CHAPTER III 



Early Irregular Fields within the Midland Area 



It is well known from contemporary descriptions that the large 

 midland area, just described as characterized by the two- and 

 three-field system, showed other forms of open field in the eight- 

 eenth century.^ These were the result of efforts made to recon- 

 cile the system with the advancing agriculture of that day. 

 Although we shall have to examine these late innovations, it 

 would be rash to assume that they were the first of their kind 

 until we have inquired whether, as early as 1600, irregularities 

 were apparent in the fields of townships within the midland area. 



Such irregularities Tudor and Jacobean surveys show existent 

 before 16 10. Since regions favorably situated for agricultural 

 development must have tended to foster them, their appearance 

 in river valleys, frequently fertile and abounding in meadows, 

 would not be surprising. They may be looked for in the neigh- 

 borhood of the Tees, the Trent, and the Humber; at favored spots 

 along the course of the upper Thames; beside the Severn and its 

 tributaries, the Warwickshire Avon and the Wiltshire Avon; and 

 in the well-watered plains of central Herefordshire or eastern 

 Somerset. In Appendix III have been arranged extracts from 

 surveys illustrative of these early irregularities, many of them 

 from one or other of the regions above mentioned. ^ The 

 field arrangements, however, of the lower Thames, a river basin 

 without the midland area, require separate treatment.^ 



A circumstance other than situation in a favored valley may 

 conceivably have given rise to irregularity of field system. Sev- 

 eral tracts of land within the midland area were in early days 

 given over to the royal forests. In course of time settlements en- 

 croached upon these, and the new or at least the expanding 

 townships assarted forest land. Was this added arable now 



' Cf. below, pp. 125 sq. 



2 The townships referred to are located on the map which faces the title-p|0*'^'^? 



3 See Chapter IX, below. A^ /fe>.> . ) 



