This
site has the following entry, said to be from 1920
        ' Between Martinmas and Christmas was a generally slack time for farmers, and it was during this time that the young farmhands went 'plough ladding'. Many are the tales told in the district about Plough Lads. Delicious fear struck the breasts of the young girls when they heard the lads coming down the street in the darkness. "We could hear them coming up the road from East Hill, singing and shouting. 'Oh, the Plough Lads are coming!' we cried and ran into the cottage' The lads has blackened faces, wore strange clothes; one ws usually dressed up as a woman, and one as a doctor. They had bells on their boots, and played melodeons or mouth organs to the accompaniment of rattling spoons or dried sheeps rib bones which they called knick-knacks. They sang loudly and danced, and knocked boldly on cottage doors asking for some money, drink, a kiss or all three!
We're niggers from the south , ha! ha!
We cannot shut our mouth
We took him to the tailors shop
To get his mouth made smaller
a popular song in Aldborough, and from nearby Garton
Where is that nigger Josey gone
Look for him everywhere
There'll be no fun at the ball tonight
If Josey isn't there '