LATER HISTORY OF THE MIDLAND SYSTEM 1 39 



for Shropshire, and for the northwestern parts of Warwickshire, 

 Worcestershire, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire, eleven, six,^ five, 

 and five respectively. Since Herefordshire furnishes as many 

 awards as any part of this region, unless it be Somerset, and since 

 it Ues well to the west, its open-field history may be relied upon to 

 illustrate conditions and changes within the territory above 

 defined. 



The contrast with Oxfordshire, whose field transformations 

 we have been following, is marked. Though Herefordshire is 

 the larger county of the two (537,363 vs. 483,614 acres), and not 

 inferior in the extent of its fertile fields, its parliamentary en- 

 closures of arable were not more than 31 in contrast with Oxford- 

 shire's 158. The awards recording them which are preserved 

 and accessible correspond with sixteen of the acts listed by 

 Slater,^ and add five that he does not mention. There are, how- 

 ever, ten petitions and acts which mention common fields but 

 for which the subsequent awards are missing.^ In no instance do 

 these petitions or acts give areas, and how much confidence should 

 be put in the mention of common fields in a routine formula, 

 especially when the specification of the common wastes precedes, 

 is uncertain.^ The Bredwardine petition, for example, mentions 



makes it clear that no arable was in question. At Byford the award allotted only 

 a common, although it provided for the exchange of certain strips of arable. On 

 the other hand, the hst omits five townships for which we have awards concerned 

 with the allotment of arable, viz., Wellington, Humber and Stoke Prior, Holmer, 

 Pembridge, and Madley. 



1 Kidderminster, Wolverley, Overbury, Ombersley, Alvechurch, Yardley. 



2 Most of them are at the Shire Hall, Hereford, and I am indebted to J. R. 

 Symonds, Esq., clerk of the peace, for permission to examine them. Of the thirty- 

 four there preserved, fourteen relate to commons only. The Marden award, most 

 important of aU, is kept at the village of that name, but there is a copy at the 

 Public Record Office. 



' Perhaps some of them are, like the Marden award, to be found in the parishes 

 to which they refer. The townships or parishes with which they are concerned 

 are Bodenham, Shobden, Bishopston and Mansell Lacy, Steepleton, AUesmore, 

 Eardisland, Clehonger, Stretton Grandison, Norton Canon, and Puttenham. 



* These petitions usually recite " certain Commons, Wastes, Common Fields 

 and Commonable and Open Lands " (Journal of the House of Commons, 31 January, 

 1811, Eardisland). When arable is prominent the phrase runs, "several Open 

 Fields, Meadows, and Pastures " (petition for the enclosure of Tarrington, ibid., 

 9 February, 1796). 



