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My Mum was told this story by her Great Grandmother as she lay on her death bed. There's nothing in the history books or elsewhere that corroborates this story even slightly, so it could as easily be a death bed fantasy as a death bed confession, but I do hope that it's real and that, one day, one of the descendants of Izzy and her lover get in touch and say "I think you wrote a song about my great great great grandparents!"

lyrics

Back round the turn of the 20th century
There was a maid by the name of Izzy
Not from nobility but neither was she poor
Now she’s known forever more as

The first girl in Northamptonshire, to love a dark skinned man
The last girl in Northamptonshire, tarred and feathered as she ran

And a labourer on Cank Farm
Both tall and wide, never did any harm
Straight from the new world, descent from slavery
And now he's met the maiden Izzy

The first....

Izzy taught letters to the Cank farm girls
They loved her charm and her long luscious curls
They weren’t the only ones, the labourer too
Izzy looked back, her heart grew

The first...

Illicit love was all they ever knew
But of a strength known to few
They met in the fields and forests of Cank farm
And couldn’t know she would soon come to harm

Soon the Sprattoners, they found out
They cried for shame. Up went a shout
Women plucked chickens while they still flapped
The men burnt pitch and set a trap...for

The first...

They caught Izzy at the top of the Sands
The men poured tar. The women held her hands
Threw on the feathers, such pain she never knew
They let go. Down the sands Izzy flew

The first...

Watching on was Izzy’s youngest niece
Weeping fell to her knees
Kept the secret ‘til her death bed
There to her Great-Granddaughter said....never forget

The first...

credits

from Rose of the Shires, released February 25, 2022
Lew Bear/Lewis Robinson - guitars, vocals, music, lyrics and production
Duncan Bisatt - bass
Nick Ellison - violin

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