78 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



Piddington, as at Twyford, two township fields had at some time 

 between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries been replaced 

 by three. 



Elsewhere it is possible to discover that the transformation 

 took place' before the sixteenth century. At Litlington, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, in 1 1 Edward III, only one-half of the demesne lands 

 were sown annually, the remainder being of no value since they 

 lay in common. By the time of Henry VIII, however, the 

 demesne arable, so far as it lay in the common fields, comprised 

 41 acres in Westwoode field, 31 in Grenedon field, and 35 in Hyn- 

 don field.' In three Northamptonshire townships the period of 

 change is likewise restricted to the interval between the thirteenth 

 and sixteenth centuries. At Holdenby a thirteenth-century 

 charter enumerates 36 acres of demesne arable in small parcels, 

 assigning them in equal measure to the East field and the West 

 field. In 32 Henry VIII another account of the demesne there 

 refers it to West field. Wood field, and Cargatt field. ^ At Dray- 

 ton a charter of the time of Henry III divides 4I acres equally 

 between North field and South field, allotting to each five parcels. 

 A survey of 13 Elizabeth, on the other hand, subdivides all hold- 

 ings with proximate equality among West field, North field, and 

 East field, the respective areas of which were 529, 573, and 414 

 acres.' At Evenley, finally, several thirteenth-century charters 

 convey arable in equal amounts in East field and West field; 

 but a terrier of Henry VIII enumerates in many parcels 47 acres, 

 of which 17 lay in West field, 13 in South field, and 17 in East 

 field.'' 



While these four groups of documents pretty clearly assign the 

 change from two-field to three-field arrangements to an undefined 

 period between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, other 

 charters and terriers reveal it accomplished or in process of 

 accomplishment before the fifteenth century. At Long Lawford, 

 Warwickshire, the open fields of the early thirteenth century were 

 two; but a charter copied into a late fourteenth-century cartulary 

 pictures them as three, and divides the numerous parcels of 49 



» Appendix II, pp. 457, 459. ' Ibid., pp. 477, 482. 



2 Ibid., pp. 479, 482. * Ibid., pp. 478, 482. 



