Chatterton stated that this poem, like the Songe of Seyncte Warburghe, was sung when the first Bristol Bridge was opened in 1247. There is no record of a St Baldwin, though Baldwin Street is one of the oldest in the city. It ran, in Chatterton's day, from Bristol Bridge to the western end of Corn Street, along what had been originally the northern bank of the Frome to the point where it joined the Avon. The Frome was later channelled along a different route, and in the nineteenth century Baldwin Street was straightened, joining Bristol Bridge directly to St Augustine's Bridge.
Chatterton's poem invents a heroic figure to represent this part of the medieval city and his poem moves from the panorama of hopeless battle on the bridge to focus in on a single warrior, the detail of his face and thought and concluding with a couplet summarising his life.
( UNALTERED .) W HANN Norrurs & hys menne of myghte, Uponne thys brydge darde all to fyghte, Forslagenn manie warriours laie, And Dacyanns well nie wonne the daie. Whanne doughty Baldwinus arose, And scatterd deathe amonge hys foes, Fromme out the brydge the purlinge bloode Embolled hie the runnynge floude. Dethe dydd uponne hys anlace hange, And all hys arms were gutte de sangue . His doughtinesse wrought thilk dismaye, The foreign warriors ranne awaie; Erle Baldwynus regardedd well How manie menn forslaggen fell; To Heaven lyft oppe hys holie eye, And thanked Godd for victorye; Thenne threw his anlace ynn the tyde, Lyvdd ynn a cell, and hermytte died.
'Norrus' refers to Norreus, a King of Norway; 'Embolled' means 'boiling'; 'gutte de sangue' means 'drops of blood' and invokes the languge of heraldry