278 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



township between the mouth of the Thames and that of the 

 Med way. The 36 acres in question comprised 14 acres adjacent 

 to the messuage, 3 acres of meadow in a neighboring township, 

 and 24 small parcels in 18 places which look much like open 

 field.' 



Such descriptions from two northern townships suggest that 

 there was at times in this part of the county considerable sub- 

 division of certain holdings into small scattered parcels, and this 

 aspect of the situation recurs in terriers and surveys of the four- 

 teenth and fifteenth centuries. At Lewisham, near Greenwich, 

 there is twice ' recorded the transfer of parcels that lay in the 

 same field.^ At St. Mary's Cray and Orpington, also near 

 Greenwich, a conveyance of 40 acres, dated 26 Edward III, 

 enumerates ii^ acres lying in crofts, 11 j acres " in diversis parti- 

 culis in campo vocato Burfeld," and the remaining acres in ten 

 other places, several of which are called campi? Two instructive 

 charters relative to lands in or near Thanet are recorded in a 



' The distribution was as follows (Rents, and Survs., Portf. 1/4) : — 



Acres Roods (Virgae) Day's-works ( = -fij Roods) 



In Leyfeld i 9 



" Cufifeld .. IS 



" Trinite i\ 



' Wadishawe 2 1 s 



" Halles I 8 



" Spwradis 3 



" Perfeld i .. 3 



" Ryfeld i . . . . in 3 parceb 



" Barnefeld 3 



* Newlond I 5 



* le Skeme .1 8 



" Padpole I 1 . . in 2 parcels 



" Merehefeld . . 8J 



" Clerkyncroft., 1 .. 8J 



* Fedelers 3 5} 



* Greydon . . 6i 



" Skwalmeston 2J i 6im3 parcek 



luxta Waterlokestret 3 



2 In the first instance there are five acres, of which 



" una pars iacet in campo vocato Chatefeld in uno loco 



et alia pars in eodem campo in alio loco 



et tertia pars iacet in campo qui vocatur hethefeld." 



The second grant relates to 



" una dimidia acra terre in campo qui vocatur Estclune . . . ate myddelheg 

 cum tota terra quam habet in eodem campo Ate gore " (Cott. MS., Otho B 

 XIV, ff. 79, 81). 



' MSS. of the Dean and Chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, Lib. B, f. 18. 



