EARLY HISTORY OF TWO AND THREE FIELDS 



7S 



et ibidem x acre que iacent pro warecto hoc anno 



item in eodem clauso in Netherforlong' xiiii acre unde una 



medietas seminata cum drageto et alia medietas iacet in 



warecto." 



Here the 14 acres in Netherfurlong were tilled as were the common 

 fields, but the greater part of the close had adopted a three- 



Sketcli of the Euclosure Map of the 

 Township of Stow, Lincolnshire. 1804. 



Normanby 



A" 



Map IV 



course rotation. One can see that such an example might some 

 day inspire the tenants to make a similar disposition of the open 

 fields. 



That at some time a change from two to three fields had taken 

 place in certain townships is suggested by the enclosure maps of 

 the eighteenth century. Now and then three fields are of such 

 a character that two of them seem to have been derived from a 

 single older one. The accompanying plan of Stow, Lincolnshire, 

 is illustrative.^ If one compares it with the plan of two-field 

 Croxton,^ one cannot help suspecting that Stow too had once 

 only two fields. Opposite to West field there had been an East 



» C. P. Recov. Ro., 49 Geo. Ill, Hil. 



^ Cf. above, p. 26. 



