18 June 2026

A Bunch of Thyme

• A Bunch of Thyme,
• English Folk Song,
• Folk Song

'A Bunch of Thyme' is a traditional English folk song about the loss of innocence and the passing of time. We give the words for a version collected by Bernard Parkin in the 1960s at his Folk Club, held at the Watermill Inn, Pateley Bridge.

In the 1960s, Bernard Parkin held a Folk Club in the Watermill Inn in Pateley Bridge, which is sadly no longer there after closing in the early 2000s. It was held on Monday nights and around 300 would cram into the rooms, listen to the folk music, then eat the baked potatoes that had been cooked in the oven.

He collected and wrote down the words for many of the songs, neatly and in capital letters in several notebooks. Here’s one that I like a lot and links to herbs called a ‘Bunch of Thyme (Rue)’. There are a Wikipedia page and links to English and Irish folk songs about a very similar song but the words here are very different, so it's perhaps a North Yorkshire or Northern equivalent.

Bunch of Thyme (Rue)

Come all you fair & tender maids,
That flourish in your prime, prime,
Beware, beware, make your garden fair,
Let no man steal your thyme, thyme,
Let no man steal your thyme.

And when your thyme is past & gone,
He’ll care no more for you, you,
And every day that your garden is waste
Will spread all over with rue, rue,
Will spread all over with rue.

A woman is a branching tree
And man a singing wynde, wynde,
And from her branches carelessly,
He’ll take what he can find, find,
He’ll take what he can find.