EARLY IRREGULAR FIELDS IN THE MIDLANDS 99 



had almost forgotten its early days in its adherence to pasture 

 farming. 1 



Similarly unmindful of their thirteenth-century condition were 

 two townships nearer the Wiltshire border, not far removed from 

 Bath and Wells respectively. These were Norton St. Philip and 

 West Pennard. In the copyholds of the former enclosures so 

 much predominated that only a half-dozen still had any parcels 

 left in the two fields, which we discern to have been North and 

 South. Since a considerable area in the North field known as 

 " goddes peece " had not long since been converted to enclosed 

 pasture, Norton St. Philip seems already to have devoted itself 

 to the dairy farming of which it boasts today. 



West Pennard, a manor once belonging to Glastonbury, was 

 more conservative. Although its holdings were generally about 

 half enclosed and devoted to pasturage, there were in each several 

 acres of open arable field. Often these lay in " Easterne Downe " 

 and " Westerne Downe," so disposed as to tempt one to see in 

 these " Downes " two old fields; but such a conclusion might be 

 hasty, inasmuch as remains of a South field existed and at times 

 some holdings manifested a kind of three-field attitude toward 

 Breach field, Westmore field, and Eastmore field. In view of 

 these contradictions, we can only insist upon the general irregu- 

 larity of the field arrangements without trying to probe into 

 their past. 



Finally, certain townships may be cited to show the two-field 

 system just inclining to decay. On the tongue of high land 

 which borders Sedgemoor in mid-Somerset is situated Curry 

 Mallett, where in 16 10 the two old fields, East and West, were 

 still easily recognizable. They had been encumbered, though 



Two manors of the Earl of Pembroke, surveyed in 9 Elizabeth, lay in this part 

 of the county. South Brent seems to have been entirely enclosed. At Chedzoy 

 near Bridgewater, however, there was considerable unenclosed land, much of it 

 meadow. Seldom did one-half of a holding lie in open arable field, while the 

 fraction might fall to one-seventh and was usually one-third or one-fourth. 

 The fields which most often appear are East and North, the former receiving the 

 greater number of acres. At times there is reference to West field and Slapeland 

 field, but no indications of a regular field system are visible. Cf. C. R. Straton, 

 Survey of the Lands of William, First Earl of Pembroke (2 vols., Roxburghe Club, 

 1909), ii. 471-486, 442-471. 



