CELTIC SYSTEM IN ENGLAND 25 I 



tagers. The six held for the most part a series of closes, but four 

 had also " lands " or strips lying intermixed in places called 

 Eyebrookes, Church field, and Hall field. ^ These strips formed 

 less than one-third of each leasehold, the ratios in acres being 

 21 to 75 J, 6\ to 85 J, 12 to 385, 10 to 33 J. The Eyebrookes was 

 a close, and may have been a close of glebe shared by the four 

 tenants. Since Hall field and Church field were situated " upon 

 the Downes," they suggest areas recently improved and sub- 

 divided. Such constituents do not go to the making of normal 

 open arable fields. 



Less vague is a survey of 1650 relative to the manor of Hand- 

 bridge, just outside Chester. ^ Twenty-two of the tenants had 

 each a messuage, a garden (never larger than half an acre), 

 and common of pasture in Saltney Marsh. In addition, each 

 had from one to six " founds in the Towne feild." Always there 

 were from one to three " founds " in " Longefeild in the Towne- 

 feild," and eleven tenants had also a strip or two apiece " at 

 the lower ende of the Bottom in the Town feild." There were 

 besides two parcels " within the Gullett in the Townfeild," four 

 at " Lowhill in the Townefields," and two at Crossflatts. At 

 times the " lound " is said to have contained one acre, and on 

 this basis the total area of all of them would have been about 

 sixty acres. At length we have discovered a town field, small, 

 to be sure, but one which had its subdivisions and one in which 

 many tenants had intermixed parcels. 



In sixteenth-century terriers similar open fields are discernible 

 in the same neighborhood. At Chester, in 2 Edward VI, the 

 college of St. John the Baptist had several tenants, the holdings 



1 Fishwick, Lancashire and Cheshire Church Surveys, pp. 176-184. The items 

 are as follows : — 



" Nyne lands in the Close called the Eye brookes, Conteyneing by estimacion 8 acres. . . . 



Seaven Lands in the Churchfeild and eight lands in the Hall hill, conteyneing by 



estimacion 13 acres. . . . 

 Two lands and one head land in a Close Called the Eyebrookes, by estimacion 2 acres, 



2 roods. . . . Three lands in the Church-feild and one land in the Hall feild, both 



upon the Downes, by estimacion 4 acres. . . . 

 Seaven lands in the Eyebrookes, by estimacion 6 acres. One land in the long acres, 



by estimacion i acre. . . . Two lands, two headlands in the Churchfeild, and three 



lands in the Hall feild or hall hill, by estimacion 5 acres. . . . 

 Seaven lands in the Eye brookes, by estimacion s acres, 2 roods. . . . Fewer lands ia 



the Church feild, with a small Cottage, by estimacion 4 acres, 2 roods." 

 ^ Parliamentary Surveys, Cheshire, No. 13 A. 



