> Martin Carthy > Records > Sweet Wivelsfield

Martin Carthy: Sweet Wivelsfield

Sweet Wivelsfield (Topic TSCD418)

Sweet Wivelsfield
Martin Carthy

Deram (Decca) SML1111 (LP, UK, 1974)
Rounder 3020 (LP, USA, 1978)
Topic 12TS418 (LP, UK, 1981)
Topic TSCD418 (CD, UK, 1996)

Produced by Ashley Hutchings
Recorded at Sound Techniques Studio, London
Recording Engineer: Jerry Boys
Illustration by Keith Davis
Photography by Keith Morris

Tracks

Side 1Side 2
  1. Shepherd O Shepherd (3:20)
  2. Billy Boy (2:47)
  3. Three Jolly Sneaksmen (4:09)
  4. Trimdon Grange (6:23)
  5. All of a Row (2:35)
  1. Skewbald (3:40)
  2. Mary Neal (3:55)
  3. King Henry (6:18)
  4. John Barleycorn (2:16)
  5. The Cottage in the Wood (6:12)

All tracks trad. arr. Martin Carthy pub Sparta Florida Music Group

Notes

Garry Gillard thanks Kevin Sheils for details of the original release. There is a dianthus called “Sweet Wivelsfield” which the internationally famous carnation growers Allwood Bros named after the village in which their nurseries were (are?), Wivelsfield Green. Thanks very much to Claire Stevens for finding this out. Here's the village community website. I don't know if or why Martin Carthy gave this album the same name.

Later: Claire Stevens reports that Steve Sheldon told her that Martin said: “The title was Norma's idea. She read somewhere that Sweet Wivelsfield is a hybrid derivative of the Sweet William flower, and suggested it as a title because of the wonderfully hybrid nature of the folksong animal itself. I latched on to that, and to the fact that the town of Hull is actually Kingston upon Hull, being named after King William of Orange, who gave his name to the town when, in the late 17th Century, they demonstrated their loyalty to him by locking their gates against his enemies. I had very recently moved to Hull and it seemed to me a serendipitous set of connections.”