EARLY HISTORY OF TWO AND THREE FIELDS 8 1 



the " campus " is divided, the size of the fields, and the fact that 

 not only the bailiffs but also the " other men of the prior and 

 convent " took part in the re-division, make it highly probable 

 that the arable fields of the entire township were recast. 



The cumulative effect of all this evidence is to estabhsh the 

 fact that transferences from two- to three-field arrangements in 

 midland townships did take place. Instances have been cited from 

 an area extending from Leicestershire to Dorset and from War- 

 wickshire to Cambridgeshire. The period, too, during which the 

 changes seem most often to have occurred has been determined. 

 It comprises the thirteenth century and the early fourteenth. 

 Of the instances which can be approximately dated, that referring 

 to South Stoke and belonging to the first half of the thirteenth 

 century is the earliest, while the others fall between 1250 and 

 1350. It is precisely during this most prosperous century of 

 the Middle Ages that one would expect agricultural progress. In 

 midland England, it is quite probable new demands were then 

 made upon the soil leading to numerous changes like those de- 

 scribed above. 



We thus approach a final question. Since a transformation 

 from two to three fields is discernible in the records that have 

 survived, may not a similar change once have taken place in 

 all townships which, when we know them, lay in three fields ? 

 The hypothesis is entirely credible. It is especially so since there 

 were in the thirteenth century no large unbroken three-field areas 

 which would point to an ancient history for that system. Three- 

 field tillage did, of course, come to preponderate in the northern 

 and eastern midlands; but very few counties of that region were 



Christi ecclesie de Twynham facta in manerio de Pudelton' per Johannem le Mar- 

 chaunt et philipum de la Berne tunc ballivos dicti manerii et alios dictorum prions 

 et conventus fideles anno regni regis Edwardi filii Regis Henrici vicesimo et limita- 

 tur campus in tres partes, videlicet. 



Primus limes extendit se in regia via de Pudelton usque Cochestubbe et deinde 

 . . . [boundaries] et continentur in parte ilia ccxlviii acre de quibus acre iiii=" 

 non sunt digne coli quia steriles et prave sunt. 



Et est campus orientalis cum toto campo australi sibi adiuncto medius campus 

 cuius limes incipit apud . . . sselberghe et tendit se . . . [boundaries] et con- 

 tinentur in medio campo in universo clxxvii acre terre et sunt digne coli. 



Tertius campus est campus occidentalis. In campo occidental! continentur cc 

 et v acre de quibus acre xxx non sunt digne coli." 



