Background To History

Written by Neil Innes and performed by Neil and the Pythons, this first appeared in the "Matching Tie and Handkerchief" Album

Prof. Jones: Good evening. One of the main elements in any assessment of the medieval open-field farming system is the availability of plough teams for the winter ploweing.  Proffessor Tofts of the University of Manchester puts it like this:

(1960s Style Folk Rock style music) 

To Plough once in the winter
Sowing, and again in Lent
Sowing with as many oxen
Sowing with as mayn oxen
As he shall have yolked in plough
Oh yes
Oh yes
As he shall have yolked the plough
Oh yes
Oh yes

Pof. Jones: But of course there is considereable evidence of open-field villages as far back as the tenth century.  Professor Moorhead:

(Dramatic metal chords, like British punk music)

Theeeeere's ev-i-de-ence
Theeeeere's ev-i-de-ence

There's evidence (evidence)
Evidence (evidence)
Evidence (evidence?)
There's evidence (evidence!) 

Evidence of settlements with one long village street
Farmsteads, hamlets, little towns-- the framework was complete
By the tiiiiiiime.......... (Of the Norman Quest!)
The rural framework was complete
Rur-al
Frame-work
wa-as
Com-plete

Prof Jones: This is not to say, of course, that the system was as sophisticated as it later came to be. I asked the Professor of Medieval studies at Cambridge why this was.
Prof. Hegerman: (stuttering) Well, i-it may not have been a-a statutory obligation, but, uh, I mean, uh, a guy who was a freeman whuh-was obligated in the medieval system to...
Prof. Jones: To do boonwork?
Prof. Hegerman: That's right. There's an example, ah, from the village rolls, ah, in 1313.
Prof. Jones: And I believe you're going to do it for us.
Prof. Heferman: That's right, yeah...

(Reminiscent somewhat of some of the Beatles later work......)

Oh it's written in the village rolls
That if one plough-team wants an oxen
And that oxen is lent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the looooord's consent
Yeah, yeah
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent

That was a talk on the open-field farming system by Professor Angus Jones. Some of the main points covered in this talk are now available on a long-playing record entitled "The Ronettes Sing Medieval Argrarian History"