Red & Gold Lyrics - From Cropredy To Portmeirion - Fairport Convention

Red and gold are royal colors 

Peasant colours are green and brown 

Green is the corn in the brown earth when it's growing 

Red and gold when the harvest is cut down. 

Through Cropredy in Oxfordshire the Cherwell takes its course 

And the willows weep into its waters clear 

My name it is Will Tims and it's here that I was born 

And raised in faith my King and God to fear. 

In 1644 the King in Oxford Town did dwell 

Though we'd heard that Cromwell's army was nearby 

It did not occur to me that little Cropredy 

Could be witness to the meeting of both sides 

On June the 29th that year I was about my work 

Cutting hedges in the meadow by the stream 

My blade slipped, I cut my hand and my own dear blood did flow 

Upon the brown earth and the corn still green 

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Now it did distress me so to watch my own blood flow 

And quickly soak into the greedy ground 

In red and gold my colors swam and sweat broke on my brow 

And faint I knew that I must lay me down 

At first I thought the thundering was just inside my head 

So I raised myself above the hedge to see 

And I watched as in a dream as the armies fought downstream 

The battle for the bridge at Cropredy 

Now the King's men fought in red and gold though 

Cromwell's men were plainer 

The blood they spilled was coloured just the same 

Through the hedgerow's fragile cover I saw brother killing brother 

And all of this was done in Jesus' name 

All that day and all the next the battle it was raging 

Though when darkness came I slipped away 

But the crying of the dying kept me wakeful and just lying 

In my bed until the dawning of the day 

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And the dreams I had were red and gold 

And the little stream became a flood 

From all my brothers killing one another 

Till waking I realised it was all my own dear blood 

Some were buried in the church and some just where they fell 

With no markers to declare their place of rest 

But the poppies they do grow where they were never sown 

And to my mind they do declare it best 

And each year when the green corn once again turns into gold 

And the poppies in the field again remind me 

Like the scar upon my hand and the blood spilled on this land 

And the hungry earth so eager to confine me 

For read and gold they are the colours 

One is blood and one is power 

Though I may find my rest in Cropredy Church 

In golden fields forever will spring the poppy flower 

By Cropredy the Cherwell is still bidden to keep flowing 

And the willows by its side still gently weep 

But still in restless dreams by this most peaceful stream 

The poppies wake me from my rightful sleep 

And the dreams I have are red and gold 

And the little stream becomes a flood 

From all my brothers killing one another 

Till waking I realise it's all my own dear blood