Listen to the track:
The Old Fields
A reflective British folk ballad remembering mostly forgotten Wembury field names like Bonfire, Higher Heathfield and Cockroad Bottom — fields that were reshaped, merged, repurposed or built upon as the countryside changed over generations. Let's reuse the old names, they are wonderful !
Before the kerbs and boundary walls
Before the plotted lines
Higher Heathfield caught the dawn
Across the furrowed signs
Middle and Yonder Heathfield
Road Brake after rain
Only hedge and turning earth
Before the houses came
Call them back, the old fields
Call them back by name
Bonfire, Bickham Park
Burning just the same
Higher Thistle Hill still sings
Lower Thistle answers plain
The old fields live in memory
And call to us again
Furzeland in evening light
Longpark running wide
Pulcombe green with Blackpit near
And deer on every side
New Park and Bottom Park
Where steady ploughs would turn
Bonfire Park at harvest time
Where autumn fires would burn
Call them back, the old fields
Call them back by name
Long Park and Stoneditch
Carved in wind and rain
Great Cutland, Little Cutland
Still echo through the land
The map may fade from paper now
But not from memory’s hand
Higher Deer Park watching
Middle, Great and Small
Little Deer Park waiting
Beyond the hedgerow wall
Cockroad Bottom lying low
Warren grass and Wellpark
Names once spoken every day
Now fading into dark
Call them back, the old fields
Let the old land breathe
Higher Heathfield whispers still
Beneath the roots and leaves
Though rooftops claim the skyline
And tarmac claims the plain
The old fields live in memory
And call to us again