Lancashire witches, The

AKA
LyricsJB GeogheganMusic JB Geoghegan RoudRNV8317
Music Hall performersJB Geoghegan
Folk performancesOldham Tinkers
In vain I attempt to describe the charms of mi favourite fair,
She's the darlin' of Mother Eve's tribe, but with her there is none to compare.
She's a pride of beauty so bright. Her image mi fancy enriches.
Oh mi charmers the village delight. She's the pride of the Lancashire Witches.

And hurrah for the Lancashire Witches
Who's smile every bosom enriches,
Oh dearly I prize those pretty blue eyes
Of the pride of the Lancashire Witches

You can talk of your dark eyes of Spain, but it's useless to talk as you do
To try to compare them in vain with the Lancashire ladies in blue.
Only view the dear heavenly belles and you're soon filled with love's sudden twitches,
That only could come from the spells, from the eyes of the Lancashire Witches.

Oh the Lancashire Witches, believe me, are beautiful every one.
And mine or my fancy deceives me. She's t' prettiest under the sun.
If the wealth o' the Indies I swear were mine an' I wallowed in riches,
How dearly my fortune I'd share with the pride of the Lancashire Witches.

A song which appears on a huge number of broadsides, an uncredited version collected from one of these was published in John Harland’s book of Lancashire ballads in 1865. A number of contemporary sources credit the song to music Hall manager and songwriter JB Geoghegan. There are numerous mentions of the song in connection with Geoghegan particularly in regional newspapers. It seems to have been an exceptionally popular song in the north-west, some decades later even inspiring a Lancashire Witches perfume:

Bolton Journal & Guardian – Saturday 06 November 1897

Geoghegan was a freemason, he wrote a parody of his own song called The Wife of an Accepted Mason for a collection of Masonic Songs published in Bury, Lancashire. The chorus was:

Then hurrah for the wife of a Mason!
No trouble will e’er leave its trace on
The brow of the fair
Who her home has to share
With a free and an accepted Mason.

Masonic Songs- Bury, p375

Sources:

As sung by Daniel Kelly:

Last Updated on July 26, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: February 28, 2020

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