AGRICULTURE 





NOTTINGHAMSHIRE may be 

 described as an undulating county, 

 although a large part of it, es- 

 pecially in the Trent Valley, is 

 absolutely flat. Its slight eleva- 

 tions are dotted with abundant foliage and 

 pretty villages, and intersected by several 

 river valleys, in fact it is marked by typical 

 English scenery. The Magnesian Limestone 

 occurs in a long narrow strip on the west, and the 

 extreme east is included in the Oolite formation, 

 but the larger part belongs to the New Red 

 Sandstone. The soils are chiefly of sand or 

 gravel, of limestone or coal land, or of clay. 

 The whole of the poor forest land and that by 

 the banks of the Trent is of the first kind ; the 

 limestone is in the extreme west, while the clay 

 in the north, being mixed with sand, is very pro- 

 ductive, but in the south, including the vale of 

 Belvoir, it is more stubborn and less fertile. As 

 Fuller noticed, ' it is divided into two parts, the 

 sand and the clay, which so supply the defects 

 one of another, that what either half doth afford, 

 the whole county doth enjoy." 1 The climate is 

 dry and healthy, the west winds, often so laden 

 with rain in England, being robbed of much of 

 their moisture by the higher hills of its western 

 neighbours. 



At the death of Edward I English agriculture 

 was in a prosperous condition, though from that 

 time till the beginning of the ijth century it 

 was, in the opinion of Professor Thorold Rogers, 2 

 stationary or even retrograde. Prices of corn 

 and stock at various markets in the county dur- 

 ing the Middle Ages have fortunately been pre- 

 served. At Gringley, for instance, in the twelve 

 months from Michaelmas 1295 to Michaelmas 

 1296, the farming year being thus reckoned, 

 barley was from 35. to 41. 6d. a quarter, oats 

 2s. lO^d. to 3*. iod., beans 4.5. to 4.1. 6d., peas 

 45. Oxen, then chiefly valued as draught 

 animals, were selling at the same time at IGJ. 

 each. In the next year wheat was cheap in the 

 Midlands, 4.5. to 45. ^d. a. quarter at Gringley, 



1 Worthies of Engl. ii, 568. 



1 Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 442 et seq. 



though in the south of England it was worth 

 twice as much, a common occurrence in those 

 days of isolation. Oats were 2s. and seed beans 

 45. id. Eggs were sold there for 4^d. the great 

 hundred (120). For threshing a quarter of wheat 

 a man was paid 2d., for a quarter of barley i^d., 

 of oats id., and winnowing oats cost 2d. a 

 quarter, this work being usually done by women, 

 and much of it fell on the daya or dairymaid. 3 

 Grease, which was used for the cart-wheels, the 

 home manufacture of candles, and for dressing 

 sheep, was sold at Gringley in 1297 tor IO ^- a 

 petra or stone of apparently 7 lb., and in the 

 same year wheat had risen to as high as 6s. 8d. a 

 quarter, though it fell during the year to 45. gd. ; 

 and barley was dear at 6s. a quarter. 4 There 

 is a record of a sale of pigs there in 1298 

 which made 31. 6d. apiece, and the price of 

 threshing a quarter of oats had sunk to d. 

 The hides of oxen were worth 35. 2\d. ; cheese 

 fetched 8d. per stone of 28 Ib., and butter yd. a 

 stone. 



In the 1 3th century and for long afterwards 

 the crops were small and the cost of cultivation 

 light. Walter of Henley says : 5 ' You know 

 surely that an acre sown with wheat takes three 

 ploughings, and that each ploughing is worth 6d., 

 and harrowing id., and on the acre it is necessary 

 to sow at least two bushels. Now two bushels 

 at Michaelmas are worth at least I2d., and 

 weeding \d. and reaping $d. and carrying in 

 August id., and the straw will pay for the 

 threshing ; and at three times your sowing you 

 ought to have six bushels worth 35.' This 

 without allowing anything for rent, then mostly 

 paid by services of various kinds, would involve 

 a loss of i^d. However, the author of the 

 anonymous Treatise on Husbandry of the same 

 century says' Wheat ought to yield to the fifth 

 grain.' 6 In 1312 at Wheteley (Wheatley) rye 



3 The hoeing of land at this date was generally done 

 by women, and they worked at piecework in harvest, 

 often at the same rates as the men. 



4 Thorold Rogers, Hist, of Agric. and Prices, ii, 47 

 ct seq. 



6 Walter of Henley, Husbandry (Roy. Hist. Soc.), 17. 

 6 Ibid. 71. 



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