I suppose they were/are so essential to the work of the farm that they gained iconic status (at least in their own eyes). Quite a lot of the songs seem to be singing their own praises - there is quite a skill in cutting a straight furrow, and keeping straight time after time with a single plough over a whole field.

One old lad in our village, who has recently died, was a ploughman (with horses originally). The oldest resident (nearly 96 and still driving!) was a champion ploughman from the age of 16, and until quite recently was judging ploughing matches.

These days you can watch the young lads driving their big tractors down the street, with their multi-bladed ploughing attachments. They wouldn't know a ploughboys song if it jumped up and hit their bottle of Bud out of their hands in the pub.

Andrea