Annotation:Tom Bawcock's

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X:1 T:Tom Bawcock's M:6/8 L:1/8 S:Old Corwall Society magazine . na 1027 racca 11 K:D A,|D2 F F>EF|D2F F>EF|A2G E2E|B2A FGA| D2F F>EF|D2F F>EF|A2G E2C|D3 D2A| A2G E2A|B2A F2A|A2G EFG|F2G A2d| D2F F>EF|D2F F>EF|A2G E2C|D3 Dz||

TOM BAWCOCK'S. English, (6/8 time). England, Cornwall. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Tom Bawcock's Eve is an annual festival, held on 23 December, in Mousehole, Cornwall, England. The festival commemorates the efforts of legendary Mousehole resident Tom Bawcock to lift a famine from the village by going out to fish in a severe storm. Folk legend goes that Bawcock decided to get into his fishing boat, brave the storms and eventually catch enough fish to feed the whole of Mousehole. It’s then believed that the whole catch was baked into a pie which contained as many as seven different types of fish. The heads were poked through the pastry to prove and celebrate that there was actually fish inside. There is also a folk music tradition linked to the Eve, with the words written by Robert Morton Nance in 1927 to a traditional local tune called the 'Wedding March'.

merry plaas you may believe
woz Mowsel pon Tom Bawcock's Eve.
To be theer then oo wudn wesh
To sup o sibm soorts o fesh!
Wen morgee brath ad cleard tha path
Comed lances for a fry,
An then us had a bet o scad
an starry gazee py.
Nex cumd fermaads, braa thustee jaads
As maad ar oozles dry,
An ling an haak, enough to maak
a raunen shark to sy!
A aech wed clunk as ealth wer drunk
En bumpers bremmen y,
An wen up caam Tom Bawcock's naam
We praesed un to tha sky

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Old Cornwall (periodical), 1927.

Recorded sources: -

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