Listen to the track:
THE SEA NEVER TOLD US HER NAME
In August 1861, William Axworthy discovered the body of an unidentified woman in Long Range Bay beneath Langdon Farm, near Wembury. She appeared to have been in the sea for some time.
The woman was about 5 feet 8 inches tall and wore a black silk dress, red-and-black stockings, a dark apron and cloth shoes laced with leather. Her nightdress and chemise were marked “S.P.” with the numbers 4 and 7. A mark on her finger showed that she had worn a ring, although the ring was missing.
Despite these clues, nobody identified her. An inquest at Langdon Farm returned the simple verdict “Found Dead.” She was buried without a name in the Old Yard of Wembury churchyard on 20 August 1861.
Her identity, where she came from and how she entered the sea remain unknown. The song remembers the life behind the mystery and gives a voice to a woman whose name was lost.
Verse 1
William Axworthy walked by the water,
One Sunday morning in Long Range Bay;
Beneath the high-water mark at Langdon,
An unknown woman lay.
The tide had carried her close to Wembury,
But carried her story away.
Chorus
The sea never told us your name,
Only carried you into the bay;
With a ring-mark pale on your finger,
Where beneath Langdon’s cliffs you lay.
Verse 2
Five feet eight, in a black silk dress,
With leather-laced shoes on her feet;
Red-and-black stockings, a dark cloth apron,
And petticoats underneath.
“S.P. Four” on the nightdress she carried,
“S.P. Seven” upon her chemise.
Verse 3
They searched every seam for an answer,
Every button, number and thread;
But no one knew where she had travelled from,
Or how she came to be dead.
Only the mark of a missing ring
Spoke of the life she had led.
Chorus
The sea never told us your name,
Only carried you into the bay;
With a ring-mark pale on your finger,
Where beneath Langdon’s cliffs you lay.
Verse 4
At Langdon Farm they held the inquest;
“Found Dead” was all they could say.
Then Wembury’s bell rang out above her,
On the twentieth of August day.
No family followed, no name marked her passing,
As they laid her in the Old Yard clay.
Final Verse
Perhaps someone watched from Plymouth Sound,
For a loved one who never came home;
Perhaps they searched every harbour and road,
While she rested here unknown.
We cannot return the name she once carried—
But we can give her a song of her own.
Final Chorus
The sea never told us your name,
Only carried you into the bay;
With a ring-mark pale on your finger,
Where beneath Langdon’s cliffs you lay.
Though time has taken your story,
We remember you today.