> Tim Hart & Maddy Prior > Songs > Oats and Beans and Barley Grows
> Martyn Wyndham-Read > Songs > Oats and Beans
> Shirley & Dolly Collins > Songs > Peas, Beans, Oats and the Barley

Oats and Beans and Barley Grows / Peas, Beans, Oats and the Barley

[ Roud 1380 ; Ballad Index DToatsbe ; GlosTrad Roud 1380 ; trad.]

Roy and Val Bailey, accompanied by Leon Rosselson on guitar, sang the children’s skipping song Oats and Beans and Barley in 1968 on their LP Oats & Beans & Kangaroos.

Tim Hart and Maddy Prior recorded Oats and Beans and Barley Grows in 1969 for their second duo album Folk Songs of Old England Vol. 2. The record’s sleeve notes comment, probably somewhat exaggerating:

Although now only a children’s skipping song (this version comes from Lincolnshire), here are to be found references to pagan fertility rites. The farmer who “stamps his feet, claps his hands, and turns him round to view his lands” is almost certainly a morris dancer driving the evil spirits from the soil, and the reference to marriage could be the ritual marriage which occurs in many mummers plays.

Oats and Beans (or Hops and Beans) is also sung on the Topic LP from the same year, Children’s Singing Games, by pupils of Redriff Primary School, Bermondey, London. This album was produced to accompany the Festival Book of Singing Games.

The Broadside sang Oats and Beans on their 1971 album of Lincolnshire folk songs, The Gipsy’s Wedding Day. They noted:

Oats and Beans belongs to a children’s singing game and is printed in English County Songs edited by Lucy Broadwood and Fuller Maitland.

John [Sawdon] and Christine [Dossor] sang Oats and Beans / Turkey Rhubarb in 1972 on their Westwood album Who Liveth So Merry?. This track was included in 2022 on the Folk Heritage anthology Before the Day Is Done.

Martyn Wyndham-Read and Geoff & Pennie Harris sang Oats and Beans in 1975 on their album of seasonal songs, Maypoles to Mistletoe.

Jon Boden sang Oats and Beans and Barley with his brother Tom as the 16 September 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Megson sang Oats and Beans and Barley Grow on their 2012 album of children’s folk songs, When I Was a Lad….

Pam Gilder, Eddie Upton and Vic Gammon sang the related harvest home toast Peas, Beans, Oats and the Barley on the 1976 Free Reed theme album The Tale of Ale. Shirley and Dolly Collins and Barry Dransfield sang Peas, Beans, Oats and the Barley as part of their harvest home medley on their 1978 album For As Many As Will.

Lyrics

Tim Hart & Maddy Prior sing Oats and Beans and Barley Grows

Oats and beans and barley grows
As you and I and everyone knows
Oats and beans and barley grows
As you and I and everyone knows
A-waiting for the partner

First the farmer sows his seed
Then he stands and takes his ease
Stamps his feets and claps his hands
And turns around to view the land
A-waiting for the partner

Now you’re married you must obey
Must be true in all you say
Must be kind and must be good
And help your wife to chop the wood
A-waiting for the partner

(repeat first verse)

Shirley and Dolly Collins sing Peas, Beans, Oats and the Barley

𝄆 There stands a man that ploughs up the land
Where the peas, beans, oats and the barley stand 𝄇

Chorus (after each verse):
Peas, beans, peas, beans,
Peas, beans, oats and the barley

𝄆 Do you or I or any one know
Where the peas, beans, oats and the barley grow? 𝄇

𝄆 Stand to your partners and then you will know
Where the peas, beans, oats and the barley grow 𝄇