32 The Demesne. 1270 — 1307. [ch. 



Thus, in 1278, he was paid 4^. 6d. for permitting 61 cows, 7 affers, 

 14 pigs, and 25 sheep to common on Langmoor, the principal 

 common of Forncett St Mary\ A few pence were also received from 

 the herbage of Lound common. Who were the owners of these 

 cattle ? Not the free tenants, probably, since they had free common ; 

 nor is it likely that strangers would have had so large a number of 

 cattle there. It would seem as though some of the customary tenants 

 lacked sufficient common rights. And it may also have been these 

 tenants who paid between them a few shillings yearly to the lord in 

 return for pasture in Bromwood and in Gilderswood. The fallow land, 

 the herbage of which rented at from 2d. to ^^^d. an acre, was probably 

 enclosed. The ditches were important grazing grounds ; thus the 

 herbage of the ditches about Bunwell (Westwood) Ridding was sold 

 for 4.$-. \od., and other ditches about the woods and about Hallcroft 

 (V. 3, St Mary's) brought about a shilling. The pasture of a road in 

 the Ridding was worth 8^., and waste lands fallen into the lord's 

 hands a few pence more. Altogether, the lord received annually 

 some 16^-. from the sale of herbage. 



Turf used as fuel was sometimes sold from the common ; ferns 

 and stubble were also sold. 



At irregular intervals large sales were made of underwood and of 

 alders, amounting sometimes to £6 a year. Other sources of income 

 were dead trees and the branches and bark of trees that had been 

 felled for the repair or construction of the demesne buildings and 

 implements. 



The demesne live-stock served divers purposes. Horses, stotts^, 

 and oxen laboured on the demesne ; cattle, especially calves, were 

 sold or sent to other of the Earl's manors ; cattle and pigs were 

 slaughtered for the larder ; hides of cattle and of stotts were sold. 

 Before 1300, after each Michaelmas the tenants were accustomed to 

 come with 43 carts to carry the manure from the court-yard (curia) 

 to the fields^. In 1300 this carrying service was commuted by the 

 tenants, who now merely scattered the manure over the fields, 

 whither it was carried in the carts of the lord^ The fallow was 



^ At the rate of ^d. for a cow, id. for an affer, \d. for a pig, and \d. for lo sheep. From 

 1270-1300, the lord's annual receipts from the sale of herbage in Langmoor were usually from 

 y. to 4J-. 6i/., though they fell off toward the end of the period, and after 1300 did not rise 

 above 2s. 



- A stott or affer was an inferior kind of horse, commonly used for plowing. Cf. Min. Acc'ts, 

 935/5, 935/6, 935/12 under title Stotti. 



'^ Appendix VIII., xli. 



^ 'De cariagio fimi ad festum Sancti Michaelis, xviiij.' Min. Acc'ts, 935/14. 'In 

 X. acris fimo spargendis tempore seminationis frumenti cum auxiliis carucariorum, v. opera.' 

 Min. Acc'ts, 935/15, 



