The Farmer’s Boy – Kent Trad: songs sung in Kent

Reportedly sung by Tom Catt, James Rye and others.

A song which was frequently encountered by early folk song collectors, right across the country, and with a variety of tunes. Writing in the New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, Steve Roud and Julia Bishop say

Extremely widely-known in Britain and also in North America, ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ is for some the archetypal English folk song and was often used as a semi-official rural anthem at union meetings and harvest suppers. Most of the early collectors noted versions and they commented on how common it was Sabine Baring-Gould, for example, wrote, ’One of the most popular and widely known folk-songs in England. It would be hard to find an old labourer who has not heard it’ (English Minstrelsie, I (1895), p. xxx).

The earliest known record of the song’s words is their appearance on an 1832 ballad sheet published by J. Catnach, but they may be older. The words remain fairly constant in collected versions. The tune most commonly associated with the song today, which has also done service as the regimental quick march of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment and the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (successor to the Royal East Kent regiment, popularly known as “The Buffs”), is based upon ‘Ye Sons of Albion’, a patriotic song dating from the Napoleonic Wars – see William Alexander Barrett, English folk-songs (1891), https://archive.org/details/englishfolksongs00barr/page/22/mode/2up.

The newspaper columnist ‘Felix’ refers to ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ being sung by Tom Catt at a Shorncliffe Drag Hunt annual dinner, probably in the 1890s¹; and also – by unnamed singers – at a harvest home supper near Folkestone, 1932.

I was recently a guest at a harvest home supper, and after sampling “a cut and come again” kind of menu, listened to a very few short speeches and many ancient and modern songs.

Of course the good old “Farmer’s Boy,” with its rollicking chorus came up as fresh as, ever, and so did “We are all jolly fellows that follow the plough.”²

‘Felix’ appears to assume that his readers will be familiar with the song and, since he makes no comment about the song being sung to an unfamiliar tune, it seems likely that he heard it sung to the “standard” tune. Examples of the song being sung to the ‘Ye Sons of Albion’ tune were collected by Cecil Sharp at Hambridge in Somerset (CJS2/10/56) and by Janet Blunt at Adderbury in Oxfordshire (JHB/2/6) – and this was the tune recorded from Charlie Bridger of Stone-in-Oxney in 1983. But versions of the song in the VWML Archive Catalogue can be found with variations on this tune and, sometimes, a completely different tune. Frank Kidson’s Traditional Tunes (1891) included four different North Country tunes for the song, in 6/8 and 3/4 rather than the more normal 4/4. The version sung by Ethel Ford to Anne Gilchrist, which she had learned from her father the blacksmith, might originally have been derived from the ‘Ye Sons of Albion’ tune, but had diverged significantly from it.

These are among the many other newspaper references to the song being performed:

by Mr Fuller, at Maidstone, at the annual dinner for employees in the goods department of the South Eastern Railway Company, January 1869; other songs sung on this occasion included ‘Cheer, boys, cheer’, ‘Ladies won’t you marry’, and “a new negro song”, whose title is best not repeated here. ³
by Mr Cole, who sang ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ at a Penny Reading entertainment in Sittingbourne Town Hall, in December 1880. ⁴
by Mr Clemens, on 18^th January 1883, at Colonel Warde’s Rent Audit, held at the Crown Hotel, Westerham. ⁵
as a concertina solo, played by W. Kirk at a concert put on by the Folkestone Branch of the Young Men’s Friendly Society, in May 1888. Mr Kirk also played ‘The white squall’, while other songs included ‘My love is like a red, red rose’ and ‘The Blacksmith’s song’. ⁶
at a smoking concert at the Sittingbourne Workman’s Hall, “given in connection with the Sittingbourne and Milton Workmen’s Club” where following songs such as ‘Life is a river’, ‘Poor old Jeff’ and ‘The Belfry Tower’, Mr Cole sang ‘Excelsior’ and then, as an encore, ‘The Farmer’s Boy’. ⁷
at an entertainment in the school room at Sholden, where Mr Potts sang ‘The pigeon that fluttered and died’, followed by ‘The Farmer’s Boy’. ⁸
by James Rye who, as he entered his one hundredth year in 1899 could “sing “The Farmer’s Boy” with any man his own age, and dance a country jig in rare good form”. ⁹
in the Ship Inn, Southfleet, following a cricket match between “the employees of Mr. C. Snelling, of Joyce Hall, and those of Capt. Andrus, of Scadbury” when, after tea, “songs were rendered by those present, Mr. John Batt (the Southfleet tenor) ably sustaining his reputation in “The Farmer’s Boy””. ¹⁰
at an event at Kingsdown in August 1902 where Mr Palmer “vigorously sang ‘The Farmer’s Boy,’” following which there was “an encore on the phonograph”, Dan Leno’s ‘Huntsman’ causing “laughs sans intermission”. ¹¹
by Mr J. Ralph, at a smoking concert held at the Ship hotel in Sheerness, “in connection with the Smoking Club and Ratepayers’ Association in commemoration of their “late famous victory” of returning three members to the Town Council”. ¹²
at an event at the Drill-hall in Dover billed as “Saturday evenings for men”, where Mr John Davis “(better known as “Comrade”)” sang ‘The Farmer’s Boy’, with ‘Tom Bowling’ as an encore. ¹³
at the annual tea and entertainment of the Sandgate Druids Juvenile Benefit Society in February 1906. ¹⁴
in May 1908 at Chatham, at the “Great demonstration of hop labourers and pickers” protesting against unfair foreign competition, where
“on the part of the rustics a popular chorus seemed to be:-
To plough and sow,
To reap and mow,
And to be a farmer’s b-o-y
And to be a farmer’s boy”. ¹⁵
by Mr Short, “telegraphist for Admiralty work”, at a smoking concert organised by Sheerness Post Office staff, at the Napier Hotel, December 1909 ¹⁶
at the annual dinner of the Folkestone Bowls Club in 1910, where Mr A. Andrews’ singing of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ and ‘Three little pigs’ “fairly brought down the house” ¹⁷
“THE FARMER’S BOY—AGED 92.
Mr. William Curtis. aged 92 years, the eldest guest at the annual dinner given to the old folk of St. Lawrence at the Parish Hall last week. entertained the company by singing ” The Farmer’s Boy.” Mrs. Colthup, another of the 190 guests, each of whom was over 60 years of age, also contributed a song to the programme”. ¹⁸
at the Hartlip Gardeners’ Annual Supper, 1925, where “the veteran Mr. Sellen produced his concertina and delighted the company with a selection of popular airs, the chorus of “The Farmer’s Boy” being taken up with great gusto, towards which every man in the room “did his bit.”” ¹⁹
at the quarterly meeting of the Sportsman’s Arms Thrift Club, Deringstone Hill, in September 1927, where “A very pleasing rendering of “Eileen” was given by the Chairman, whilst Mr. R. Dean gave “I’m one of the old fashioned froth blowers.” “The Farmers Boy” and “The old rustic bridge by the Mill” were also in turn duly honoured”. ²⁰
in November 1927, when “a smoking concert took place at the Drill Hall of “D” Co. of the 4th Battalion of the Buffs, at which the prizes won in the recent rifle competition were presented.
A very enjoyable musical programme was provided, as well as some Community singing, which included the “Farmer ‘s Boy,” which was the regimental air of the 5th Battalion. now incorporated with the 4th, and which now forms part of the 4th’s regimental march.”²¹
at a social event for the Folkestone Harbour marine staff in January 1928 ²²
in February 1932, at the third annual social organised by the Staff Social Committee of the Weald Electricity Supply Co. Ltd., held at the Victoria Hall, Hawkhurst, where “the company sang with great heartiness “The Farmer’s Boy,” “Tipperary,” and other old popular favourites”. ²³
at a farewell supper in October 1932, marking the retirement of Mrs O. Maycock as licensee of The Star Inn, Newington, after nearly 30 years ²⁴
by the Hythe Male Voice Quartet (Messrs F.C. Mack, S.J. Hollyoak, C.E. Capon and R.S. Barnes) at an event in December 1932; their repertoire also included ‘The Catastrophe’, ‘In Cellar Cool’, ‘Sweet and Low’, ‘Hey-Diddle-Diddle’, ‘Don ‘t you cry my honey’, ‘Breathe soft ye winds’ and ‘Simple Simon’. ²⁵
at an old folks entertainment put on by members of the Sheerness Wesley Guild, the Rev. W. Haddon Beer “favoured with two solos”, namely ‘The Floral Dance’ and ‘The Farmer’s Boy’. ²⁶
under the headline “STONESTREET’S WAR ON RODENTS”, after an account of how many rats and squirrels had been dispatched in the previous twelve months by the members of the Stonestreet and District Rat and Sparrow Club, was an account of the entertainment at the club’s annual dinner in March 1936. “The CHAIRMAN said it was customary for Mr. DANIELS to conclude their programme”, and Mr Daniels obliged with a rendition of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’, after which the company sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’. ²⁷
presumably it was the same Mr Daniels who, the following year, sang “his customary song” at the annual general meeting of Westerham Town Cricket Club. Having sung ‘The Farmer’s Boy’, “in response to an insistent encore”, he gave them “Old King Cole”. ²⁸
at a “dug-out supper” organised by the local British Legion – a curious event which appears to have been a nostalgic recreation of life in the trenches of the First World War, just months before the outbreak of the second – a newspaper reporter “sat for two hours in a cellar 20 feet by 15 feet… breathing an atmosphere equally compounded of tobacco smoke, gunpowder fumes and carbon dioxide… I drank beer out of a jam jar when I couldn’t scrounge a tea cup–I ate hard biscuits and bully beef”. ‘Mademoiselle from Armentieres’ was sung to the accompaniment of a wheezing accordion, and then “There were yells for “Charlie”, “Bill” and ” Jack” to “give us a song”. If Charlie, Bill or Jack could not “cough up” the required “harmony” they were promptly mulcted in the sum of 2d. for the beer “kitty””. One “much respected burgess” claimed that he didn’t know any songs, and didn’t have any “coppers” to pay the forfeit, upon which the company “shook him till his teeth rattled” and demanded that he sing ‘The Farmer’s Boy’. Eventually “We had “The Farmer’s Boy,” sung (and very well sung too) to the accompaniment of the accordian, now reinforced by a mandoline”. ²⁹
in December 1943, at an old age pensioners’ Christmas Party in Unity Hall, Sheerness, “Mr. Harold Amor was in good form in “The Bandlero” and “The Farmer’s Boy,” which proved very popular with those present”. ³⁰
at the “C” Company Home Guard Old Comrades’ monthly smoking concert at the Minster Working Men’s Club, the songs included ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’, ‘A Group of young soldiers’, ‘The Mountains of Mourne’, and a parody of ‘If those lips could only speak’. “A great effort by Lieut. E. Taylor with “A thousand miles I’ve travelled,” was well applauded, and he gave an encore, “To be a farmer’s boy.”” ³¹
once again “Pot” Daniels gave “his time-honoured renderings” of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’, ‘Old King Cole’ and ‘The house that Jack built’ at the 1951 annual dinner of the Stone Street Rat and Sparrow Club, whose annual “bag” of vermin had declined, in part because of the rising cost of cartridges, but whose eight members had still managed to shoot no fewer than 3694 of God’s creatures in the previous year. ³²
the recital of carols in Faversham Market Place by the Canterbury Handbell Ringers, December 1955, also included songs such as ‘Robin Adair’, ‘The Vicar of Bray’ and, of course, ‘The Farmer’s Boy’. ³³
at the Young Farmer’s annual ball at the Royal Star, Maidstone in January 1961, “Over 500 people from all parts of the county danced to the music of Joe Blake’s Band. “The Dashing White Sergeant” and “The Gay Gordons” were great dance favourites with the Young Farmers, and the finale included the singing of “The Farmer’s Boy.”” ³⁴

Most of these examples show the song being sung at more or less formal events, what might be termed “polite gatherings”. ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ is recognised as an old song, but it’s rubbing shoulders with comic songs, parlour ballads, and “national songs”. Modern folk song scholars tend to agree that what makes a song a folk song is less about the song’s provenance (e.g. how old it is, whether it has a known composer) and more about the context in which it is sung. The events referenced above may or may not be contexts which would lead one to class the songs performed as folk songs: when sung at harvest suppers and penny readings, perhaps; when sung by a vocal harmony quartet at a formal concert, probably not. Which is not, of course, to say that ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ is not a folk song. No doubt it was being performed in all sorts of less formal situations – sing-songs at home or in a country pub, for example – which, naturally, would not be reported in a newspaper.

Clearly the song was very well known – a song which might come to mind when in one’s cups, perhaps, judging by reports of certain court cases. For instance, Frank Broadley, a farmer from Singledge Farm, Whitfield, who was brought before the Dover magistrates in October 1929 on a charge of being drunk and disorderly, his singing of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ on a late-night bus having aggravated some miners who were on board, leading to a fracas. Summing up, Mr. Mowll for the defence said

Here was a farmer on a ‘bus, well known to the passengers—he may have had too much to drink—but apparently the worst he was doing was singing the good old English agricultural song “The Farmer’s Boy.” The miners did not seem to like it.

To which the Magistrates’ Clerk replied, drolly

They may have liked the song but not the way it was being sung. ³⁵

A few decades earlier, outside Kent, but in a case reported in more than one Kent newspaper, Thomas Davis, “an elderly man of decidedly bucolic appearance, described as an agricultural labourer”, was charged at the Westminster Police court with begging.

Leader, a plain clothes constable employed in the repression of mendicity, said that on Thursday night the prisoner was in the Fulham-road, singing in doleful strains an apparently interminable refrain called “The Farmer’s Boy.” He seemed to do very well, and the witness, knowing that he was a persistent beggar, took him in custody. The Prisoner : I was brought up as a farmer’s boy. Mr. Partridge : How old are you ? The Prisoner : I dunno, I reckon about 60. Mr. Partridge : You don’t suggest that you are in your second childhood, do you? You call yourself a farmer’s boy at 60 years of age. (Laughter.) ³⁶

The words of the song were sufficiently well known that they could be used in other contexts. For example by Mr Herbert Knatchbull-Huguessen MP who, at a Conservative meeting at Sittingbourne in 1887 entered the current debate on Technical Education (a Royal Commission had reported on the subject that year, and 1889 would see the passing of the Technical Instruction Act). Knatchbull-Huguessen observed that

he did not quite understand what was meant by technical education. If it meant that the boys of the agricultural labourer, instead of having their heads stuffed with French grammar, and all that sort of nonsense, were taught to

Plough and mow,
And reap and sow,
And be a farmer’s boy

(laughter), then he was an advocate for it. If it meant that the girls, instead of being taught French and fancy work, were taught to cook, and bake, and sow, then he was in favour of it; for such subjects as he had mentioned he contended unfitted the children of agricultural labourer for the position in life which they were intended to occupy. ³⁷

In the interests of balance, it is worth pointing out that at the time of the next general election in 1892, the same newspaper carried a letter from “P.B.”, who described herself as a working man’s daughter, from Sittingbourne. Her letter poured scorn on the very idea of the Conservative working man – “In my mind a working man who calls himself a Conservative, if he really understands the meaning of that term, is a double-distilled lunatic. He is making a rod to whip his own back when he supports a Conservative policy”. The letter continued

Do not let us be content to sit down to the doctrine of the Conservatives, “To plough and sow and reap and mow and be a farmer’s boy,” and be content with our miserable lot, or to sit down to the policy of “To him that hath much, unto him much shall be given, but unto him that hath little, all that he hath shall be taken away,” which is decidedly the policy of the Conservative party. ³⁸

‘The Farmer’s Boy’ and The Buffs

The Buffs, formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was one of the oldest regiments in the British Army, having been formed in 1572. Based in Canterbury, from 1881 the regiment was known as the Royal East Kent Regiment. Since 1961 the regiment has been subject to a number of mergers, becoming in turn the Royal Kent Regiment, the Queen’s Regiment and, finally in 1992, the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment. Today the regimental quick march is a medley of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ and ‘Soldiers of the Queen’.

Historically, the quick march of the Buffs was known simply as ‘The Buffs’ – a fine 4-part tune in 6/8, which can be found in 19^th century sources under various titles, including ‘The Weymouth Quickstep’ and ‘Argyll Rout’. However there seems to have been a close association between the regiment and ‘The Farmer’s Boy’. For example “Town and Country Notes” in the South Eastern Gazette, 11^th January 1916, referred to a battalion of the Buffs exercising their rights (having been granted the Freedom of the City of London some 250 years earlier) to march through the City with bayonets fixed:

Recently, in moving from Kent to a new station, a battalion of the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) had occasion to march across the City of London, and in doing so exercised the ancient privilege of the regiment – the battalion marched with bayonets fixed. As was appropriate, the band played the Regimental March, with which is incorporated the old Weald Of Kent March, “The Farmer’s Boy.”

And the Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser for 26th February 1932 reported that ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ had been “adopted as the regimental march of the Weald”:

CRANBROOK BUFFS’ PRIZE DAY

Not the least important item on the programme at the Territorial prize-giving and concert, held at Cranbrook last week, and briefly reported in our last issue, was the singing of “The Farmer’s Boy,” which has been adopted as the regimental march of the Weald. It is one of the traditions of “C” Company that their annual prize-distribution should always be opened in this way: and the time-honoured practice never fails to win the approval of the general public, who feel that it is some small recognition of their own existence.

Note: the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the East Kent Regiment was designated the Weald of Kent battalion, so it may be that this battalion in particular favoured the use of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’.

Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 3 March 1934 ↩︎
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 5 November 1932 ↩︎
Maidstone Telegraph, 16 January 1869 ↩︎
East Kent Gazette, 18 December 1880 ↩︎
Westerham Herald, 01 February 1883 ↩︎
Folkestone Express, Sandgate, Shorncliffe & Hythe Advertiser, 02 June 1888 ↩︎
East Kent Gazette, 17 November 1888 ↩︎
Deal, Walmer & Sandwich Mercury, 09 March 1889 ↩︎
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 13 May 1899 ↩︎
Gravesend & Northfleet Standard, 29 July 1893 ↩︎
Deal, Walmer & Sandwich Mercury, 16 August 1902 ↩︎
Sheerness Times Guardian, 14 November 1903 ↩︎
Dover Chronicle, 26 December 1903 ↩︎
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 17 February 1906 ↩︎
Rochester, Chatham & Gillingham Journal, 06 May 1908 ↩︎
Sheerness Guardian and East Kent Advertiser, 04 December 1909 ↩︎
Folkestone Express, Sandgate, Shorncliffe & Hythe Advertiser, 19 November 1910 ↩︎
Thanet Advertiser, 16 February 1924 ↩︎
East Kent Gazette, 26 December 1925 ↩︎
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 01 October 1927 ↩︎
Dover Express, 11 November 1927 ↩︎
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 28 January 1928 ↩︎
Kent & Sussex Courier, 05 February 1932 ↩︎
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 22 October 1932 ↩︎
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 03 December 1932 ↩︎
Sheerness Times Guardian, 19 December 1935 ↩︎
Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser, 13 March 1936 ↩︎
Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser, 12 March 1937 ↩︎
East Kent Times and Mail, 05 April 1939 ↩︎
Sheerness Times Guardian, 17 December 1943 ↩︎
Sheerness Times Guardian, 09 February 1945 ↩︎
Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser, 16 March 1951 ↩︎
Faversham News, 23 December 1955 ↩︎
Kentish Express, 27 January 1961 ↩︎
Dover Express, 18 October 1929 ↩︎
Dover Express, 19 October 1888 ↩︎
East Kent Gazette, 10 November 1888 ↩︎
East Kent Gazette, 09 July 1892 ↩︎

‘The Farmer’s Boy’ and The Buffs

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