Open downloadable pdf file: The_Old_Grey_Duck
Dialect Terms:
Beels – Beak of a bird
Clunk – To swallow
Version in Cornish from the “Kanow Tavern” Cornish pub songs project, An Daras 2007:
Kemysk Warbarth sung a different version in Cornish as part of thier entry for the Camborne Music Festival which won first prize in Oct 2025.
Listen to recording:
Download pdf of SATB music score arranged by Jon Mills:An Hos Los Coth (SATB)
As collected in 1930s by Ralph Dunstan to a different melody
Notes
The Old Grey Duck was published in Ralph Dunstan’s in Cornish Dialect & Folk Songs, Ralph Dunstan,Cornish Dialect and Folk Songs, (Truro, Jordan’s Bookshop, 1932) where he says “This song is known in all parts of West Cornwall, and is sung to various tunes – mostly well-known hymn-tunes. Verses 2 and 3 are reconstructed from fragments.”
The Old Grey Duck is often sung to the same tune as the carol ‘The Seven Joys of Mary.’ It is related to the dance tune “Forty Thieves” from the Manuscript of John Old, Cornish Dancing Master (Mike O’Connor and Alison Davey, Dancing Above Par, Lingham House, 2006) .The song was brought to a wide audience by Brenda Wootton in the 1970s and 1980s when she regularly included it in both her Cornish “Folk Club” repertoire and her international concerts.
The Old Grey Duck is sung in Cornish dialect and has been translated using different Cornish language spellings as above.