> Lal & Norma Waterson > Songs > Jenny Storm

Jenny Storm

[F.W. Moorman]

Jenny Storm is a poem from F.W. Moorman’s book Songs of the Ridings (1918).

Lal and Norma Waterson and Lal’s daughter Maria Knight (now Maria Gilhooley) sang Jenny Storm in 1977 on their album A True Hearted Girl. This track was included in 2004 on the Watersons’ 4CD anthology Mighty River of Song.

Greer Gilman notes:

The places in this song are all round Robin Hood’s Bay, where the Waterson family has lived together for many years. The Brow is Stow Brow (as in the song that Lal Waterson sings on A Yorkshire Garland), and Boggle Hole is a cove in the cliffs south of Bay, rich in fossils and folklore. A boggle is a bogey, an unchancy spirit; he lives there. Jim Eldon, who plays whistle and flute on this recording, wrote the tune for these words.

Paul and Liz Davenport sang Jenny Storm in 2011 on their Hallamshire Traditions CD Spring Tide Rising. They commented:

This grim tale began life as a poem by F.W. Moorman of Leeds. Over time it has been whittled down to this story of the fickle girl and her angry ex-lover who, it seems, gets away with murder. This version is from Mrs Carthy of Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire, who kindly sang it down the phone whilst her husband sat patiently waiting for his tea. We have taken the liberty of including a further two of Moorman’s verses which our informant omitted due to their being particularly unpleasant. We rather enjoyed their gloomy atmosphere which increases the darkness of this Gothic tale.

Lyrics

The Waterdaughters sing Jenny Storm

As Jenny was walking along the sands
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
There she met a fisher lad, net in his hand
As the tide came flowing in

“Oh why are you walking the sands alone?”
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
“I’m searching for driftwood to build me a home.”
As the tide came flowing in

“For tomorrow I’ll wed a young sailor gay.”
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
“His ship lies at anchor out in the bay.”
As the tide came flowing in

“Tomorrow we go to the church on the Brow.”
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
“Fisher-folk, weeders, and plough-lads and all.”
As the tide came flowing in

“From this jilted fisher-lad, what mun you get?”
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
“Two lucky stones or fine earrings of jet.”
As the tide came flowing in

“I’ll take not stones or earrings from thee.”
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
“But that token I gave, you give back to me.”
As the tide came flowing in

“Your token is safe in Boggle Hole nook.”
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
“You can find it yourself if you go there and look.”
As the tide came flowing in

But in Boggle Hole lay the lad she should wed.
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
The seaweed was tangled about his head.
As the tide came flowing in

They buried him by the light of the moon
The larks they sing so clearly-oh
Took her to the madhouse in Scarborough town
As the tide came flowing in

Acknowledgements

Transcription begun by Garry Gillard, and finished by Greer Gilman: thanks to her also for the note. Thanks also to Wolfgang Hell.