DOI article:
Fenton, Alexander: The Plough-Song: a Scottish source for medieval plough history
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48998#0196
THE PLOUGH-SONG
187
Table I
Plough-Song Terms
16th century
English Terms
Standard Name or Description
Fitzherbert 1523
Markham 1614
Beam
Ploughe beam
Plough beam
Beam
Chock
—
—
?
Cowter
Culture
Coulter
Coulter
Gluts
Slote-wedges
—•
Wedges to adjust beam setting
Heel wedge
Helewedge (also
syde wedge and
forewedge)
—
Coulter wedge
Mell
Plough mal (fixed
in an auger hole
in the beam)
—
Mallet or hammer
Missel
Plough-eare
—■
Muzzle, hake, or bridle
Mowdie bread
Sheldebrede
Shelboard
Mouldboard
Oxen bows
—
—•
The bows of a bow yoke
Pleugh-bowl
—
—
? an attachment at the muzzle
Pleugh-head
Sharbeame or
plough-hedde
Plough-head
Plough-head or sole
Pleugh shoone
—
■—■
Metal reinforcing plates
Pleugh staff
—•
—■
Stick for cleaning mould-board
Rack
? = Rough-staves
? = Plough-Spindles
? the strut between the mould-board and
plough-frame
Rest
Rest
Plough-rest
Ground-wrest
Ring
—
—
Yoke-ring
Sheet
(Plough)-shethe
Skeath
Sheath
Slee-band
—
Iron ring
Iron band round coulter mortice
Sling
—
—
Link between yoke ring and draught-
chain
Sok
Share
Share
Share
Soms
—
—
Draught-chain
Stilt
Plough-tayle (and
stilte)
Principal hale (and
right hand hale)
Handle or stilt
Yoak
Yoke
—
Yoke
(D.O.S.T, s. v. Land, n. 4) is interpreted in the
light of more recent dialect evidence as an iron
chain measuring eight or ten feet (2.4-3 m), join-
ing the muzzle of the plough to the yoke of the
pair of oxen nearest the plough, and probably at-
tached to the yoke by the two S-hooks or lands.
It corresponds to Fitzherbert’s fate teame of 1523.
In 1516 in Fife, the plundered furnishings of a
plough were listed as the “Somys syderapis
culter sok schone bridill yokkis and bollis”
(Dickinson 26). The bow yokes establish that
this was an ox-drawn plough. The somys (soms
in the Plough-Song)) are the draught chains, but
in addition there are syderapis (= side ropes)
which would in a horse drawn plough be inter-
preted as the traces that linked the ends of the
swingletrees to the harness of the horse’s collar.
In a nineteenth century description of the one-
stilted Orkney plough, the soam was a five foot
(1.5 m) length of rope linking the muzzle to the
187
Table I
Plough-Song Terms
16th century
English Terms
Standard Name or Description
Fitzherbert 1523
Markham 1614
Beam
Ploughe beam
Plough beam
Beam
Chock
—
—
?
Cowter
Culture
Coulter
Coulter
Gluts
Slote-wedges
—•
Wedges to adjust beam setting
Heel wedge
Helewedge (also
syde wedge and
forewedge)
—
Coulter wedge
Mell
Plough mal (fixed
in an auger hole
in the beam)
—
Mallet or hammer
Missel
Plough-eare
—■
Muzzle, hake, or bridle
Mowdie bread
Sheldebrede
Shelboard
Mouldboard
Oxen bows
—
—•
The bows of a bow yoke
Pleugh-bowl
—
—
? an attachment at the muzzle
Pleugh-head
Sharbeame or
plough-hedde
Plough-head
Plough-head or sole
Pleugh shoone
—
■—■
Metal reinforcing plates
Pleugh staff
—•
—■
Stick for cleaning mould-board
Rack
? = Rough-staves
? = Plough-Spindles
? the strut between the mould-board and
plough-frame
Rest
Rest
Plough-rest
Ground-wrest
Ring
—
—
Yoke-ring
Sheet
(Plough)-shethe
Skeath
Sheath
Slee-band
—
Iron ring
Iron band round coulter mortice
Sling
—
—
Link between yoke ring and draught-
chain
Sok
Share
Share
Share
Soms
—
—
Draught-chain
Stilt
Plough-tayle (and
stilte)
Principal hale (and
right hand hale)
Handle or stilt
Yoak
Yoke
—
Yoke
(D.O.S.T, s. v. Land, n. 4) is interpreted in the
light of more recent dialect evidence as an iron
chain measuring eight or ten feet (2.4-3 m), join-
ing the muzzle of the plough to the yoke of the
pair of oxen nearest the plough, and probably at-
tached to the yoke by the two S-hooks or lands.
It corresponds to Fitzherbert’s fate teame of 1523.
In 1516 in Fife, the plundered furnishings of a
plough were listed as the “Somys syderapis
culter sok schone bridill yokkis and bollis”
(Dickinson 26). The bow yokes establish that
this was an ox-drawn plough. The somys (soms
in the Plough-Song)) are the draught chains, but
in addition there are syderapis (= side ropes)
which would in a horse drawn plough be inter-
preted as the traces that linked the ends of the
swingletrees to the harness of the horse’s collar.
In a nineteenth century description of the one-
stilted Orkney plough, the soam was a five foot
(1.5 m) length of rope linking the muzzle to the