3o6 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



lingford enclosure award of 1809 allots almost all of the 3533 

 acres which constitute the two townships, but the Dugmore map 

 shows that not more than one-sixth of this area was in open field. ^ 

 Although the entire parish of Longham containing 1286 acres 

 was the subject of the enclosure award of 18 14, the map of 1778 

 shows it already enclosed except for some twenty-one strips of 

 open field which contained less than 50 acres. Finally, the 

 Warham award of 18 13, which announces that the entire parish 

 of 2303 acres is to be divided and allotted, should be interpreted 

 in connection with a map of 171 2, in which one-half of the parish 

 is seen to be already enclosed. ^ Because of this aspect of parlia- 

 mentary enclosure in Norfolk, any inference as to the amount of 

 arable open field existent there after 1750, so far as it is based 

 upon parliamentary petitions and acts, is untrustworthy. 



Nor, indeed, is it possible to get from the awards themselves 

 very accurate information on this subject. The plans, which 

 alone are useful, are so intent upon the new allotments as only 

 occasionally to indicate by fine lines what the old arrangements 

 were. In a general way, however, the existing enclosures left 

 unchanged in an award can usually be distinguished by their 

 irregular, more or less quadrilateral shape. To judge from them, 

 it appears that at times hardly any open-field strips remained, 

 the award evidently having been made in order to abolish certain 

 rights of common which might still be claimed over enclosed land.^ 

 The phraseology of other awards makes it difficult, if not im- 

 possible, to determine how much of the area actually afifected by 

 them was waste and how much was arable.* Under these cir- 



1 About 125 acres in Sparham and from 400 to 5cx) acres in Billingford. 



2 The Warham map of 171 2 is at Holkham Hall. 



' Among such awards are those relating to Great Walsingham, Little Walsing- 

 ham, and Houghton (181 2), Mileham and Beeston (1814), Gresham and Sustead 

 (1828), all at the Shire Hall, Norwich. A similar award relative to Winforton, 

 Herefordshire, has been noted above, p. 140. 



* The preamble of the Wootton award of 1813 declares that it is concerned with 

 394 acres of " open and common fields, fens, commons and waste lands." Each 

 allotment, however, refers more accurately to " commons, fens, and waste lands," 

 while the plan shows that the area in question was unimproved land on the out- 

 skirts of an enclosed township. The Wymondham award of 1810 notes that the 

 "lands and grounds directed to be divided, allotted, and inclosed contain 2285 



