Earsdon Lyrics
A four-line rhyme that strings together village names near the Northumberland coast and ends with Earsdon on its hill, near the Billy Mill.
Earsdon
Hartley and Hallowell, a' ya' bonnie lassie,
Fair Seaton-Delaval, a' ya';
Earsdon stands on a hill, a' ya',
Near to the Billy-mill, a' ya'.
More verses from the original
Hartley and Hallowell, a' ya' bonnie lassie,
Fair Seaton-Delaval, a' ya';
Earsdon stands on a hill, a' ya',
Near to the Billy-mill, a' ya'.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/earsdon/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken or sung
- Best for ages
- 4 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Earsdon stands on a hill | Stand tall and point to the top of an imaginary hill. |
| Near to the Billy-mill | Turn your arms like a mill wheel. |
What Does Earsdon Mean?
This is a place rhyme: its main job is to name villages. Hartley, Seaton-Delaval and Earsdon are real places in Northumberland, in the north-east of England, and Billy Mill is a mill near them. The word bonnie means pretty, and "a' ya'" is a refrain, probably meaning "all of you", added to give the line a lilt.
Children who grew up there would have chanted it as a way of knowing where things were and saying hello to their own village. For anyone else it is a nice way to talk about how every place gets a rhyme if people say it often enough.
History and Origin
James Orchard Halliwell printed it in Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales (1849), in a chapter of rhymes about places and families. Such local verses were common in the 1800s, when children in a village or county knew a few lines naming the towns around them.
He does not say who made it up or how it was sung, and the refrain suggests it was probably meant to be chanted or sung with a regular beat. The village names are all still on the map, so a family from Northumberland can still find every one.
Learning Activities
- Map it: find Earsdon, Hartley and Seaton Delaval on a map of Northumberland.
- Make your own: write a four-line rhyme naming places near your home.
- Hill walk: chant the lines while walking up a hill, one line per slope.