Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
She's a big lass and a bonnie lass
And she likes her beer
And they call her Cushie Butterfield
And I wish she was here

I's a broken-hearted keel-man I's ower heed in love
With a young lass in Gateshead and I call her my dove
Her name's Cushie Butterfield and she sells yellow clay
And her cousin is a muck-man and they call him Tom Grey

Her eyes is like two holes in a blanket burnt through
And her broos of a morning would spyen a young coo
And when I hear her shootin', Will ye buy any clay
Like a candyman's trumpet, it steals my young heart away

You'll oft see her doon at Sandgate when the fresh herring comes in
She's like a bag full of sawdust tied roon' with a string
She wears big galoshes tae, and her stockin's once was white
And her petticoat it's lilac and her hat's never straight

When I axed her te marry us she started te laugh
Noo, none of your monkey tricks for I like nae such chaff
Then she started a-bubbling and roared like a bull
And the chaps on the Quay says I's nowt but a fool

She says, The chap that gets us he had te work every day
And when he comes hyem at neet he'll have te gan and seek clay
And when he's away seekin' it I'll make balls and sing
Oh weel may the keel row that my laddie's in

As sung by The Spinners

Tune Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green

[1974:] Words George Ridley, tune Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green. Ridley was a Tyneside comedian, an ex-collier who was only 30 when he died in 1864. The word 'spyen' means to dry up the milk. Although I have sung this for years, I had to consult a dialect dictionary before I could translate some of the words of the original into standard English. (Dallas, Toil 179)

[1979:] Another blow to the romantic image - for the working-class man, too. Cushie Butterfield's job here is that of the 'clay wife' - selling the whitening stones used by women in their 'other' work then (and still today in some places), to clean their front doorsteps. This is a popular song of the 1850s from the music halls of Newcastle, written by George Ridley. (Henderson/Armstrong ?)

[1982:] In is early days the music hall relied heavily on folksongs and their tunes, and many early performers made a speciality of folksong parodies - some of which have lasted better than the originals. On Tyneside, for example, the comedian Joe Wilson [sic!] took Pretty little Polly Perkins, a rather sickly-sweet Cockney parody of an earlier song, and turned it into Cushie Butterfield, an altogether more earthy girl. (Pollard, Folksong 9)

[1984:] One of the classic dialect songs of George Ridley, the Tyneside bard. (Notes The Spinners, 'Last Night We Had A Do')