Jag Day - The Song

In 2001 Jim Hancock and Geoff Convery, long time members of the Coleby Plough Jag, wrote and composed an entry for the BBC Radio Lincolnshire Folk Songwriting Competition.

The song was performed by Jim and Geoff accompanied by Steve Hindley on piano accordian, all wearing their Plough Jag costumes, and eventually won the competition.

The song has been adopted by the Coleby Plough Jag as "our" song and adds a poignant moment to Jag Day as we remember past members of the team."

 

JAG DAY

Copyright © 2001 Jim Hancock

 

When crops lie frozen in the fields

and frost hangs heavy on the bough

and icy turf refuse to yield

to harrow and to plough

that's when the fiddler lifts his bow

that's when the fool misrules the day

and every ploughlad plays the lord

as the jag comes round again.

 

CHORUS:

Here's a toast to absent friends

to those we knew and those not met

and tell the ones who went before

the lads are dancing yet.

 

Through dawn chilled streets we make our way

from farmstead and from labourer's cot

throughout the towns of Lincolnshire

the guiser's eerie lot

In public bar & market square

Some stand, some cheer some turn & flee

From sooty face and ragged coat

And ill rhymed poetree.

 

            CHORUS

 

A toast to every knight and lord,

to every fool who capered by

to every soldier for his song,

to every dame who died.

For like the dame who's born again

to welcome in the old new year,

We'll pass the hat and fill the cup

with merriment and cheer.

 

            CHORUS

 

Let's hope in years as yet to come

In strange far times men not yet born

Will face the cold dark winter dawn

To play the Jag in turn

For Sergeant Time recruits us all

Some soon, some late, we all enlist

We answer to his bugle call

And trudge into the mist.

 

CHORUS x 2

If you want to hear the song, turn your speakers on and Click Here