66 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



Although this description gains in value because the division of 

 a fractional virgate is in question, it must be admitted that two 

 instances would constitute slight proof of the early existence of a 

 three-field system in the county, did they stand alone. 



From near-by Shropshire, however, more satisfactory early 

 data are available. There can, of course, be no doubt about the 

 existence of common fields in this county. Later descriptions of 

 monastic properties drawn up in 31 Henry VIII continually 

 locate the arable acres " in communibus campis." ^ Occasionally 

 they give more specific information and mention three fields. At 

 Norton in the parish of Wroxeter there were held at the will of the 

 lord two messuages, two crofts, and " in quolibet campo com- 

 muni trium camporum ibidem . . . ten dayeserth." ^ Just over 

 the county border in the parish of Gnosall, Staffordshire, Lilies- 

 hall monastery had a messuage, a croft, and arable land " in 

 tribus campis communibus ibidem." ^ A copyhold of the monas- 

 tery of Much Wenlock comprised 



" XX acras terre arabilis iacentes in campo ibidem vocato West- 

 wodfeld 



xviii acras ibidem in Alden hill feld versus Estp' 



xxii acras in campo vocato overfeld. " * 



In general, however, these monastic properties are described 

 with brevity, and we turn to earlier documents. In 5 Edward III 

 a three-course rotation of crops was employed upon the demesne 

 lands at Ernewood and Hughley, one-third of the acres being 

 sown with wheat.^ But this proves little. More instructive 

 is the fact that in the fourteenth century the demesne lands of 

 the manors of three of the largest abbeys in the county, Shrews- 

 bury, Lilleshall, and Much Wenlock, were so tilled that one-third 

 of the arable each year lay both fallow and in common.^ Although 

 such tillage is not conclusive proof that the demesne was distrib- 

 uted among three open common arable fields, it does, we have 



1 Land Rev., M. B. 184, ff. 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 184/, 190/, 210, 2286, 234, 236, etc. 

 » Ibid., f. 18. » Ibid., f. isb. 



* Ibid., f. 134b. 



* Exch. Anc. Extents, no. 68. 



* " Tertia pars iacet quolibet anno ad warectam et in communi" (Add. MS. 

 6165, ff. 37, 43, 51). 



