> Ashley Hutchings and The Albion Band > Songs > The Nutting Girl

The Nutting Girl / A-Nutting We Will Go

[ Roud 509 ; Ballad Index K186 ; trad.]

Cyril Poacher sang this bawdy ballad with chorus and melodeon in the early 1950's at The Ship Inn, Blaxhall, Woodbridge, Suffolk; it was recorded by Peter Kennedy and Alan Lomax and published on the anthology Songs of Seduction (The Folk Songs of Britain, Volume 2; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968). Another version was recorded by Tony Engle in Cyril Poacher's home in Blexhall in 1974 and included on his album The Broomfield Wager and later on the anthology CD Hidden English: A Celebration of English Traditional Music.

John Kirkpatrick sang The Nutting Girl on Ashley Hutchings and friends' first Morris dance album Morris On. This track was also included in the Island anthology Folk Routes. The Nutting Girl—song and tune—is also on a more than 30 years newer live CD by Ashley Hutchings and friends, Morris On the Road.

Lyrics

John Kirkpatrick sings The Nutting Girl

Now come all you jovial fellows, come listen to me song.
It is a little ditty and it won't contain you long.
It's of a fair young damsel, oh she lived down in Kent,
Arose one summer's morning and she a-nutting went.

Chorus (after each verse):

With my fal-lal to my ral-tal-lal
Whack-fol-the-dear-ol-day
And what few nuts that poor girl had
She threw them all away.

Now it's of a brisk young farmer, was a-ploughing of his land,
He called unto his horses to bid them gently stand.
As he sat down upon his plough all for a song to sing,
His voice was so melodious, it made the valleys ring.

Now it's of this brisk young damsel, was nutting in the wood,
His voice was so melodious, it charmed her as she stood.
She could no longer stay and what few nuts she had, poor girl,
She threw them all away.

Well she then came to young Johnny as he sat on his plough,
Said she, “Young man I really feel I cannot tell you how.”
So he took her to some shady broom and there he laid her down,
Said she, “Young man, I think I feel the world go round and round.”

So come all you young women, this warning by me take,
Oh, if you should a-nutting go, don't stay out too late.
For if you should stay too late for to hear that ploughboy sing,
You might have a young farmer to nurse up in the spring.