ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY 13 



the hay and crops were growing, and the arrangements 

 for ploughing and sowing, reaping and threshing ; and 

 there too would be decided the number of beasts, sheep 

 and pigs that might be turned out on the common 

 fields when not under cultivation, and the method of 

 dividing up the lot meadows. The collection of the 

 tribute of food, if such there were, would be settled at 

 the moot and plans made for rendering services, if any, 

 to the estate-holder and for providing the taxes. At 

 such meetings the village officials were appointed. Of 

 these the first was the reeve who combined the duties 

 of manager of the communal land and of a village 

 mayor, for he supervised the agriculture and also 

 presided at village meetings ; he also, with the priest 

 and four or more tunsmen of good repute, represented 

 the village in negotiations with outside authorities. 

 Below the reeve was the 'hayward/ who under the 

 direction of the former undertook, with perhaps the 

 assistance of a 'field jury' or committee, the detailed 

 management of the cultivation of the land. Amongst 

 the other officials were the ' meadsman,' who saw to 

 the division of the meadow-land, the * woodreeve,' who 

 looked after the woodlands and the ploughmen who 

 ploughed for all. Finally there were the oxherds, 

 shepherds, swineherds and beeherds, who looked after 

 the oxen, sheep, pigs and bees. Without these men 

 it would not have been possible to proceed with the 

 Anglo-Saxon method of farming, which depended on 

 the stock being in the hands of the herdsmen, and the 

 peasant farmers being free to put in most of their time 

 on the cultivation of the arable. 



Although encroachments on boundaries, overcrowd- 

 ing the commons with beasts, and similar offences, had 

 to be dealt with by the tun moot, the punishment of 



