LATER HISTORY OF THE MIDLAND SYSTEM 1 49 



from many smaller areas. ^ At Madley the field names applied 

 to 381 acres numbered thirty, while at Much Marcle as many as 

 forty were required to locate 622 acres. The Yarkhill award, 

 which, to be sure, makes allotments in other townships as well as 

 in Yarkhill, avails itself of thirty-eight such names. Instances 

 Hke these show how typical are the descriptions of Holmer and 

 Harden. They make it clear that throughout the county the 

 open fields of the era of parHamentary enclosure were for the 

 most part small, numerous, more or less isolated, and consider- 

 ably eaten into by piecemeal enclosures. 



The relatively small amount of arable enclosed in Herefordshire 

 by act of parliament necessitates one of two explanations regard- 

 ing the earHer history of open common fields there: either they 

 were never extensive, or the majority of them disappeared with- 

 out special act. In choosing between these alternatives one 

 should remember that parHamentary activity in the county 

 began late. The first extant award relative to open arable field 

 dates from 1797, and none of the ten missing awards were earlier. 

 By that year parliamentary enclosure in Oxfordshire had run half 

 its course. In view of the fragmentary condition of the Hereford- 

 shire fields when they first appear in the plans and schedules, it 

 is scarcely credible that no enclosing had been going on through- 

 out the preceding fifty years. Since appeal to parHament seems 

 not to have become the vogue until 1797, the natural explanation 

 is that would-be enclosers were getting on very well without it. 

 The simple method of enclosure by agreement, one may surmise, 

 was known and practiced. 



For such a conjecture we have further justification. In 1779 

 parHamentary sanction was sought for the aboHtion of common 

 rights over 379 acres of enclosed lands at Winforton.^ The 

 ownership of these closes resided in the lord of the manor, but 

 thirteen other persons were seized of the rights in question. The 

 meadows were " commonable at midsummer yearly," certain pas- 

 tures at Lammas day, and several arable fields " when rid or 



1 Great field, Wheatland field, Elms field, Quarry field, Walnut Tree field, Claypit 

 field, Twenty Acres, Birley field, Batch field, Henacre, Stream field, Psalters field, 

 Perry field. 



2 The award is at the Shire Hall, Hereford. 



