{"id":23213,"date":"2024-01-28T10:31:18","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T10:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=23213"},"modified":"2025-12-29T10:05:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T10:05:34","slug":"standard-bread","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/standard-bread\/","title":{"rendered":"Standard Bread"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1911<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer\/composer<\/td>Edgar Bateman & Fred Murray<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN5385<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Harry Champion, Austin Rudd<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Renals, Charlotte; England : 1978
Ellis, Cis; England : Suffolk : c1960<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
My old woman was as weak as any rat,\nNever shook a tablecloth and never beat a mat.\nIf she had a little drop to keep her on her feet,\nHadn't strength to water it, so always had it neat.\nOne day our lodger went and said to her that standard bread is nice.\nIt'll make you strong as Sandow if you only had one slice.\nShe had once slice and, dear oh lor! Her strength she hardly knew.\nThe threw the lodger down the stairs, pushed me up the flue.\n\nBread! Bread! Bread! Standard bread!\n\"I'm going to do the washing,\" the old girl said.\nLike a lion she began to scrub,\nPushed my shirt though the bottom of the tub.\nSix months washing it was done in half a jif, and when she came to bed,\nIn her arms she had the copper,\nThe mangle and the chopper,\nAnd a little bit of standard bread.<\/em>\n\nWe kept a fowl and our lot was very hard.\nHadn't got a single feather on her Scotland Yard.\nWhen the wind was blowing hard, she couldn't do her craft.\nHad to put a curtain up to keep away the draft.\nShe spied her match, a cock-a-doodle doo next door named Chanticleer.\nHe said, \"Pop off! I'm busy. You are far too bald old dear.\"\nShe found some standard bread one day, and as she ... with shame,\nShe'd hardly got it down her neck when out her feathers came.\n\nBread! Bread! Bread! Standard bread!\nShe grew a feather duster on her old bald head.\nOstrich plumes on her \"I suppose\"\nLadies' stickers on her parson's nose.\nShe got married to the cock-a-doodle-doo. It's a fact, now they are wed.\nThey're a-cooing and a-billing,\nAnd it's twenty for a shilling\nThrough a little bit of standard bread.<\/em>\n\nOur greasy cook was a-screaming down the house.\nStanding on the dresser, she was shouting, \"There's a mouse!\"\nThe animal skedaddled. When he took his flight,\nSaw her fancy garters and couldn't bear the sight.\nI went and got a bit of standard bread and set it in the trap,\nAnd after waiting fourteen hours, I caught that little chap.\nThe mouse had ate up all the bread. His muscles grew and grew,\nAnd when he saw our old tomcat, you'd hardly think it's true.\n\nBread! Bread! Bread! Standard bread!\nThe mouse he went and jumped upon the old cat's head.\nLifted up one massive paw,\nCaught poor Tommy such a wonder on the jaw.\nThey got wrestling together on the mat, <\/em>\nAnd the poor cat dropped down dead.\nThe mouse, lord lumme,\nGot a pussy in his tummy\nAnd a little bit of standard bread.<\/em>\n\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
In the late 19th and early 20th century there were concerns that new industrial methods were producing nutritionally inferior white bread. In 1909 a campaign was launched for a new “Standard Bread” which would meet defined nutritional standards. The campaign was backed by the Daily Mail and by the end of 1911 campaigners were confident enough to announce “the triumph of Standard Bread”<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
 Harry Champion<\/a> poked fun at the new Standard Bread in this song written for him by Edgar Bateman<\/a> and Fred Murray<\/a>. It was also performed in the Halls by Austin Rudd<\/a> and recorded by Arthur Osmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song was remembered by at least two traditional singers in England.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n