Green Gravel
{{short description|English folk song}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Green Gravel
| cover =
| alt =
| caption =
| genre = Singing game
| written =
| published = {{circa}} 1835
| writer = Unknown
}}
Green Gravel is an English singing game and folk song. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 1368.
Lyrics and performance
The version collected in Manchester in 1835:
{{poemquote|Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green
The fairest young damsel that was ever seen
O Mary, O Mary, your true love is dead
He sent you a letter to turn around your head...{{cite book |author1=Opie, I. |author2=Opie, P. |date=1985|title=The Singing Game |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=239–242}}}}
The players joined hands and walk around in a ring. At the end of the text, one person is named and then stays in the ring but faces outwards; the song begins again and a different person is named at the end, then taking their place in the centre.{{cite encyclopedia |author1=Simpson, J.|author2=Roud, S. |date=2000 |entry=Green Gravel |encyclopedia=A Dictionary of English Folklore}} Lucy Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland recorded in their 1893 book English County Songs that Green Gravel was a dramatic representation of mourning.{{cite web |url=https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/greengravel.html |title=Green Gravel |publisher= Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music |access-date=17 December 2020}}