[2] The title is spelt "Widdecombe Fair" in the original publication, though "Widecombe" is now the standard spelling of the town Widecombe-in-the-Moor.
The ghostly 'Grey Mare' of the song may in fact refer to a lost folk custom similar to the Mari Lwyd or Hobby Horse of Welsh and Cornish tradition.
[3] Mr Charles Tree, Baritone, recorded "Widdicombe Fair" (composer credit: "Heath") twice for the Gramophone Company (later labelled "His Master's Voice"), initially in October 1910.
In 1932 Newell also appeared in Columbia on Parade, a record which included a version with other British singing stars at the time, who replaced the familiar list of names with their own.
[8] It was recorded by Burl Ives on 11 February 1941[9] for his debut album Okeh Presents the Wayfaring Stranger, introduced with a spoken explanation of the ghostly aspects of the song.
In a 1967 episode of the radio series Round the Horne, Kenneth Williams in character as Rambling Syd Rumpo performed a parody version called "Ganderpoke Bog" (introduced as "The Somerset Nog"), with the long list of people in the chorus being "Len Possett, Tim Screevy, The Reverend Phipps, Peg Leg Loombucket, Solly Levy, Ginger Epstein, Able Seaman Trufitt, Scotch Lil, Messrs Cattermole, Mousehabit, Neapthigh and Trusspot (solicitors and Commissioners for Oaths), Father Thunderghast, Fat Alice, Con Mahoney, Yeti Rosencrantz, Foo Too Robinson and Uncle Ted Willis and all".
George Adamson, who lived for many years in Devon, illustrated the song as a picture book for children with the title Widdecombe Fair.
[10] "George Adamson has drawn a set of earthy characters to ride Tom Pearse's grey mare in the famous West Country song that are so obviously just right for their names.
The Tablet[11] In 1964, The Nashville Teens released a rock version of the song - with abridged lyrics and new music - on their album Tobacco Road.
A similar but much longer version was performed in 1970 by an early incarnation of Renaissance (some of whose members had previously been in The Nashville Teens) on a German TV program (Muzik-Kanal), as seen on the DVD "Kings & Queens" (released in 2010).
[citation needed] The Devon duo "Show of Hands" wrote a sinister ballad, also called "Widecombe Fair", about a young man who separates from his older companions and is murdered, which leaves off where the original folk song begins: "Tom, Tom, lend me your grey mare, I want to go back to Widecombe Fair..."[citation needed] The lyrics to the song appeared in the graphic story The Devil's Footprints, written by Marcus Moore and illustrated by Eddie Campbell.
It was originally published in the Heavy Metal Magazine 20th Anniversary Hardcover (1997), later reprinted in Eddie Campbell's Bacchus.