Lincolnshire Poacher Plaque at Lincoln Castle - geograph

"The Lincolnshire Poacher" is a traditional

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

associated with the county of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, and deals with the joys of

poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...

. It is considered to be the unofficial county anthem of Lincolnshire. It is catalogued as

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...

No. 299.

History

The earliest printed version appeared in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

about 1776. In 1857 it was written; "This very old ditty has been transformed into the dialects of

Somersetshire Somerset ( , ), archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

and

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, but it properly belongs to Lincolnshire." The song is said to have been a favourite of

King George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830. At the time of his accession to the throne, h ...

Usage

"The Lincolnshire Poacher" was the regimental quick march of the 10th Regiment of Foot and its successors the

Royal Lincolnshire Regiment The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a Line infantry, line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most oth ...

and the 2nd Battalion

Royal Anglian Regiment The Royal Anglian Regiment is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It consists of two Regular battalions and one Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Reserve battalion. The modern regiment was formed in 1964, making it the oldest of the line regi ...

, who are known as "the Poachers". Also, it was the regimental march of the 2nd battalion

The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) (until 1921 known as the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Lancashire R ...

. It is the principal musical theme of the quick march of the Intelligence Corps. Prior to 1881 this Battalion had been the

81st Regiment of Foot (Loyal Lincoln Volunteers) The 81st Regiment of Foot (Loyal Lincoln Volunteers) was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1793. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot to form the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment ...

. It is also the authorised march of

The Lincoln and Welland Regiment The Lincoln and Welland Regiment is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army based in St. Catharines, Ontario. The regimental colonel-in-chief is the Duchess of Edinburgh and the regimental motto is , "Not for us but for our count ...

of the

Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

. The tune was used by many New York Regiments during the American Civil War as "The New York Volunteer". It 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 Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to become commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and is resp ...

, the officer training school of the Royal Air Force, was formed in Lincolnshire in 1919, its first Commandant,

Air Commodore Air commodore (Air Cdre or Air Cmde) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...

C. A. H. Longcroft, sought permission from the then Regimental Colonel of the

Lincolnshire Regiment The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regim ...

to adopt the march as the quick

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 2 ...

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." In 1961,

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

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 The Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band is a British brass band formed in 1881. The band is based in Brighouse, in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. The band is known across the world, and is regarded by many as the best and most consistent " ...

issued "The Lincolnshire Poacher" as its follow-up single to their successful "

The Floral Dance "The Floral Dance" is a Cornish song describing the annual Furry Dance in Helston, Cornwall, UK. The music and lyrics were written in 1911 by Kate Emily Barkley ("Katie") Moss (1881–1947) who was a professional violinist, pianist and concert ...

", and it was included on the 1978 album ''The Floral Dance''. The first two bars of the tune were used as an

interval signal An interval signal, or tuning signal, is a characteristic sound or musical phrase used in international broadcasting, numbers stations, and by some domestic broadcasters, played before commencement or during breaks in transmission, but most comm ...

on the

numbers station A numbers station is a shortwave radio station characterized by broadcasts of formatted numbers, which are believed to be addressed to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries. Most identified stations use speech synthesis to voca ...

known as Lincolnshire Poacher.

Radio Lincolnshire BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lincolnshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios near Newport Arch in Lincoln. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly aud ...

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 A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

company

Alfasound Alfasound was a radio jingle production company based in Manchester from late 1970s to mid-1990s founded by Alan Fawkes and ex- Piccadilly Radio DJ Steve England. Alfasound was responsible for some of the most memorable radio jingles in the 8 ...

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. 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 Wonga Philip Harris (June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995) was an American actor, bandleader, entertainer and singer. He was an orchestra leader and a pioneer in radio situation comedy, first with '' The Jack Benny Program'', then in '' The Phil ...

, which was #1 in US charts in 1950. The melody was sung in the 1940 film ''

Tom Brown's School Days ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (sometimes written ''Tom Brown's Schooldays'', also published under the titles ''Tom Brown at Rugby'', ''School Days at Rugby'', and ''Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby'') is a novel by Thomas Hughes, published in 1 ...

'' by the Rugby students and is the theme song of the movie. It was also sung during a hall assembly in the 1951 version. The melody is used, often with more Irish-themed instrumentation and singing, to create the off-colour folk song "The Chandler's Wife".

Lyrics

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

References

External links

Audio clips

Marching band sample from 2137 Calgary Highlanders Army Cadet Corps website
performed by the Lincoln & Welland Regiment
As sung by Peter Adamson

Jazz band instrumentation
–

Ted Heath Orchestra Ted may refer to: Names A shortened form of the following: * Edmund * Edward * Thaddeus * Theodore (given name) Art, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Ted, a character in the post-apocalyptic short story ''I Have No Mouth, a ...

arranged by Jon Harpin
Midi file
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincolnshire Poacher English folk songs Music in Lincolnshire British military marches Canadian military marches Royal Anglian Regiment Regional songs British anthems Year of song unknown 18th-century songs 1770s songs