The Ash Grove

The Ash Grove (Welsh: Llwyn Onn) is a traditional Welsh folk song whose melody has been set to numerous sets of lyrics. The best-known version written in English by Thomas Oliphant was published in 1862, in Volume I of Welsh Melodies, with Welsh and English Poetry. The tune of “The Ash Grove” was used for the Thanksgiving hymn “Let All Things Now Living”, composed in 1939 by Katherine K. Davis and also in a retelling of the nativity story by Robert Cullinan entitled “On This Night Most Holy” (1996). The traditional bawdy song “The Mayor of Bayswater”, also known as “The Hairs of her Dickey-dido”, is also sung to the tune of “The Ash Grove”.