THE TWO- AND THREE-FIELD SYSTEM 37 



later, considerable irregularity is visible in the field system of 

 these counties at the end of the sixteenth century. ^ Hence it is 

 pertinent to inquire how clearly a three-field system may be dis- 

 cerned within their limits in Jacobean days. Several surveys 

 need be cited, ^ a course the more necessary since there were few 

 holdings in any township ; for it is characteristic of these counties 

 that the townships were only of hamlet size, and that many of 

 them were grouped within one manor.* 



Perhaps the most unimpeachable testimony to the existence 

 of a three-field system in Herefordshire at the end of the sixteenth 

 century is discernible in a survey of the manor of Stoke Prior. 

 Situated in the northern part of the county, this manor comprised 

 in the days of the survey several hamlets. At Stoke itself all copy- 

 holds and freeholds were apportioned to three fields, Blakardyn, 

 Elford's, and Church, although the acres of the last field some- 

 times have to be supplied from outlying areas pretty clearly con- 

 nected with it. At Risbury a more exact division of acres than 

 that existing between Muston field, Mere field, and Inn field 

 could not be desired. At Hennor we hear of only one tenant, a 

 freeholder, whose arable acres none the less lay in three fields. 

 Another Herefordshire manor whose members seem to have 

 employed the three-field system was Stockton. In the hamlet of 

 Stockton the number of fields was considerable, but between two 

 of them, Rowley's field and Rade field, each tenant had about 

 two-thirds of his acres pretty evenly divided. All the remaining 

 fields may well be grouped as a third large field, playing this part 

 relative to the other two. One holding, that of William Bach, 

 had precisely twenty acres in each of these three areas. The 

 three tenants in the hamlet of Hamnashe likewise divided their 

 acres among three fields. At Kimbolton, another hamlet of the 

 manor, five fields recur; but, as at Stockton, two of them are each 

 as important as a combination of the other three. 



From Shropshire we have only one brief survey which illus- 

 trates the three-field system. It describes four copyholds in 

 the fields of Mawley and Prysley, hamlets of the manor of Cleo- 

 bury. While there was much enclosed pasture here, the arable of 



^ Cf. below, pp. 93 sq. ^ q{ Appendix I. ' Cf. below, pp. 95, 141. 



