Treadmill Song
The Robber Bird track 7
Ian currently works at Oxford Castle – now a visitor attraction, but for several centuries, up until the 1990s, a prison. We played a concert at the Castle a few summers back, and learned the Treadmill Song for the occasion. In some nineteenth century prisons the treadmill acted as a punishment, but also did useful work in grinding flour. In Oxford however it was purely a punishment, as the treadmill was not attached to any productive machinery.
The Treadmill Song aka Gaol Song was collected by H.E.D. Hammond in 1906 from William Davey, at Beaminster Workhouse, Dorset. It is well known on the folk scene, not least because of its inclusion in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.