The song was originally part of Isaac Bickerstaffe's play, "Love in a village" (1762). Subsequently other versions of Bickerstaffe's original song were made by various other poets.

The city of Chester stands on the River Dee and a weir was built across the river here in the Middle Ages to maintain high water levels for several water mills which stood on its banks.

The River Dee rises high up in the Berwyn mountains of Wales and enters the Dee Estuary on the outskirst of Chester. The English name for the river is derived from its Welsh name Afon Dyfrdwy and its Latin name Deva.

The song is usually sung to the Welsh harp tune "Llydaw" (the Welsh name for "Brittany"). Many settings of the tune have been made by British composers, most notably Benjamin Britten in his second collection of Folk-song arrangements. Several versions for choir also exist, such as that by John Rutter. In 1962 Havergal Brian wrote a comedy overture for orchestra based on the tune.

A 1997 local interest book on the history of the Mills and Millers in Chester, was named after this folk song.

This version was published in The Convivial Songster in 1782.

This version was discovered in 1857 written on a flyleaf of a 1716 collection of John Dryden's poems.

This version was written by Charles Mackay.