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May Day Carol is an Oxfordshire variant of a song widely sung by children bearing garlands around the English villages. This version was collected in 1840 from Swalcliffe near Banbury. The vintage photos chiefly show celebrations in other North Oxfordshire villages, dating from the early decades of the 20th century when schoolchildren were still routinely bearing garlands from door to door on May Day.
The song is performed by the popular Oxfordshire five-piece Magpie Lane on their album The Oxford Ramble (BEJOCD-03)
The First of May comes from the repertoire of William Kimber, concertina-player from Headington Quarry Morris - see The Morris in Oxford for more about the great man.
The tune (a version of Fishar's Hornpipe)
is performed here by Magpie Lane on their debut album The Oxford Ramble (BEJOCD-03) which was launched in 1993. The images all show scenes from the band's first live performances, at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford and The Mill in Banbury.
Hail, Hail! The First of May! is a new-written song by folk artist Dave Webber but already deeply ingrained in the tradition. Celebrating Padstow's May Day 'Obby 'Oss it now rings out all around the country - not least in Oxford where as you can hear the chorus is well known to the audience. The song is performed in 2023 by Magpie Lane and friends at the band's 30th anniversary concert in the Holywell Music Room (video Tim Healey).
See How in Gathering of Their May is a 17th-century catch by the Cavalier musician William Lawes (better known for his setting of Robert Herrick's famous poem Gather Ye Rosebuds). The song is performed by the 17th-century costume band The Oxford Waits on their album Love's Holy Day (BEJOCD-54).
The seemingly blameless lyrics are ingeniously constructed to reveal their naughtiness only when they are sung as a round...
Searching for Lambs belongs to a body of English folk songs beginning 'As I went out one May morning' - no month in the calendar year is more cherished in the tradition. The great song collector Cecil Sharp heard Searching for Lambs sung by a Mrs Sharp at Somerton, Somerset, in August 1907. 'Taking words and music together I consider this to be a very perfect example of a folk song,' he wrote.
This version is sung by Lynne Denman of the album English Songs of Love (BEJOCD-19)
Stanes Morris also known as The May Pole Dance has a long history, first appearing as a melody in an Elizabethan lute book. Later published in John Playford’s English Dancing Master of 1651 the tune entered the Cotswold Morris tradition. The words come from a stage play Actæon and Diana (1656) and it was the 19th century antiquarian William Chappell who matched the lyrics to the tune to make a now favourite May Day song. Click the link below to hear Maddy Prior’s spirited version, from the album Seven for Old England (Park Records).
Staines Morris • Maddy Prior, Benji Kirkpatrick, Giles Lewin