There is an Alehouse- Tom Willett (Sus) 1960 REC
[From the recording, The Willett family “Adieu to Old England” 1963, Topic Records. The liner notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
When these songs were recorded by Ken Stubbs, Tom Willett was 82 (born 1878) but he carried his years lightly, and was still a great singer. He spent much of his early life in and around Copthorne, on the Surrey-Sussex border. His main trade was as a horse dealer. His wife came of the well known show family, the Smarts ... Tom also worked as an animal
trainer in their circus. A sideline was training dogs for poaching and cocks for fighting.
Tom learnt most of his songs from his father but, with the quick ear of the singer in the oral tradition, he picked up others in the pub and the circus. He was always glad of an opportunity to sing, and Chris recalls that his father never needed beer to start him singing around the camp fire. He was a close friend of George ‘Pop’ Maynard.
1-11 There is an Alehouse Sung by Tom Willett. Recorded by Ken Stubbs, c.1960.
There is an alehouse where my love goes,
Where my love goes and sits himself down.
He takes a strange girl on his knee
Now don’t you think that’s a grief to me?
A grief, ‘tis of grief, I’ll tell you for why
Because she has got more gold than I,
But her gold will glitter, her silver will fly
And in a short time she’ll be as poor as I.
Oh dig my grave both wide and deep
A marble stone both head and feet
And in the middle a turtle dove
To show the wide world I died for love.
I wish to God that’s all in vain,
I wish that I was a maid again,
But a maid again I never shall be
‘Til the apples grow on an orange tree.
A song everyone knows- even today in the right company - so it’s no surprise that there are 249 Roud entries, or that 46 of these are sound recordings, encompassing almost every singer you can to think of. Closer to the truth is that everyone knows a version of it, because it’s one of those songs which attracts ‘floating verses’ like a magnet, while being alarmingly close to countless other songs which musicologists tell us are actually different. Who cares - it’s a great wallow in almost any circumstances!
Another recording of it can be heard on track 2 - 11, as Died for Love
.
Other CD recordings: Sarah Porter (MTCD309-10); Jasper Smith, Amy Birch (TSCD661); Emma Vickers (EFDSS CD 002); May Bradley (MTCD349); ‘Pop’s’ Johnny Connors (MTCD325-6); Jean Orchard (VT151CD); Viv Legg (VT153CD); Geoff Ling (VT104); Son Townsend (VT108).