The Bodleian Libraries have taken The Broadside Ballads Online resource offline, owing to a change in guidance within the University relating to cyber security.

The Broadside Ballads Online resource has therefore been taken offline as a precaution, in the light of the new guidance, while we develop new approaches to being able to support and deliver it.

We acknowledge how disruptive this has been to the many scholars and communities who use this resource. Alternative ways to access The Broadside Ballads Online resource are below, while we determine routes and funding to take the resource forward.

More on the background here: Bodleian Service Updates

Please contact rare.books@bodleian.ox.ac.uk with questions about the Bodleian broadside ballads collections.

Users seeking broadside ballads in Bodleian collections can access information in the following places:

A listing of each of the Bodleian collections of broadside ballads is available below. The broadside ballad items in these collections are listed in order by shelfmark, with title and first line.

Other Broadside Ballads Online resources:

  • An archived version of the Broadside Ballads Online site is available through the Internet Web Archive. Using the Collections tab on this site, users can browse through images of ballads in Bodleian collections.
  • A representation of the Broadside Ballads Online data as RDF can be downloaded from the Oxford University Research Archive.
  • The Visual Geometry Group also hosts a version of the ImageMatch tool for searching ballad illustrations.
  • The Visual Geometry Group also hosts a version of the ImageBrowse demo, an analytical tool for searching ballad illustrations.
  • The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library site hosts the Roud Index grouping ballads by folksong tradition.
  • The English Broadside Ballad Archive contains ballads from other collections.

Bodleian Gough Collection

CollectionOrder No.ShelfmarkManifestationPrinted TitleFirst Line
Bodleian Gough1Gough Essex 24(2)b24502The true reporte of the forme and shape of a monstrous childe, borne at Muche HorkesleyeThis monstrous world that monsters bredes as rife"
Bodleian Gough1Gough Maps 10(63)b24504The true description of a monsterous chylde borne in the Ile of wightFor mercy Lorde, with one accorde"
Bodleian Gough1Gough Maps 25(34)b24506The true fourme and shape of a monster chyld whiche was borne in Stony StratfordeYou that do see this clilde [sic] disfigured here"
Bodleian Gough1Gough Maps 41o(49)b24508The true description of a monsterous chylde borne in the cytie of Anwarpe, 1564Gods wonderous workes marke and beholde"
Bodleian Gough1Gough Oxford 39(9)b24510The blackest of all black jokes. Or No joke like a true joke. An excellent new balladIn Britain fair Liberty settled her throne
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Date when website was withdrawn:
22 November 2024