> The Watersons > Songs > Earsdon Sword Dance Song

Earsdon Sword Dance Song

[ Roud 610 ; Ballad Index StoR154 ; Mudcat 28223 ; trad.]

The Royal Earsdon Team with Jimmy McKay on fiddle performed the Earsdon Sword Dance on the 1955 Columbia Records anthology, The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Volume III: England.

The Watersons sang the Earsdon Sword Dance Song on their 1965 LP Frost and Fire. This recording was also included in 1996 on the Topic CD sampler The Season Round. A.L. Lloyd noted on the original album:

At one time the old death-and-resurrection folk play was performed all over these islands. Nowadays it only crops up here and there, in bits and pieces. The most ancient and fullest form we know presents to us the Fool or Medicine Man with his six hero sons, armed with swords. The sons put their father to death and lament for him, comparing him to the evening sun. But the Fool arises from the dead and recounts his journey to the other world. In north Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland the sword-dance part of the drama survives, notably among miners. The present song is proper to the coal miners of Earsdon; it’s sung by the captain of the sword-dancers and with it, he calls on each of his heroes and gives him a fictitious name and character, as a kind of disguise. The curious tune has been used for several songs, including the old sailor ballad of The Ratcliffe Highway.

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset sang The Greatham Calling-On Song in 2005 on their CD Cruel Sister. She noted:

The song is taken from the Greatham Mummers Play traditionally performed in the village of Greatham every Boxing Day. It is the only surviving example of a mummers play and long sword dance combined. It was performed by the local village team until 1953 and then in 1967 a group of enthusiastic lads searching for their roots researched and revived the play and dance, after discovering its existence in a book by Norman Peacock. They were the Redcar Sword Dancers, my 18 year old Dad included, who still do it to this day. They perform the play at midday outside the church/alms house, followed by a day’s worth of singing and drinking in the pub. I have seen this play and dance every single Boxing Day of my life, that’s 27 to date; so it feels like part of my heritage too.

We have enlisted the help of some of the original Redcar Sword Dancers, Brian Pearce (the King), Kevin Hall (the Doctor), Ben Green (formerly the clown and Mr Wild), Colin Mather (formerly the King and the clown), and our Dad George Unthank (formerly the Prince, Bold Hector, True Blue or which ever other character was needed!). The tune that follows in the original Greatham Long Sword dance tune, with the B part from Dingle’s Regatta added by Dave Wood in the 1960’s, which our friends William [Hampson] and Bryony [Griffith], who are both expert dance musicians, play beautifully.

The Unthanks also sang Greatham on their 2024 album In Winter where Rachel Unthank noted:

The Greatham Mummer’s play is performed every Boxing Day in the village of Greatham. It is a tradition that was performed until 1953, and then revived in 1967 by the Redcar Long Sword Dancers of which our Dad was a member. It is unusual as the play has a long sword dance attached to it. This spectacle is an integral part of our family’s winter celebrations. We recorded the full Greatham Calling On Song on our first album Cruel Sister, but here we present it in a more abstract form, like a memory of Boxing Day, weaving together some of the lyrics from the song and the melody of Dingle’s Regatta which is played for the dance.

The Demon Barbers sang the Calling-On Song, adapted by Bryony Griffith from the two traditional Earsdon Calling On songs learnt from then Newcastle Kingsmen, in 2010 on their CD The Adventures of Captain Ward.

Compare to this Grenoside Sword Dance’s The Captain’s Song, the Ripon Sword Dance Song and You Noble Spectators.

A Calling-On Song

Ashley Huthings’ A Calling-On Song is the introductory track from Steeleye Span’s first album, the 1970 Hark! The Village Wait, sung by Maddy Prior, Gay Woods, Tim Hart and Terry Woods. A live recording from The Forum, London on 2 September 1995 was released in 1999 on the CD The Journey. The original album’s sleeve notes said:

Songs similar to this one are used by the leaders of rapper and long sword dance teams to preface the dancing and to drum up a crowd. The duration of these songs depended on how long it took for a satisfactory audience to assemble. It was customary to introduce each member of the team as the son of a famous person such as Bonaparte, Nelson, Wellington, etc. This, however is our own “calling-on”, the tune and the basis for the words coming from the captain’s song of the Earsdon Sword Dance Team.

Ashley Hutchings: “It’s a completely contemporary song, but in traditional style, which I wrote especially for the album.”

Lyrics

The Watersons sing the Earsdon Sword Dance Song

Good people, give ear to my story, we have called for to see you by chance.
Five heroes I’ve brought blithe and bonny intending to give you a dance.
For Earsdon is our habitation, the place we were all born and bred;
There are no finer boys in the nation and none are more gallantly led.

’Tis not for your gold nor your silver nor yet for the gain of your gear,
But we come for to take a week’s pleasure, to welcome the incoming year.
My lads they are all fit for action with spirits and courage so bold,
They are born of a noble extraction, their fathers were heroes of old.

And now I will tell of brave Elliot, the first youth that enters the ring,
And so proudly rejoice I to tell it: he fought for his country and king.
When the Spaniards besieged Gibraltar, ’twas Elliot defended the place;
And he soon caused their plans for to alter, some died, others fell in disgrace.

Now the next handsome youth that does enter is a boy that is both straight and tall;
He is the son of the great Bonaparte, the hero that conquered them all.
He came over the Lowlands like thunder, caused nations to quiver and quake;
Many thousands stood gazing in wonder at the havoc he always did make.

Now you see all my fine noble heroes, my fine noble heroes by birth;
And they each bear as good a character as any such heroes on earth.
If they be as good as their fathers, their deeds are deserving records;
It is all our whole company desires to see how they handle their swords.

Steeleye Span sing A Calling-On Song

Good people, pray heed our petition,
Your attention we beg and we crave.
And if you are inclined for to listen
An abundance of pastime we’ll have.

We have come to relate many stories
Concerning our forefathers’ times.
And we trust they will drive out your worries,
Of this we are all in one mind.

Many tales of the poor and the gentry,
Of labour and love will arise
There are no finer songs in this country
In Scotland or Ireland likewise

There’s on thing more needing mention:
The dances we’ve danced all in fun.
So now that you’ve heard our intention,
We’ll play on to the beat of the drum.

Acknowledgements and Links

Transcribed from the singing of the Watersons by Garry Gillard.