The Lincolnshire Poacher

For other uses, see The Lincolnshire Poacher (disambiguation).

"The Lincolnshire Poacher" is a traditional English folk song associated with the county of Lincolnshire, and deals with the joys of poaching. It is considered to be the unofficial county anthem of Lincolnshire. It is catalogued as Roud Folk Song Index No. 299.

History

"This very old ditty has been transformed into the dialects of Somersetshire, Northumberland and Leicestershire, but it properly belongs to Lincolnshire." The earliest printed version appeared in York about 1776. The song is said to have been a favorite of King George IV.

Usage

"The Lincolnshire Poacher" was the regimental quick march of the 10th Regiment of Foot and its successors the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment and the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment, who are known as "the Poachers"; the song is very important to the battalion and can be heard many times being sung at full volume from barrack blocks, messes and parties wherever a "Poacher" is based. Also was the regimental march of the 2nd battalion The Loyal Regiment(North Lancashire). Prior to 1881 this Battalion had been the 81st regiment of Foot The Loyal Lincolnshire Volunteers. It is also the authorised march of The Lincoln and Welland Regiment of the Canadian Forces. Sir John Graves Simcoe, in the 1790s, named many of the original settlements and rivers in the Niagara district of then Upper Canada after towns and rivers in Lincolnshire, England..

The Lincolnshire Poacher was also the marching song for the 20th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, during the First World War.

When the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, the officer training school of the Royal Air Force, was formed in Lincolnshire in 1919, its first Commandant, Air Commodore C. A. H. Longcroft, sought permission from the then Regimental Colonel of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment to adopt the march as the quick march of the College.

Anglo-Catholic congregations in the Anglican communion sometimes use the tune as a setting for a hymn sung in procession that begins, "The Happy Birds Te Deum Sing, 'Tis Mary's Month of May."

Radio Lincolnshire used the melody from the end of the song's chorus as the signature tune for its news jingle when it commenced service in 1980 and in 1988 commissioned UK jingle company Alfasound to write a package of jingles based on the song. Variations on this theme continued until early 2006, and today the station still uses a version with a less pronounced melody from the folk song. In 1961, Benjamin Britten arranged the song as no. 3 in Volume Five of British folk songs. Frank Newman instrumented the song for four hands on piano. In 1978, the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band issued "The Lincolnshire Poacher" as its follow-up single to their successful "The Floral Dance", and it was included on the 1978 album The Floral Dance.

The first two bars of the tune were used as an interval signal on the numbers station known as Lincolnshire Poacher.

The melody is used in Harold Baum's "The Glyoxylate Cycle" in The Biochemists' Songbook, and in the 1950 novelty song "The Thing", sung by Phil Harris, which was #1 in US charts in 1950.

The melody was sung in the 1940 film TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS by the Rugby students and is the theme song of the movie.

Lyrics

As is usual with folk songs, the lyrics differ slightly between sources; but the following are typical:

When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire,
Full well I serv'd my master, for more than seven year,
Till I took up to poaching, as you shall quickly hear.
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.

As me and my companions was setting of a snare,
'Twas then we spied the gamekeeper – for him we did not care,
For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, and jump o'er anywhere.
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.

As me and my companions were setting four or five,
And taking on 'em up again, we caught a hare alive,
We took the hare alive, my boys, and through the woods did steer.
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.

I threw him over my shoulder, and then we trudged home,
We took him to a neighbour's house, and sold him for a crown,
We sold him for a crown, my boys, but I did not tell you where.
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.

Success to every gentleman that lives in Lincolnshire (Or: Bad luck to every magistrate)
Success to every poacher that wants to sell a hare,
Bad luck to every gamekeeper that will not sell his deer.
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.

External links

Audio clips

• Marching band sample from 2137 Calgary Highlanders Army Cadet Corps website performed by the Lincoln & Welland Regiment
• Jazz band instrumentation – Ted Heath Orchestra arranged by Jon Harpin
• Midi file
• in the movie TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS (1940) the Rugby students sing the song in their dining hall to celebrate a victory for the school in sports.