Song on their 2015 CD From Here.
Pilgrims’ Way sang the Gaol Song on their 2017 album Stand & Deliver.
James Findlay sang the Gaol Song on his 2019 CD The Where and the When. He noted:
William Davy of Beaminster Workhouse, Dorset sung this to Henry Hammond in June 1906 [VWML HAM/3/20/9] . Also known as The Treadmill Song, two versions were found in the same workhouse. The song gives an insightful and sorrowful account of a man’s time in prison in the mid 19th century. The treadmill was introduced as a method of prisoner reform but also for cheap labour. It was mind numbingly repetitive, arduous and soul destroying work.
Lyrics
A.L. Lloyd sings Gaol Song
“Step in, young man, I know your face,
It’s nothing in your favour.
A little time I’ll give to you:
Six months unto hard labour.”
Chorus:
To me Hip! fol the day, Hip! fol the day,
To me Hip! fol the day, fol the digee, oh!
At six o’clock our turnkey comes in,
With a bunch of keys all in his hand.
“Come, come, my lads, step up and grind.
Tread the wheel till breakfast time.”
At eight o’clock our skilly comes in,
Sometimes thick and sometimes thin,
But devil a word we must not say
Or it’s bread and water all next day.
At half past eight the bell doth ring.
Into the chapel we must swing,
Down on our bended knees to fall.
The Lord have mercy on us all.
At nine o’clock the jangle rings.
All on the trap, boys, we must spring.
“Come, come, my lads, step up in time,
The wheel to tread and the corn to grind.”
Now Saturday’s come, I’m sorry to say,
Sunday is our starvation day.
Our hobnail boots and tin mugs too,
They are not shined nor they will not do.
Now six long months are over and past,
And I will return to my bonny, bonny lass.
I’ll leave them turnkeys all behind,
The wheel to tread and the corn to grind,
The Critics Group sing The Jail Song
“Step up young man I know your face,
It’s nothing in your favour.
A little time I’ll give to you:
Six months unto hard labour.”
Chorus:
With me whip! fol the doll, With me whip! fol the day
With me whip! fol the day, fol the digee, oh!
At six o’clock our turnkey comes
With a bunch of keys all in his hand.
“Come, come my lads, step in and grind.
Tread the wheel till breakfast time!”
At eight o’clock our skilly comes in,
Sometimes thick and sometimes thin,
But devil a word we must not say –
It’s bread and water all next day.
At half past eight the bell doth ring.
Into the chapel we must swing,
Down on our bended knees to fall.
The Lord have mercy on us all.
At nine o’clock the jangle rings.
All on the trap boys we must spring.
“’Come, come my lads, step up in time,
The wheel to tread and the corn to grind.”
Now Saturday’s come I’m sorry to say,
Sunday is our starvation day.
Our hobnail boots and tin mugs too,
They are not polished nor they will not do.
Now these six months are over and past,
I will return to my bonny lass.
I’ll leave the turnkeys all behind,
The wheel to tread and the corn to grind.
Steeleye Span’s Treadmill Song
“Step in, young man, I know your face,
It’s nothing in your favour.
A little time I’ll give to you:
Six months unto hard labour.”
Chorus:
With me hip! fol the day, me hip! fol the day,
Me hip! fol the day, fol the digee, oh!
At six o’clock the screw comes in,
A bunch of keys all in his hand,
Step up, my lads, step up in time,
And tread the wheel till breakfast time.
And at eight o’clock the skilly comes in,
It’s sometimes thick and it’s sometimes thin,
And never a word dare we all say,
Or it’s bread and water all next day.
At half past eight the bell do ring,
And off to the chapel, boys, we must swing.
Down on our bended knees we fall,
The Lord have mercy on us all.
And at nine o’clock the jangle ring
And all on the trap, boys, we must spring.
“Step up, my lads, step up in time,
The wheel’s to tread and the corn’s to grind.”
Now Saturday’s come, I am sorry to say,
For Sunday is starvation day.
Our hobnail boots and our tin mugs too,
They are not shined and they will not do.
When six long months are gone and past,
Then I’ll return to my bonny, bonny lass.
I’ll leave the turnkeys all behind,
The wheel to tread and the corn to grind.
The Oyster Band sing the Gaol Song
Step in young man, I know your face
It’s nothing in your favour
A little time I’ll give to you
Six months into hard labour
Chorus:
To me hip fol the day hip fol the day
To me hip fol the day fol the digee-o
At six o’clock our gaoler comes in
With a bunch of keys all in his hand
Come my lads, step up and grind
Tread that wheel till breakfast time
At eight o’clock our skilly comes in
It’s sometimes thick and it’s sometimes thin
Devil of a word we must not say
Or it’s bread and water all next day
At half past eight the bell does ring
Into the chapel we must swing
Down on bended knees to fail
O Lord have mercy on us all
At nine o’clock the jangle rings
All on the trap, boys, we must spring
Come my lads, step up in time
The wheel to tread and the corn to grind
Saturday’s come I’m sorry to say
Sunday’s our starvation day
Our hobnail boots, tin mugs too
They are not shined, they will not do
When six long months are over and past
I will return to my bonny lass
I’ll leave the gaolers all behind
The wheel to tread and the corn to grind