Medieval Field Systems

Note for teachers:

English countryside can at one level be divided into two types, ancient country and the more modern planned countryside (Rackham 1986, 3). Ancient countryside is found in all parts of England, but it predominates in the South East (Kent, Essex) and the south west. It is countryside that never experienced the medieval open field system of farming. In this system two or three very large fields were divided into strips, the strips were allotted to villagers who cultivated them individually. The large fields were rotated between arable and fallow.

Latterly these large fields were enclosed, predominantly in the 18th and 19th century, they were divided up into regular shaped fields and normally hedged with hawthorn. This type of landscape can be seen over much of central England, its now mature hawthorn hedges surviving to a greater or lesser degree, depending on their management in the intervening years. Sometimes the ridge and furrow of the strips can be clearly seen, fossilised under permanent pasture.

Ancient countryside on the other hand has been farmed in individually enclosed parcels of land since the early medieval period or even earlier (back into prehistory). It in essence is a great deal older than the planned countryside, its hedges, woodbanks, tracks, and even hedgerow trees, dating back to the early medieval period. It follows that in ancient countryside farms were scattered, positioned near their fields, while with planned countryside houses are clustered into villages.

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Open field or strip farming:

Some villages had two large fields, some had three or more fields, all divided into strips. A single farmer could have as many as 50 strips altogether in different fields. These strips would be long and narrow so that the farmer would not have to constantly turn his plough and the ox team that pulled it. The process of constant ploughing along the same strip would produce a ridge and furrow pattern, which we can still see in places today.

As a result of different and more recent farming practices, such as enclosed fields and deep ploughing, the medieval field patterns have often been destroyed. During the 15th and 16th centuries, many open fields were enclosed for pasture, particularly for sheep and this created many deserted villages.

    There are examples of open field farming in Herefordshire:

    The village of Sutton, for example, had three large fields in this style: Upper Field (250 acres/ 100ha), Middle Field (318 acres/127ha) and Lower Field (300acres/120ha).

    Another is the village of Leintwardine, which had two open fields. The lord of the manor held strips on both fields, as well as land in the meadow and pasture land, in total 123 acres (99 acres arable, 15 meadow and 9acres pasture). This land, the demesne, was worked for him by the customary tenants.

    Peasants grew different crops in each field from year to year. For example, one year a field might be planted with wheat, the next with oats and in the third year it would be allowed to stand empty (fallow) so that the soil could recover. During this year, the animals were allowed to graze on the field laid to fallow (the manure the animals left behind helped to fertilize the field).

    Infield-outfield farming:

    In this ancient system of farming, some fields originating in the Neolithic period, the best land, near the settlement, was kept for arable use, that means, this is where people grew their crops. This field was used every year and was heavily fertilised with manure. Further away was the outfield, which was land of a poorer quality. When this land, which was not manured, was exhausted, it was used for grazing cattle or for growing grass.

Some scholars call this system "Celtic Fields" The small, squarish, irregular fields often of less than an acre, had boundaries of hedging or earthworks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

©Musson

If Herefordshire had a combination of village settlement and scattered hamlets, then one can assume there was a combination of field systems as well.

Tim Hoverd, in a study of the hamlet of Lower Buckenhill, provides evidence for the infield-outfield system of farming. He maintains that not until the 13th century, due probably to population growth, both the infield and much of the outfield was divided into strips.

Lynchets

Lynchets are created either unintentionally by ploughing or intentionally in the hilly landscape to create terraces suitable for farming. This pressure for more agricultural land, led to the creation of lynchets, a form of terracing. Lynchet patterns can be seen in the landscape.

According to Tim Hoverd, the strip lynchets apparent at Lower Buckenhill illustrate the lengths to which people would go in order to gain even small parcels of land.

Near Leintwardine there are several locations were long rows of terraces are found. The lynchets near Trippleton Farm consist of 6 terraces, d190-200 yards lond and varying from 4 to 12 yards in width. The vertical height of the terraces varies from 10 to 15 feet.



©C.Musson

This aerial photo of fields near Marden shows the lynchets quite clearly.

Field-names
One important source for the historian is oral tradition and one specific example of this is the field-name. The name of a field was passed down over the centuries and may not have been written down until the 18th or 19th century. The aim of the Herefordshire Field-Name Survey 1987-1993 was to list in a systematic way the names of all fields in each parish of the county.

Just as place names, field names can tell us about places long before we have written records about these places. Field names in Hereford, for example, can tell us about the extent of the Welsh population and the influence of the Welsh language and they can tell us about dialect. Some field names describe the type of land the field is on and this can show us if the landscape itself has changed.

A good example of this is are the two field names, "Lower Park Meadow" and "Upper Park Meadow" in Dilwyn. There is written evidence that Thomas de Chadnore had a park at Chadnor Court in 1297 and the names of these fields confirm that they were on land originally belonging to the park,(SMR 6316) which may have been a deer park. (SMR 31499).


This stag lives in the deerpark at Wyastone Leys

The modern English word meadow was "maed", also spelled "med" in place names. Presteigne was called Presthemed in some medieval documents. The final –med signifies meadow. Kinsham, which is not far from Presteigne, was Kingeshemede, also an indication that this land was meadow land. In fact it was probably part of the meadow which belonged to the king.

A field-name incorporating the word "town" may be an indication of the presence of an earlier, now deserted settlement. Sometimes we may have documentary evidence of a deserted village or settlement, but we don’t know exactly where it is. A field name could then lead us to the location.

At Castle Frome, for example, three fields called "Little Townend", "Great Townend" and "Hither Townend" lie adjacent to the earthworks of an abandoned settlement. [SMR 7423] This deserted settlement is on the land of "Town Farm". This is only one of many ways in which a study of field-names can be valuable to both the archaeologist and the historian.

A good source for the study of local field patterns is : J.E.Grundy, " Ullingswick: A Study of Open Fields and Settlement Patterns ", A Herefordshire Miscellany, ed. D.Whitehead and J.Eisel, 2000.

TFM