94 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



which constituted the remaining three-fourths, lay in many com- 

 mon fields, and only by following the names of these docs the 

 true complexity of the situation become apparent. In the dozen 

 holdings transcribed in Appendix III about forty field names 

 appear, some of them only once. We might suspect them of be- 

 ing applicable to closes held in severalty, were it not that nearly 

 every one is said to refer to a cotnmuHis campus. Since a tenant's 

 holding was likely to he in from three to nine of these areas, any 

 attempt to group them according to the three-field system is 

 naturally a hopeless task. The open fields of Middleton had 

 by the end of the sixteenth century got into such a condition 

 that their enclosure cannot have been difficult.^ 



The same multiplicity of fields characterized certain townships 

 of the manor of Ivington, from two of which, Hope-under- 

 Dinmore and Brierley, holdings are likewise summarized. In 

 both, enclosures constituted from one-fifth to one-third of each 

 holding. At Hope three fields. Over, Down, and Priesthey, fre- 

 quently recur in the survey; but if a holding had acres in all of 

 them it had most in Over field. Though four other fields occa- 

 sionally appear, they cannot be grouped with the three so as to 

 redress inequahties among the latter. At Brierley there were 

 seven noteworthy fields, among which Gorve field and " le Much 

 Howe " received the largest apportionment of acres. While a 

 few holdings admit of a three-field interpretation, the rest are 

 not amenable to it. 



Equally perplexing are the fields of Stoke Edith, which in 40 

 Elizabeth were described as largely open. The specifications of 

 the survey are not always lucid, parcels being sometimes desig- 

 nated "ridges"; but the holdings transcribed, which can be 

 little questioned, serve to show the open-field areas small, numer- 

 ous, and indifferent to a three-field grouping. 



In certain of the Stoke Edith holdings that are not trans- 

 cribed there is trace of another tendency characteristic of Here- 

 fordshire fields. This is the break-up of old tenements and the 

 dispersion of their parcels among several new tenants. What 

 is meant will become clear by the consideration of a Jacobean 



' There is no record of their enclosure by act of parliament. 



