"Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow" (often sung as "Oats (and) Beans (and) Barley Grow") is a traditional British-Canadian-American folk song, 1380 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

The tune normally used goes by the name "Baltimore" and appears in Joshua Cushing's book "The Fifer's Companion" (1790). According to Alice Bertha Gomme's book "The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland" (1894), this is a "play song", in which children perform actions with the song, standing in a ring. In "Notes and Queries" 7th series, number xii (c 1870) it is discussed, but the Columbia State University website claims that the earliest known version of the words is dated 1898 (Gomme).

Published versions

• Lucy Broadwood English County Songs
• In Notes and Queries 7th series, number xii (c 1870)
• In Northall, G. F. English Folk-Rhymes: A collection of traditional verses relating to places and persons, customs, superstitions, etc. (1892) pg. 370
• Gillington, Old Isle of Wight Singing Games (1909) pp.10-11
• Hampshire Dance Tunes by Bob Shatwell & Paul Sartin (2007)
• The very first edition of the Journal of the EFDSS had an article on this song.

References

• Baltimore
• Gomme, Children's Games
• Music and lyrics This website archives a copy of the closed folkinfo.org database
• Columbia State University Archived 2004-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
• Lyrics
• The British Library - Singing and dancing Archived 2012-10-21 at the Wayback Machine Audio recording of a variation of the song, Green Peas and Barley Grow, from 1961