COVER OF THE LP ‘PASTIES AND CREAM’ BY BRENDA WOOTTON AND JOHN THE FISH 

 

Pasties and Cream is a song written in 1903, by a journalist called Herbert Thomas who edited The Cornishman newspaper. 

I sing of the county of pasties and cream,

Of pilchards and herrings that sparkle and gleam

In the dear old county of Cornwall!

The land of pasties and cream!

 

The lyrics are not constitutionally correct as Cornwall is a Duchy, not a county, though it is run like a county.

In 1971, the legendary Cornish folk singer Brenda Wootton and guitarist John ‘the Fish’ Langford, used it as the title track for an LP (ask your grandparents what that is). The album cover photo is of a typical Cornish kitchen with an old-fashioned range that belonged to a Newlyn woman called Mrs Hitchens, who lived in Trewarveneth Street. Brenda set the scene up with a typical cottage teapot, a vintage edition of the Cornishman and a homemade steak pasty, which got eaten once she had taken the photograph.  

 

Thank you to Sue Ellery. www.brendawootton.org.