THE EAST ANGLIAN SYSTEM 33 I 



at least once every three years. The sixteenth-century system 

 is carried back to the end of the fourteenth, and assurance is 

 given regarding the method of fertilization about which later 

 surveys are silent.^ 



Other East Anglian townships furnish early evidence not un- 

 like that from Holkham. In the time of Henry VIII a manor 

 at Scratby is described as comprising, besides 9 acres enclosed, 

 29 acres in twelve parcels in South field and 16 acres in nine par- 

 cels in North field.^ A Great Massingham terrier of the late 

 fifteenth century enumerates the parcels of three holdings in 

 four unnamed fields.^ The respective areas in acres were 8|, 

 8f , 3h 7h; 9, 6f, 3i 6f ; 2f , 2^, li i|: an irregularity in appor- 

 tionment not to be remedied in any instance by a combination 

 of the last two areas. In 8 Henry V a manor at Ormesby was 

 held by several tenants whose parcels lay principally in North, 

 South, and Little fields, but so unevenly distributed as often to 

 be almost entirely within one field.* At Rockland in 23 Henry 

 VI the manor of Kyrkhall Moynes had its small parcels princi- 

 pally in South and West fields, although there was something in 

 North and East fields.^ Obviously, the distribution of the acres 

 of fifteenth-century holdings among fields was as capricious as 

 in the sixteenth century. 



Relative to the matter of tillage, a lease of the manor of Bed- 

 dingfield, Suffolk, dated 19 Richard II, instructs us as to how 

 certain lands there were sown. Eleven acres were in wheat, of 

 which two were " compostate," two were fallow, six sown with 

 barley, eight with peas, thirteen with oats.^ Whether these 

 acres were open or enclosed we do not learn, but the small num- 

 ber left fallow points to a husbandry almost as far advanced for 



^ The few other Holkham transfers of the fourteenth century which take the 

 trouble to mention fields are regardless of exact division. Such is the case with 

 3 acres which in 4 Edward III were in two pieces in South field, and with 6 acres 

 of which in 2 Edward II at least 4^ were in South field (Holkham Deeds, 2d series, 

 37, 24). 



2 Rents, and Survs., Portf. 12/59. * Ibid., 22/54. 



» Ibid., 22/46. 6 Add. MS. 33228. 



* Add. Char. A 3338: " Terra seminata cum frumento xi acre unde ii acre 

 compostate; item terra warecta ii acre; item cum ordeo vi acre; item cum pisa 

 viii acre; item cum avena xiii acre." 



