{"id":11308,"date":"2021-06-21T06:22:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T06:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=11308"},"modified":"2021-07-23T10:05:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T10:05:07","slug":"three-acres-and-a-cow","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/three-acres-and-a-cow\/","title":{"rendered":"Three acres and a cow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>[Tune: I wish they’d do it now]<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>unknown<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>unknown<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN24484<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>unknown – may not be from the Halls<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Modern performances<\/strong>
Robin Grey and friends<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From Bodleian Broadside Ballad<\/a> (dated 1886-1917)\n\nThree Acres and a Cow<\/strong>\nAir - I wish they'd do it now<\/em>\n\nYou\u2019ve heard a lot of talk about \nThree acres and a cow,\nAnd if they mean to give us it, \nWhy don\u2019t they give it now?\nFor if I do not get it \nI shall soon go off my chump\nThere\u2019s nothing but the land and cow\nWill keep me from the lump\n\nDon\u2019t you wish you had it now, <\/em>\nThree acres and a cow;<\/em>\nOh you can make good butter and cheese<\/em><\/em>\nWhen you get the cow.<\/em>\n\nThere\u2019s a certain class in England, \nHolding fortunes great;\nAnd give a man starving wages\nTo work on their estate\nThe land\u2019s been stolen from the poor \nAnd those that have got it now;\nDo not want to give a man \nThree acres and a cow\n\nDo you think they ever intend to give \nThree acres and a cow\nWhen they can get a man to work\nAt low wages to drive the plough.\nA man to live has to work \nFrom daylight until dark,\nSo has the lord can have both bulls and cows\nGrazing in their park.\n\nOh my, there is a pretty go,\nAll the country though;\nThe working men want to know,\nWhat the government intend to do<\/em>\nAnd what we have been looking for, \nI wish they would give us now;\nWe\u2019re sure to live if they only give \nThree acres and a cow.\n\nIf all the land in England,\nWas divided up quite fair;\nThere would be work for every man, \nTo earn an honest share.\nThere are those with thousands of acres of land\nWhich they have got somehow\nBut I\u2019ll be satisfied to get \nThree acres and a cow\n\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
One of a number of songs written in response to the \u201cThree acres and a cow\u201dslogan 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
 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<\/em> [link to come] which has its own complex history. It features in Roy Palmer’s excellent The Painful Plough<\/em>, a portrait of the lives of 19th century agricultural labourers in song.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three Acres and a Cow <\/em>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<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Generally the Music Hall response to the demand for land  and livestock was unsympathetic – see for example Arthur Lloyd\u2019s A cow and three acres<\/strong><\/a><\/em> or Harry Liston’s  Them three acres of land and a cow<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least three different broadsides of this Three acres and a cow<\/em> appear to have survived: one in the Bodleian library<\/a> printed by H Such of London and one at the Vaughan Williams Memorial library as part of the Frank Kidson Collection<\/a> (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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n