Lamorna (folk song)

Lamorna (Roud 16636) is a traditional folk song/ballad associated with Cornwall, and dealing with the courtship of a man and a woman, who turned out to be his wife. The title comes from Lamorna, a village in west Cornwall. Sheet music held in The British Library dates the song to 1910.

Contents

• Other possible origins
• So well go no more a roving
• The Black Velvet Band
• Dark and Roving Eye
• References

Lamorna is a Cornish adaptation of a music hall song titled Pomona or Away down to Pomona which originates from Manchester in the north of England. 'Albert Square' is a plaza in front of Manchester's town hall, and Pomona Palace and gardens were a site of popular entertainment in the south of the city. Inglis Gundry notes in his introduction to Canow Kernow (published by the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, 1966): '...the process of balladry still goes on. In the Logan Rock Inn at Treen a popular song called Way down Albert Square is gradually being transformed into a folk-song called Lamorna." And at the time of the publication of his seminal collection of songs and dances from Cornwall he did not consider the song sufficiently old or important enough to be included in his selection.

The song became popular in Cornwall the 1960s and 70s through performance in Cornish folk clubs and has since gained wider currency. Versions of the song have been recorded by Brenda Wootton, The Yetties, and The Spinners (on the album All Day Singing, 1977).