Watercress girl, The

AKA Martha the water cress girl
First published 1863
Lyrics Harry Clifton Music Harry Clifton Roud RN1541

Music Hall performers Harry Clifton
Folk performances Source singers:
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:
John Kirkpatrick, others see Mainly Norfolk

 

From Bodleian Broadside Ballad Collection, dated by Steve Gardham as c1885

While strolling out one evening, by a running stream
Where the water lilies growing, it was a lovely scene.
A sight I saw far better, a damsel I espied, 
She was gathering watercresses, down by the streamlet side.

Her hair hung down in tresses,
Down by the streamlet just in a dell.
She was gathering watercresses
Was my little watercress girl

I asked her if not lonely, she answered with a smile;
"Oh! I am not so lonely, it is my daily toil
I have to be up early, my cresses for to sell.
She said her name was Martha, and known as the watercress girl.

We often strolled together, down by a running stream
And since that time I Martha, has become my Queen
Although she's poor she's proved to me a very useful pal
And a right good wife is Martha, my sweet little watercress girl

[Page substantially revised June 2023]

A song possibly later erroneously credited to Harry Clifton, 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 (Roud 1653), though to confuse matters that song has occasionally also been referred to as The Watercress Girl.

The water-cress girl 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 for details).

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!

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 ..

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 for “The Watercress Girl” 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.

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 called The Watercress Girl started being performed regularly in amateur concerts in around 1887. Before this time, almost all reports of performances referred to performers reciting a text called The Watercress Girl, probably the extremely popular poem written by Mary Sewell in 1864, Our Father’s Care.

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:

  • Up to Dick (c1870)
  • A flower from my angel mother’s grave (c1880)
  • Johnny Doyle (1892)

As Up To Dick starts appearing in reports of musical performances in around 1870 we can be reasonably sure that The Watercress Girl originates sometime after this date. Combining this with the records of amateur performances gives us a point of origin some point between 1870 and 1887. In my experience amateurs usually start to sing a song within a few years of it first being sung on the professional stage, so it’s most likely to originate in the period 1882-87. As Harry Clifton died in 1872 this suggests we should be exploring whether someone else wrote it.

Concentrating on the period 1882-87 has revealed only two potential attributions. Firstly in 1883, sung by the male impersonator Grace Harold, written by John Read:

Magnet (Leeds) – Saturday 30 June 1883

Secondly in 1882 there are reports of a performer called Nelly Lucerne performing a song called Jenny The Watercress Girl (eg The Courier and Argus, 19 Sep 1882).

My money would be on the John Read/Grace Harold song and this suggestion will be the focus of some further research.

For the sake of completeness, outside the 1882-87 date range:

  • In the late 1860s and 1870s there are a couple of reports of professional performers singing a song called The Watercress Girl: Fred Coyne in 1869 (The Era, 11 Apr 1869; p6) and the duo Mr J Bashall and Miss Lydia Fraser (e.g. The Era, 4 April 1875; p16). These could be examples where the earlier Clifton song is given the wrong name – Fred Coyne often included Clifton songs in his repertoire.
  • In 1880 there is a report of a “famous Dutch song” The Watercress Girl by American vaudeville actor JK ‘Fritz’ Emmett being performed in New Zealand. Later Emmett himself is reported singing it in Preston. This appears to have been a song sung in a German/Dutch accent for comic effect, if this is the original Martha version it’s lost all trace of the accent when it appears in the broadside.

A modern version by Nigel Hobbins:

Sources: