Hard Times of Old England is an 18th century song from the repertoire of the Copper Family. A 1955 recording of Ron Copper made by Peter Kennedy was published in 1963 on their EFDSS LP Traditional Songs From Rottingdean and was included in 2006 on the anthology Anthems in Eden. Billy Bragg and The Young Coppers with Eliza Carthy and Simon Emmerson sang Hard Times of Old England Retold in 2007 on The Imagined Village’s eponymous first album, The Imagined Village.
The Taverners Folk Group sang The Hard Times of Old England in 1974 as the title track of their Folk Heritage album Times of Old England. They noted: The well known cycle of economic wealth to economic gloom, involving the rise and fall of industries and the collapse of trading markets, with a few wars and natural disasters thrown in for good measure, means that a labourer or tradesman of today could sing this song with as much feeling as could his ancestors a century ago. Hard Times is one of those songs that can be related to any period of British History within the last two hundred years. The war referred to for instance, could be the Napoleonic War or the Second World War—the sentiment expressed would suit both ages. The song is somehow, neither doleful nor dirge-like. It is a song of social comment, with the last verse expressing the perennial hope of mankind, that there is a silver lining to every cloud, that good times are only just around the corner.
The Etchingham Steam Band sang Hard Times of Old England at the Lenzburg Folk Festival in June 1975. A recording of this was included in 1995 on their Fledg’ling CD The Etchingham Steam Band and in 2002 on the Topic 4CD anthology The Acoustic Folk Box. Steeleye Span recorded Hard Times of Old England for their 1975 album All Round My Hat and published it as two singles with the respective B-sides Cadgwith Anthem and Sum Waves (Tunes). This deserved to be another hit single but the lyrics were perhaps too realistically gloomy for the pre-punk area. Peter Knight returned to Hard Times of Old England in 2015 on Gigspanner’s live CD Layers of Ages and in 2017 on the CD Gigspanner Big Band Live.
Martin Carthy learned Hard Times of Old England from the Copper Family. In 1975, he played guitar on this song on Roy Harris’ LP Champions of Folly. He sang it himself at a World Music Institute concert at the Triplex 1 Theater, Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York City, on 4 December 1987. At the same concert, he sang ‘Coal Not Dole’ with the Watersons. Both recordings were included in 2001 on The Carthy Chronicles. The compilation’s sleeve notes state: Child may have written down the songs; Sharp may have recorded them; but the Copper family of Rottingdean kept folk songs alive in the way they should be preserved—by singing them. Much adapted and strangely contemporary, this 18th Century song is from their repertoire.
Whippersnapper sang Hard Times of Old England in 1985 on their album Promises. Roy Bailey sang Hard Times of Old England in 1994 on the Band of Hope’s album Rhythm & Reds and in 1995 on his album Freedom Peacefully. The latter track was also included in 2014 on the GTFU and Topic anthology of “songs of resistance, democracy and peace”, Voice and Vision.
The New Scorpion Band sang The Hard Times of Old England in 2004 on their CD The Downfall of Pears. They noted: From the repertoire of the famous Copper family of Rottingdean in Sussex, this is a song of protest against the Europe-wide economic depression which followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and its consequences in the English countryside. The melody and form are taken from The Roast Beef of Old England, written by Richard Leveridge, the popular composer and bass singer on the London stage during the first half of the eighteenth century.
