"The Rose of Allendale" is an English song, with words by Charles Jefferys and music by Sidney Nelson, composed in the 1830s and appearing in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine in 1833. Because the song has been recorded by Paddy Reilly and Mary Black, many people mistakenly believe the song to be a Irish song. It is also often believed to be a Scottish song.
Background
The song's ambiguous origins are partly due to the putative English song lyrics being about a maiden from the town of Allendale, Northumberland. Northumberland is an English border county and its indigenous population and culture has much in common with Southern Scotland. The border was created in the 11th century, dividing a common people previously without nationality; that, even today, Northern English people share an ancestry with the Scots is shown by recent DNA analysis. Creation myths for Scotland and England perpetuate a Celtic/Anglo-Saxon divide which does not reflect the history of population or culture, inhibiting an understanding of Northumbrian music, song and dance within a wider British context. The ethnic similarities within the borderlands are ancient and not simply a product of more recent migrations. Folk music in this region is not without influence from Scots tradition, just as the Appalachia region of the USA was, following the migrations of the Clearances. Because Brythonic mythological, poetic, and musical traditions were primarily preserved among the Northern British, Welsh, and Irish hinterlands following the Roman occupation of Britain, there are many songs which exhibit similar ambiguities of origin. In the British tradition of love songs, the rose is regarded as a beautiful and romantic flower. "Nicknames" are often given to the nicest or prettiest young woman or women of a region or village, e.g. "the Rose of...", "the Flower of...", "the Pride of...". Similarly, in Phil the Fluther's Ball by Percy French, we find "The flower of Ardmagullion, and the pride of Pethravore." Similarities with a translated version of an older German folk song having a comparable melody have led some to suggest that the song is rooted in an old "altwürttembergische Melodie" from the Rems valley. The Rems song is a soldier's farewell to his beloved, reflecting the unstable times of war.
Recordings
The song has been recorded by Paddy Reilly and Mary Black who are both Irish singers so the mistaken belief the song is a Irish song is common. It is also often believed to be a Scottish song. The song was also recorded by the popular Scottish folk singersThe Corries, and the Irish band The Dubliners as well as in bagpipe versions, e.g. Grampian Police Pipe Band on their album Pipes and Drums of Scotland, song no. 13. Jean Redpath recorded the song on her 1980 album Lowlands.
