{"id":2362,"date":"2020-04-22T16:51:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T16:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=2362"},"modified":"2025-04-01T06:37:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T06:37:01","slug":"the-watercress-girl","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/the-watercress-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Watercress girl, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Martha the water cress girl<\/td><\/tr>
First published<\/td>1863<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>unknown<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td>unknown<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN1541<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall performers<\/strong><\/td>unknown<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source singers:<\/strong>
Tommy Morrisey, yr??, Padstow, England
Johnny Doughty, yr?, Sussex, England
Mr and Mrs Coomber, yr? Sussex England
Mrs M Phillips yr? Surrey, England
Mrs Akers, 1936, Glouc, England
Mabel Arnold Lyons, 1945, Rhode Island, USA
Charlie Palmer, 1946, Herts, England
Harry Cox, 1949 Norfolk England
Amos Beckett, 1952, Bucks, England
Mrs Lester, 1956, Sussex, England
Mr and Mrs Norman, 1950s\/60s, Beds. England
Alice Webb, 1968, Glouc, England
George Dunn, 1971, Staffs, England
Charlie Hill, 1985, Devon, England
Mr Boucher, 1989, Glouc. England
Ray Driscoll, 1993, London, England

Modern versions:<\/strong>
John Kirkpatrick, others see Mainly Norfolk<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
From Bodleian Broadside Ballad Collection<\/a>, dated by Steve Gardham as c1885\n\nWhile strolling out one evening, by a running stream\nWhere the water lilies growing, it was a lovely scene.\nA sight I saw far better, a damsel I espied, \nShe was gathering watercresses, down by the streamlet side.\n\nHer hair hung down in tresses,\nDown by the streamlet just in a dell.\nShe was gathering watercresses\nWas my little watercress girl<\/em>\n\nI asked her if not lonely, she answered with a smile;\n\"Oh! I am not so lonely, it is my daily toil\nI have to be up early, my cresses for to sell.\nShe said her name was Martha, and known as the watercress girl.\n\nWe often strolled together, down by a running stream\nAnd since that time I Martha, has become my Queen\nAlthough she's poor she's proved to me a very useful pal\nAnd a right good wife is Martha, my sweet little watercress girl\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
[Page substantially revised June 2023]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
A song possibly later erroneously credited to  Harry Clifton<\/a>, which passed from the music halls into the folk tradition. This song is often confused with another song which we can confidently attribute to Clifton: (Bunch of) Watercresses<\/a><\/em> (Roud 1653), though to confuse matters that song has occasionally also been referred to as The Watercress Girl<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The water-cress girl<\/em> that features Martha is  found in several late 19th-century broadsides. The VWML has records of it being collected from 14  source singers, usually in the second half of the 20th century and almost always in England.  A smattering of modern versions have been recorded since John Kirkpatrick did it in 1980 (see  Mainly Norfolk<\/a> for details).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have spent some time investigating this song in 19th century publications and I can no longer confidently attribute it to Clifton. I can find no convincing 19th century sources linking Clifton to this song- no sheet music, broadsides, songbooks or sheet music which link Clifton to a song with the lyrics above.  That doesn’t mean that the evidence doesn’t exist,  so if you know different – let me know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My research leads me to think that the song originates in the 1880s, some time after Clifton’s death. But first some context and an explanation of the difficulty of the research ..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Victorian popular culture was awash with watercress girls – there are dozens of paintings, plays, poems, prose and songs dedicated to romanticising the always young, always female figure. The existence of so many cultural artefacts makes it difficult to find the exact thing you are looking for. For example, searching the theatrical publication The Era<\/em> for “The Watercress Girl”<\/em> in late 19th-century turns up hundreds of hits for the melodramatic play by William Travers of that title. It was a huge success, opening in 1865 and playing in a series of different productions almost continuously until the end of the 1870s. It seems unlikely that a comic song like the one discussed here would feature in the production, but it may be that the song was in some way mocking the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One  way to find a popular Victorian song is to look through records of amateur performances. Newspaper databases in the second half of the 19th century contain thousands of accounts of amateur concerts: penny readings, smoking concerts and the like. Searching these accounts can sometimes reveal when a song starts being regularly performed. My searches thus far seem to indicate that a song<\/strong> called The Watercress Girl <\/em>started being performed regularly in amateur concerts in around 1887. Before this time, almost all reports of performances referred to performers reciting<\/strong> a text called The Watercress Girl<\/em>, probably the extremely popular poem written by Mary Sewell in 1864, Our Father’s Care<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our song appears on a broadside which Steve Gardham estimates to be the earliest printed instance of the song, which he suggests was printed in approximately 1885 . The broadside appears alongside the following songs  each of which first appears in records of Music Hall performance in the year given: <\/p>\n\n\n\n