Down on the Green Hill Farm

Photo of a stone built farm with outbuildings

A typical Yorkshire farmstead.

This dialect song is another collected by A.E. Green during the research for his thesis ‘Industrial Songs of the West Riding’. It was on the tape that I had access to in 1965. I can't recall who sang it and where from, but it stuck in my memory, and I have sung it many times over the years since.

Glossary:
Theer: Yorkshire dialect spelling of ‘there’.
Black Clocks: The Black Clock Beetle - Pterostichus madidus.
Maggits: Maggots, the larva of a fly in this case the Cheese Fly -Piophilidae.
Jollop: Old English slang name for a medicine, usually a cough syrup or laxative.

Down on the Green Hill Farm

There’s Black Clocks on the wall, over theer,
There’s Black Clocks on the wall, over theer,
There’s Black Clocks on the wall,
You can hear the buggers fall
There’s Black Clocks on the wall, over theer.

Chorus:
Oh Virginia, Oh Virginia,
Oh Virginia down on the Green Hill Farm,
An’ we won’t go there anymore, anymore,
We won’t go there anymore, anymore,
Down on the Green Hill Farm

There’s maggits in the cheese, over theer,
There’s maggits in the cheese, over theer,
There’s maggits in the cheese
You can hear the buggers sneeze
There’s maggits in the cheese, over theer.

There’s jollop in the beer, over there,
There’s jollop in the beer, over there,
There’s jollop in the beer,
An’ it makes it taste reight queer
There’s jollop in the beer, over theer.

There’s Black Clocks on the wall, over theer,
There’s Black Clocks on the wall, over theer,
There’s Black Clocks on the wall,
You can hear the buggers fall
There’s Black Clocks on the wall, over theer.

About Mick

Mick Haywood is a traditional folk singer & folk song collector who has run and organised folk clubs and festivals for many years. He now lives in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

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Leeds Years

Down on the Green Hill Farm

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