Three acres and a cow

From Bodleian Broadside Ballad (dated 1886-1917)

Three Acres and a Cow
Air - I wish they'd do it now

You’ve heard a lot of talk about 
Three acres and a cow,
And if they mean to give us it, 
Why don’t they give it now?
For if I do not get it 
I shall soon go off my chump
There’s nothing but the land and cow
Will keep me from the lump

Don’t you wish you had it now, 
Three acres and a cow;
Oh you can make good butter and cheese
When you get the cow.

There’s a certain class in England, 
Holding fortunes great;
And give a man starving wages
To work on their estate
The land’s been stolen from the poor 
And those that have got it now;
Do not want to give a man 
Three acres and a cow

Do you think they ever intend to give 
Three acres and a cow
When they can get a man to work
At low wages to drive the plough.
A man to live has to work 
From daylight until dark,
So has the lord can have both bulls and cows
Grazing in their park.

Oh my, there is a pretty go,
All the country though;
The working men want to know,
What the government intend to do
And what we have been looking for, 
I wish they would give us now;
We’re sure to live if they only give 
Three acres and a cow.

If all the land in England,
Was divided up quite fair;
There would be work for every man, 
To earn an honest share.
There are those with thousands of acres of land
Which they have got somehow
But I’ll be satisfied to get 
Three acres and a cow

One of a number of songs written in response to the “Three acres and a cow”slogan for land reform adopted by Radical Liberals like Joseph Chamberlain in the mid-1880s. You will find more about the songs and the issue here.

Of the many songs and poems produced during the campaign, this one has had perhaps the most impact on traditional singing . It is based on the tune of a music hall standard I wish they’d do it now [link to come] which has its own complex history. It features in Roy Palmer’s excellent The Painful Plough, a portrait of the lives of 19th century agricultural labourers in song.

Three Acres and a Cow has been adopted by Robin Grey and others to describe both their collective and the shows they perform which explore the radical history of land rights and protest through song

Generally the Music Hall response to the demand for land and livestock was unsympathetic – see for example Arthur Lloyd’s A cow and three acres or Harry Liston’s Them three acres of land and a cow. The same can be said for the majority of songs and poems published about the issue in sheet music, newspapers and periodicals – broadly speaking they reflected a conservative point of view vehemently opposing land redistribution and deeply cynical about the Radical Liberal’s motivations.

Street literature and oral sources have provided two songs which show that Chamberlain’s campaign did strike a chord amongst some people and that radical songs demanding redistribution of land were not completely absent from the cultural life of the nation. This one comes from surviving Street literature sources.

At least three different broadsides of this Three acres and a cow appear to have survived: one in the Bodleian library printed by H Such of London and one at the Vaughan Williams Memorial library as part of the Frank Kidson Collection (printer unknown). Roy Palmer (see below) found the version he published in Birmingham reference library in a broadside printed by Brooks of Bristol. The fact that it appears to have been printed independently at least three times might indicate that the printers felt it was a song which would be popular enough to sell in significant quantities.