LATER HISTORY OF THE MIDLAND SYSTEM 151 



Enclosed Arable Acres in the Common Common 



Township Messuages Acres Fields Meadow 



Marlow 4 7 J 60,60,60,27 



Whitton 6 8f 60,46,21,40,60,38 305 acres 



Ratlinghope . 8 13^ 30,10,22,14,24,22,10,36 45 " dayesmath " 



( 6 i4§ ( 8 acres 



Letton < , 3°, 53, 59, 21, 25, 30 



I 142 



{% 



(g 16 18,24, 7^,18,40,12,6,35, 16 j 28 acres 



Adforton < „i ^ 1 .3 « 



( I 175 o (54 



Yatton 3 6^ 26, 40, 30 4 " dayesmath " 



Lye 4 38J 60, 30 30, 2^ 



In all these townships the open-field arable was far more exten- 

 sive than the enclosures, but, considerable as it was in Tudor days, 

 relatively little of it remained to be enclosed by act of parliament. 

 Only three of the townships appear in the awards.^ Of these, 

 Marlow and Whitton are in the parish of Leintwardine, the award 

 for which was drawn up in 1803. In it reference is made to Mar- 

 low, where a large common of 392 acres is allotted, but only five 

 acres of common field (in Little Marlow field) . To the township 

 of Leintwardine itself is assigned common field amounting to 197 

 acres. Since the hamlet of Whitton is not more than a mile 

 distant from the village of Leintwardine, a part of the area en- 

 closed probably came from the fields of Whitton; yet such part 

 can have been no very large fraction of the 265 acres which were 

 open arable field there in Tudor days. The third township of 

 the list which appears in the awards is Lye, where in 181 7 an 

 area of 274 acres was enclosed. How much of this was arable is 

 not made clear in the award, nor can it be determined what ratio 

 the four monastic holdings, specified above, bore to the entire 

 township; but, even if it be assumed that they remained un- 

 enclosed, the total open-field arable and meadow affected by act 

 of parliament in the seven townships of the foregoing Hst did 

 not exceed 300 acres. Since in Tudor days they had contained 

 upwards of 1200 acres, the area enclosed without parhamentary 

 intervention was about 75 per cent of the total. 



This fraction may not, of course, be appHcable to the county 

 as a whole. On the other hand, there is no reason for assuming 



1 Ratlinghope is in Shropshire, but there is no record of its enclosure in the 

 acts or in the enclosure awards at Shrewsbury. 



