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The Fen-Men / Fenland Song

[Fred Rooke]

Pig farmer Fred Rooke (born 1935 in Hedenham, Norfolk) sang his own song The Fen-Men, recorded by Peter Kennedy and Chris Hardwidge in October 1975, on his cassette Fred Rooke’s Norfolk Dish (Folktrax FTX-044, 1975). A University of Cambridge Pathwqys page shows Fred Rooke’s lyrics and quotes him as:

Speaking of trains, one thing that really put the wind up me is that ride between King’s Lynn and Cambridge. I see all that flat land what were once underwater and you know I can’t for the life of me see what’s to prevent that being flooded again. All that water shut back in them dykes, that make me think of power shut in a cage. That make me think of Rhodesian Negroes, or Trade Unions, or the IRA, and if power break loose that ain’t no good talking softly to it, and saying “get you back in your cage”. There’s about as much difference between might and right as what there is between hatchet and chopper.

This song was also included with the title Fenland Song on the 2002 Folktrax cassette of songs and customs of Cambridgeshire and the Fens, The Chain of Gold (Folktrax FTX-423).

The Shackleton Trio sang Fenland Song on their 2018 album Fen, Farm & Deadly Water. Georgia Shackleton noted:

A song collected and recorded by Peter Kennedy and Chris Hardwidge in October 1975 from its author Fred Rooke. Fred was a pig farmer from Hedenham, Norfolk and wrote many songs. This powerful yet lighthearted song reminds us that our East Anglian land could easily be reclaimed by the sea.

This video shows The Shackleton Trio at the Green Note in Camden Town, London on 31 January 2022:

Lyrics

Fred Rooke sings The Fen-Men

There are farmers a living in the fens which once was the floor of the sea
And it might very well be sea again if the water in the dyke get free
So beware of the hour when the captive power of the water in the dyke get free

There are gangs of men a-hoeing of the peat on the sooty black fields where they grow
But the walls of the dykes stand forty feet above the men who hoe
So beware of the hour when the captive power of the water in the dyke get free

There are families a-living in the fen where they’ve every right to be
But what the water care for the rights of men or the right of a family?
So beware of the hour when the captive power of the water in the dyke get free

And supposing the fenmen are stood as firmly as can be
He’d be gathered up like so much wood and be carried out to sea
So beware of the hour when the captive power of the water in the dyke get free

The Shackleton Trio sings Fenland Song

There are farmers a-living in the fens which once was the floor of the sea
And it may very well be sea again if the water in the dyke get free
So beware of the hour when the captive power of the water in the dyke get free.

There are gangs of men a-hoeing in the peat on the sooty black fields where they grow
And the walls of the dykes stand forty feet above the men who hoe
So beware of the hour when the captive power of the water in the dyke get free.

There are families a-living in the fen where they’ve every right to be
But would the water care for the right of man or the right of the family?
So beware of the hour when the captive power of the water in the dyke get free.

And supposing that those fenmen are stood as firmly as can be
They’d be gathered up like so much wood and be carried out to sea
So beware of the hour when the captive power of the water in the dyke get free.