Recordings & Info 7C. Sheffield Park
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print Names: Pratt, W.
Imprint Locations: Birmingham
Date c.1850
Imprint: William Pratt, Printer, 82, Digbeth, Birmingham
Ballad - Roud Number: 860
Title: Sheffield Park
First Line: In Sheffield Park O there did dwell
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print Names: Pratt, W.
Imprint Locations: Birmingham
Date c.1850
Imprint: William Pratt, Printer, 82, Digbeth, Birmingham
Ballad - Roud Number: 860
Title: Sheffield Park
First Line: In Sheffield Park O there did dwell
O cruel man, I find thou art,
For breaking my own child's heart,
Now she in Abraham's bosom sleep,
While thy tormented soul shall weep.
Pitts, Printer, wholesale Toy and Marble warehouse 6, Gt. St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials.
Image: Vignette wood engraving showing lovers standing and holding hands, before a tree and cottage to the left (birds on the ground in the foreground), and a sailboat on water to the right in the background.
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print Names: Pratt, W.
Imprint Locations: Birmingham
Date c.1850
Imprint: William Pratt, Printer, 82, Digbeth, Birmingham
Ballad - Roud Number: 860
Title: Sheffield Park
First Line: In Sheffield Park O there did dwell
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In Sheffield Park (Mainly Norfolk)
[ Roud 860 ; trad.]
Ben Butcher sang In Sheffield Park in a recording made by Bob Copper between September 1954 and November 1957 on the 1977 Topic album Songs and Southern Breezes: Country Singers from Hampshire and Sussex and on the 2012 Topic anthology Good People, Take Warning: Ballads sung by British and Irish Traditional Singers (The Voice of the People Series Volume 23). This song was also collected by Bob Copper in about 1954 from Enos White in Axford, Hampshire: see Chapter Thirteen, pp. 108-113, of the book Songs and Southern Breezes for the details; and the appendix for these words. Bob Copper tells us that Enos White pronounced it “Sherfield”.
Frank Hinchliffe sang In Sheffield Park in a recording made by Mike Yates in 1976. This was released a year later on his Topic album In Sheffield Park: Traditional Songs from South Yorkshire and in 2001 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs from the Mike Yates Collection, Up in the North and Down in the South. Mike Yates commented in the latter's booklet:
The Park district of Sheffield lies just to the east of the city centre and it is to this area that Frank had always understood the song to refer, although there is also a place called Sheffield Park in Sussex, and it must be said that this is the only example from the north of England in Roud's 81 entries. But Frank said that the song was well-known in his area, and Ford of Chesterfield printed it on a broadside together with The White Cockade which Frank also knew. It was also printed as The Unfortunate Maid of Sheffield in Holroyd's Collection of Yorkshire Ballads ed. C. Forshaw (1892). It certainly dates from before 1832, when it was listed in the catalogue of songs printed by the Catnach Press.
Muckram Wakes sang In Sheffield Park in 1980 on their album Warbles, Jangles and Reeds.
Eliza Carthy and The Kings of Calicutt (Andi Wells, Barnaby Stradling, Saul Rose and Maclaine Colston) sang and played Sheffield Park and the tunes Polly Bishop's Slip Jig and Sir Roger de Coverley in 1997 on their eponymous album Eliza Carthy and The Kings of Calicutt. The album's sleeve notes commented:
This lass's employer certainly had more love for her than the man she died for. Everyone's love for Barn's bass line lasted right through the first tune.
This video shows them at the Albert Hole, Bristol, on December 20, 1995:
Magpie Lane sang In Sheffield Park in 1998 on their Beautiful Jo CD Jack-in-the-Green.
Lyrics
Eliza Carthy sings Sheffield Park Enos White sings In Sheffield Park
In Sheffield Park oh there did dwell
A brisk young lad and I loved him well.
He courted me my heart to gain;
He has gone and left me full of pain.
In Sheffield Park where I did dwell
A brisk young lad I loved him well.
He courted me my heart to gain;
He's gone and left me full of pain.
I went upstairs to make my bed,
I laid me down and nothing said.
My mistress came to me and said,
“Oh what's the matter with you, my maid?”
I went upstairs to make the bed,
And laid me down and nothing said,
My mistress came and to me said,
“What is the matter with you, my maid?”
“O mistress, mistress, you little know
The pain and sorrow I undergo.
But place your hand on my left breast:
My panting heart can take no rest.
“O little dove, what does you know
What pain and sorrow I undergo,
Just lay your hand on my left breast,
My fainting heart can take no rest.”
“Oh take a letter to him with speed
And give it to him so he can read.
And bring an answer without delay,
For he has stolen my heart away.”
My mistress turned away with speed;
“Some help, some help is what you need.”
“No help, no help, no help, I say
My William stole my heart away.”
She took the letter immediately,
He read it over while she stood by.
And then he did this letter burn
Which caused her to grieve and mourn.
“Oh how can she think how fond I be
That I could love no-one but she?
Man was not made to love one alone,
So I take delight to hear her mourn!”
She then returned immediately
And found her maid as cold as clay.
“O wicked man how cruel thou art
For the taking of my own maid's heart.
I'll pull the grass for her silent bed
And a flowery pillow for her head,
And the leaves that blow from tree to tree
They shall be coverlets over she.
We'll gather green grass all for her bed
And a flowery pillow for her head,
And the leaves that's blowing from tree to tree
Shall be the coverlet over she.
In Sheffield Park oh there did dwell
A brisk young lad and I loved him well.
He courted me my heart to gain;
He has gone and left me full of pain.
Notes
Garry got a start with these words from Ron Clarke; many thanks. He notes:
The words are collated from Dorset and Essex versions. The tune is from Puddletown, Dorset. This tune is unusual, in that it is written in 5/4 timing.
This stanza in Ron Clarke's version is not sung by Eliza. It comes after the first verse:
There is an alehouse in this town
Where my love goes and sits him down
And takes a strange girl on his knee
And tells her what he don't tell me
Acknowledgements
Transcribed by Garry Gillard. Thanks for help with hard bits to Kira White