Spencer the Rover

Old photo of two men with a recording microphone outside a pub

Bob and Ron Copper recording outside the
Eight Bells.

This song was more than likely penned by some wandering minstrel whilst travelling round from town to town, who realised the errors of his ways in reaching Yorkshire.

I first heard it sung in the early 1960s by Bob and Ron Copper, two of the Copper Family, a family of singers of traditional, unaccompanied English folk songs, originally from Rottingdean near Brighton, they now live in the neighbouring village of Peacehaven.

They first made the song popular in Southern England and through a recording they made of them singing, it soon spread far and wide in the burgeoning English Folk club movement. Other versions of the song have been collected in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire. A version of the song, sung by George Hall, was collected in 1907 by R.A.A. Gatty, in the Yorkshire village of Hooton Roberts, about three miles from my hometown of Mexborough.

At the first hearing of the song my ears pricked up when the Coppers sang the line starting "In Yorkshire near Rotherham, he had been on his rambles," having been born in Mexborough, only six miles from Rotherham. I was bemused when they sang, "At the foot of yonder mountain there runs a clear fountain", I thought the ballad maker must have either been engaged in poetic licence or wrote the song in the days of yore.

When I was growing up, during the 1940's and 50's in Mexborough, both the River Rother and Don were heavily polluted, and there was no mountain near Rotherham to my knowledge .The only hills of note I remember on the outskirts of Rotherham were a pair of enormous colliery slag heaps, affectionately known locally as "The Twin Peaks of Sabrina". They were so named after the voluptuous pin-up model and actress Norma Ann Sykes who played the dumb blonde ‘Sabrina’ on Arthur Askey’s TV series ‘Before Your Very Eyes,’ which ran from 1952-56 on the BBC, and from 1956-58 on ITV.

Black and white photo of colliery buildings

Wath Main Colliery where my Father worked

In the post War years, Mexborough was a busy, bustling mining town, with a population of approximately 19,000. Though it had no mine of its own, it had six collieries within a two-mile radius, Denaby Main Colliery, Cadeby Main Colliery, Barnburgh Colliery, Kilnhurst Colliery, Manvers Main Colliery and Wath Main Colliery where my Father worked.

There were actually some pleasant areas of countryside amid the pits, though, admittedly they were mainly veiled in a coating of coal dust, but you didn’t have to go far before you came across a Pithead Wheel, Slag Heap and a Railway Marshalling Yard. The town was thriving, with an extremely high level of employment, everyone’s family had some one who worked in the mines or the associated industries, quarrying, brickworks, or railway.

There were 15 pubs in the town, and 5 Working Men’s Clubs, the Hope WMC, Mexborough Concertina Band Club, the Brickyard Club, Main Street WMC, and LNER Athletic Club (British Railways Staff Association). There were 4 Cinemas, The Oxford, The Royal Electric Cinema, The Majestic and The Empire, and one dance hall, the Empress Ballroom. They were all burgeoning, and ‘Coal was King’.

This all changed after 1984, with the Governments defeat of the striking miners, which led to Margaret Thatcher hastening the decline of the coal industry, and the de-industrialising of South Yorkshire. By 1990 all the local pits had closed and Mexborough became an area of high unemployment.

Above: Mexborough North Ings
Below: Denaby Ings by Paul Freeman

In the subsequent years, Renaissance South Yorkshire (2004-2013) was set up and tasked with overseeing the reclamation of derelict land and regeneration in mining areas, so nowadays the slag heaps are woodlands and nature walks.

The mining flashes, lakes formed on low lying land due to mining subsidence filling up with water, are Ings, lakes and nature reserves, and the old pit railway lines have become cycleways, and walking trails.

The Swallows Bottoms, a large, flooded area full of bullrushes, moorhens and coots, where we played when young, is now known as Mexborough North Ings.

The Pastures where we used to fish as children for ‘tiddlers and redbreasts’ (minnows and sticklebacks) and collect jars of tadpoles to watch them transform into frogs, is now Denaby Ings Nature Reserve.
The whole area is now unexpectedly quite rural, and the once heavily polluted rivers Rother and Don are now clean and able to sustain fish, and support organised angling.

There is still no “yonder mountain where runs a clear fountain“, there has been no urban regeneration and the area still has one of the highest levels of unemployment in the country.

Spencer the Rover

1. These words were composed by Spencer the Rover
Who had travelled Great Britain and most parts of Wales.
He had been so reduced which caused great confusion
And that was the reason he went on the roam.

2. In Yorkshire near Rotherham, he had been on his rambles,
Being weary of travelling he sat down to rest.
At the foot of yonder mountain there runs a clear fountain;
With bread and cold water he himself did refresh.

3. It tasted more sweeter than the gold he had wasted,
More sweeter,than honey, and gave more content.
But the thoughts of his children lamenting their father
Brought tears to his eyes and caused him to lament.

4. The night fast approaching to the woods he resorted,
With woodbine and ivy his bed for to make.
There he dreamt about sighing lamenting and crying,
Go home to your family and rambling forsake.

5. On the fifth of November I’ve a reason to remember,
When first he arrived home to his family and wife.
They stood so surprised when first he arrived
To see such a stranger once more in their sight.

6. His children they danced around him
With their prittle-prattling stories,
With their prittle-prattling stories to drive care away.
And now they’re all united, like birds of one feather,
Like bees in one hive, contented they’ll stay.

7. So now he is a-living in his cottage contented,
With woodbine and roses growing all around the door.
He’s as happy as those that’s got thousands of riches;
Contented he’ll stay and go rambling no more.

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.

Mick Haywood's Song Wordbook

Leeds Years

Spencer the Rover

About Mick

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