Monty Python - Background to History lyrics

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 plowing professor Tofts
Of the University of Manchester
Puts it like this:

(A rocking beat starts and
A 60s-style folk rock song with some heavy
Caribbean influence begins)

To plough once in the winter Sowing
And again in Lent sowing with as many oxen
Sowing with as many oxen
As he shall have yoked in the plough oh yes
Oh yes as he shall have yoked in the plough
Oh yes oh yes

But of course there
Is considerable evidence of open-field
Villages as far back as the
Tenth century professor Moorhead:
(Dramatic metal chords
Reminiscent of British punk or perhaps
Groups like Black Sabbath)

T heeeere's ev-i-de-ence
T heeeere'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 tiiiiime (OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST) The
Rural framework was complete rur-al
Frame-work wa-as com-plete

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

(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 obliged in the medieval system to

To do boonwork?

That's right there's an example
Ah, from the village rolls, ah, in 1313

And I believe you're going
To do it for us now

That's right, yeah

(Pop beat sets in
Reminiscent of the Beatles in their
Later period but with
Some of the spastic quality of a Joe Cocker)

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 loooord'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 Agrarian History"