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Where Beards Wag All by George Ewart Evans
A really beautiful insight into the last days of peasant agriculture in England before the post war mechanisation of agriculture and the role of the oral tradition in rural communities. From his...
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The Same Sky over All by David Smith
An account of farming in the Chelmsford area of Essex Another book in the same genre as ‘Where Beards Wag All‘ which perfectly and poetically captures the last days of pre mechanised peasant...
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Natives by Akala
Race and class in the ruins of empire We are major Akala fans here in the herd and regularly send his various short youtube videos over to folks for homework. I’m not going to write about this book...
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A History of Allotments in Sheffield by Margaret Boulton
This is a really great deep dive into local Sheffield history whilst at the same time providing lots of context which I imagine would make it still of interest to those further afield. I drank it down...
View ArticleHow Profits From Slavery Changed the Landscape of the Scottish Highlands
Money earned through enslavement played a key role in the eviction of Highlanders in the 18th and 19th centuries, study finds Between roughly 1750 and 1860, wealthy landowners forcibly evicted...
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(1885) other ‘Three Acres And A Cow’ themed ballads
Dr John Baxter has a project exploring intersection of folk and music hall, the songs and social history at http://folksongandmusichall.com/. On the below blog he details a number of other songs about...
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An Atlas of Rural Protest in Britain 1548-1900 by Andrew Charlesworth
We get sent, given and recommended a lot of books by people who’ve seen the show. They are nearly always very useful and often even get read. Every so often one comes along that wins. This is such a...
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The Island by Francis Brett Young
To think what England once had been,When such poor folk, by right of birth,Claimed an inalienable shareAnd tenure of their native earth;When even the least enjoyed the yieldOf labour in the common...
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(1300s) The Cutty Wren
This song is traditionally thought to date back to the 1300s and have been sung by participants of the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. Worth noting that wikipedia and academia are both are keen to point out...
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(1400s) The Bitter Withy
The Bitter Withy was a popular carol carried in the oral tradition for many generations, believed to date back to the 15th century. In it some haughty young lords are drowned by a young Jesus after...
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Folk Song In England by A.L. Lloyd
The wonderful singer and promoter Sophie Bostock was waxing lyrical about this book to me and I’m so glad that I bought it as soon as she recommended it to me. It is a gem. I learnt so much from this...
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The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes
I was doing a little updating of this site recently and realised that I hadn’t posted about Nick’s remarkable book yet. Nick is a dear friend and I had the joy of arguing with him on the finer details...
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The Poetry of the Clearances by Sorley Maclean
I was just slipping down an internet wormhole on Scottish land rights poetry and song, and came across this juicy nugget: …the impact of Sorley MacLean’s paper on ‘The Poetry of the Clearances’ – the...
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Spiorad a’ Charthannais (The Spirit of Kindliness), by the Lewis poet Iain...
Just book marking this all here for future reference#highlandclearanceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernera_Riot From...
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(1987) Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil
An Aboriginal land rights song written by Australia rock band in the 80’s, not my cup of tea to be honest but documented here for completeness sake! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beds_Are_Burning Out...
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(1851*) The Ballad Of Crowfoot by Willie Dunn
Released in 1968 and often referred to as Canada’s first music video, The Ballad of Crowfoot was directed by Willie Dunn, a Mi’kmaq/Scottish folk singer and activist who was part of the historic...
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Right to Roam saves Epping Forest in 1870s
Epping Forest (just outside London) was in the process of being Enclosed and made private in the 19th century, but a campaign of mass trespass forced the government to place it in common hands. The...
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(1866) Ballad of Berkhamsted Common
In 1866, Lord Brownlow of Ashridge House tried to enclose a third of Berkhamsted Common by putting in iron fences “without any openings and entirely regardless of public rights of way”. But the...
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South Derbyshire (Melbourne) protest
compiled by Barry Thomas of the Melbourne Footpaths Group Thomas Dugmore (1739 – 1820)Dugmore kept the Bull’s Head public house on Potter Street and attacked the enclosure of Melbourne parish with its...
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(1884) The Foresters’ Egg! A Timely Warning!
This song was found in the Bristol Radical History pamphlet (#6) ‘The Life and Times of Warren James’ about the Forest of Dean enclosures: Arouse ye, free miners, who delve in old Dean,and all ye...
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