My Girl’s a Yorkshire Girl

AKA My little Yorkshire Rose
First Published 1908
Writer/composer CW Murphy and Dan Lipton Roud RN30173

Music Hall Performers Florrie Gallimore
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Unidentified singer ; England ; 1960

My girl's a Yorkshire girl 
(Eh! by gum, she's a champion!)


Two young fellows were talking about
Their girls, girls, girls —
Sweethearts they'd left behind,
Sweethearts for whom they pined.
One said, "My little shy little lass
Has a waist so trim and small.
Gray are her eyes so bright,
But best, best of all...

My girl's a Yorkshire girl —
Yorkshire through and through.
My girl's a Yorkshire girl,
Eh! by gum, she's a champion!
Though she's a factory lass
And wears no fancy clothes,
Still I've a sort of a Yorkshire relish
For my little Yorkshire Rose.

When the first finished singing the praise
Of Rose, Rose, Rose,
Poor number two looked vexed,
Saying in tones perplexed:
"My lass works in a factory too
And has also eyes of gray;
Her name is Rose as well,
And strange, strange to say...

To a cottage in Yorkshire they hied
To Rose, Rose, Rose,
Meaning to make it clear
Which was the boy most dear.
Rose, their Rose, didn't answer the bell,
But her husband did instead.
Loudly he sang to them
As off, off they fled...

A song popular in the Halls and pantos of 1908/09, it was written by CW Murphy and Dan Lipton after their success with  She’s a lassie from Lancashire. My girl’s a Yorkshire girl was most famously performed by Florrie Gallimore, who is reviewed here singing it on the other side of the Pennines:

Burnley Express –  16 Sept 1908

The song gecame associated with a particular brand of Yorkshire Relish – press reports like the one below suggested that the manufacturers had distributed over 1.5 million copies of the song, though I am not aware of any surviving…. unless you have one?

Essex Newsman – 27 Feb 1909

The song was collected by Russell Wortley as “My little Yorkshire Rose” from an unidentified singer in 1960. I have heard it sung several times in Sheffield singarounds.

Here’s an early 78rpm recording by Herbert Forman:

Sources: