The Diggers Song (You Noble Diggers All)

Hi, Everybody. We hope you are all safe and well. We decide that while we were all in various kinds of lockdown, we’d contribute to the call for musicians to share music by posting a series of videos of songs we would have sung, had gigs still being going. And we’d actually had any! We’ve based these around various key anniversaries which appear in our musical calendars.
So here is the first of these which marks the event that on 1 April 1649, a group of radicals occupied the common land at St George’s Hill, Surrey, and began to plant crops in the spirit of their Declaration that the Earth was made to be ‘a common storehouse of Livelihood’ to all. And that the Common Lands, which they had always been entitled to use anyway since medieval times, should be given over to exclusive use by the poor, to support themselves.
Needles to say, this enterprise did not go well. Anyway, we hope you enjoy our video. It has benefited from some editorial help from our friend Rad Max Rowse de Franco, who disclaims all responsibility for the quality of some of the images. And please do look out for the images of St George’s Hill today we use at the end, after the song, which are by kind permission of ‘Cartoon’ Kate Evans (www.cartoonkate.co.uk/).

[@4sythdude549]

Those last few drawings are just such a gutpunch. If the Diggers / True Levellers ever came back, they would be suppressed just the same as they were back then.

[@fablecouvrette5334]

We're here! We're called anarchists ;)

[@fablecouvrette5334]

And... Yeah we're suppressed as hell 🙃

[@sealand4950]

Little history if interested behind this song the diggers are or “True levellers” is a political movement based Agrarian socialism. This movement was around the time of the English civil war.

[@farrellfamily4953]

Yep. Check out our Liner Notes! Gerard Winstanley had a lot of ideas we could use today.

[@michelepoletti8208]

@@farrellfamily4953 And you can watch the film Winstanley

[@michelepoletti8208]

This song makes me think of a Scottush song, Ye Jacobites by name (only for the tune...)

[@farrellfamily4953]

That's because we used the same tune! 😃Leon Rosselson has a slightly different tune which I think is closer to the original.