286 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



at first inconspicuous, comes to have in three neighboring iuga 

 24 acres in 24 parcels and a croft of 5 acres. Most of the numer- 

 ous tenants, however, were like John Colman or John York: 

 they had small parcels in two or three or four neighboring iuga, 

 but none elsewhere. It is just possible, of course, that such par- 

 cels were contiguous and formed a compact holding artificially 

 divided among arbitrarily drawn iuga. This, however, is unlikely, 

 and in any case the larger holdings have to be thought of as com- 

 posed of parcels to some extent non-contiguous. The survey 

 thus establishes the fact, hitherto obscure, that the parcels of a 

 Kentish holding were not scattered throughout the expanse of 

 the village arable, as under the midland system, but were to some 

 extent segregated in one locahty. They did not, however, en- 

 tirely cohere. The field system of Gillingham may, then, be de- 

 scribed as one of non-contiguous, yet of not widely scattered, 

 parcels. 



Over it all rested the network of the iuga, for the rectangular 

 appearance of which this survey is our best source. Whether 

 blocks of such a shape, regularly disposed and of uniform size, 

 served or, ever had served an agricultural end, is not explained in 

 this abbreviated document. Other Kentish surveys, however, 

 amplify our knowledge, and an extract from one of the best of 

 them is printed in Appendix V. The description of units, tenants, 

 parcels, and rents shows the same completeness which must have 

 characterized the Gillingham original. Beginning and end are 

 wanting, but the hand is of the early fifteenth century. The 

 townships referred to are Newchurch, Bilsington, and Romney 

 Marsh. Iuga are not mentioned, the units here being " dolae " 

 and '' tenementa." The accounts of three dolae (" dola Gode- 

 wini," "dola Storni," "dola de Kyngessnothe ") and of three 

 half-dolae (" dimidia dola Mawgeri," " aha dimidia dola Maw- 

 geri," " dimidia dola de Westbrege ") have been transcribed. 



Several characteristics already discerned at Gillingham re- 

 appear. The dolae are described as abutting upon or lying on 

 both sides of certain highways, a circumstance which implies that 

 they were compact areas; indeed, a statement is sometimes added 

 to the effect that their acres lay " coniunctim." Their size was 



