Horkstow Grange

Gay Woods - vocals, bodhrán

Bob Johnson - vocals, electric guitar

Peter Knight - vocals, violin

Tim Harries - bass, keyboards, vocals

with Dave Mattacks - drums

Produced by Steeleye Span
Recorded at Warehouse Studio Oxford
Engineered by Steve Watkins
Mixed and mastered by John Etchels
Sleeve Design Gwen Jones at Riverline Colourgraphics, Oxford
Album coordination John Dagnell at Park Records

All songs published by Peer Music UK (except track 1 copyright control)
All songs arranged by Tim Harries, Bob Johnson, Peter Knight and Gay Woods (except track 1 Johnny Patterson)

Sung by George Gouldthorpe and recorded on a wax cylinder for Percy Grainger in 1908. "Horkstow Grange" is also on the coope boyes and simpson album

Triple Echo

In Horkstow Grange there lived an old miser,
You all do know him as I've heard say.
It's him and his man that was named John Bowlin'
They fell out one market day

Pity them who see him suffer,
Pity poor old Steeleye Span;
John Bowlin's deeds they will be remembered;
Bowlin's deeds at Horkstow Grange

With a blackthorn stick old Steeleye struck him,
Oftens had threatened him before;
John Bowlin' turned round all in a passion,
He knocked old Steeleye into t'floor.

Pity them who see him suffer,
Pity poor old Steeleye Span;
John Bowlin's deeds they will be remembered;
Bowlin's deeds at Horkstow Grange

John Bowlin' struck him qui-et sharply; (quite)
It happened to be on a market day.
Old Steeleye swore with all his vengeance,
He would swear his life away.

Pity them who see him suffer,
Pity poor old Steeleye Span;
John Bowlin's deeds they will be remembered;
Bowlin's deeds at Horkstow Grange.

Note from the Unto Brigg Fair LP sleeve: In his manuscripts, Grainger notes that John Bowling was a foreman on a farm at Horkstow and John 'Steeleye' Span a waggoner under his control. Thus "him and his man" in line three should be understood as "... his foreman". In the first line, "miser' might be just a derogatory epithet though not necessarily so.
No other versions of this song are known and it does not appear to have been issued on broadsides in the district or even in adjacent areas where printers were more active.

John Ball writes: "... [a]s an ardent fan of Grainger and a former North Lincolnshire resident (Keelby, nr Brigg), ... I once worked near Horkstow and Saxby all Saints, where Joseph Taylor is buried, and did some research. My grandfather's family were from the Horkstow area and neither he nor anyone else knew of either of the characters mentioned in 'Horkstow Grange' nor is there, apparently, any local knowledge of them".

He also writes: "... when I went to Saxby all Saints about 12 years ago, I met a man from the village who told me that a lady who lived near him was a descendent of Joseph Taylor (grand-daughter, I think) and that she lived near the church".

And later again writes: "I've done an electoral register search of North Lincolnshire and there are no records for Bowlin, Bowling or Span. I have looked again at my copy of 'Unto Brigg Fair' and this confirms that there was no local knowledge of the Horkstow Grange characters."

Park Rcords PRKCD44 1998

Tracks
1. The Old Turf Fire
2. The tricks of London
3. Horkstow Grange*
4. Lord Randall
5. Erin Grá Mo Chrói
6. Queen Mary
7. Bonny Birdy
8. Bonny Irish Boy
9. I wish that I was never wed
10. Australia
11. One True Love
12. The Parting Glass

*The song from which

Steeleye Span got its name.

Digital Tradition

an amazing huge list of

trad. arr. lyrics, some with

the tunes. a mirror site of

the Mudcat Digital Tradition

Folk Index

Gary Gillard's site