In a significant milestone for the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, the thousandth song has recently been added to the Library’s Folk Song Subject Index.
The song in question is The loss of the Ramillies (Roud 523), a song commemorating the shipwreck of HMS Ramillies on the Devon coast in 1760, with the loss of several hundred lives. One of at least three songs on the subject, this has – very unusually – no known broadside versions. The early folk song collectors found versions in many parts of England, Scotland and Wales. More recently, versions have come particularly from East Anglia and it has also been found in Atlantic Canada.
One of the versions from East Anglia was recorded in the 1970s from the great Norfolk singer Walter Pardon. His version can be found on the British Library Sounds site.
The London singer Lisa Knapp, who learned the song from Walter Pardon, has recorded her version especially for us. She commented:
It’s such a compelling story, all the more so as it’s also a true story, and I really love Walter Pardon’s version. The melody has some quite startling speech-like inflections (to me anyway), and the whole thing just really caught my ear. Such beautiful words at the end too: ‘All Plymouth town was swum with tears...’
The illustration at the top of this story shows a version collected by Cecil Sharp from Mr Rapsey of Bridgwater in 1906 (CJS2/10/740).
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