356 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



or less homogeneous in these respects, it will be best to present 

 the evidence county by county and then attempt to make certain 

 generalizations. 



Surrey 



Ar--\ble open field in Surrey persisted until the period of parlia- 

 mentary enclosure, the reporters to the Board of Agriculture in 

 1794 estimating the total at some 12,000 acres. The largest 

 amount in a single township was the 800 acres at Epsom, while 

 the townships which had more than 350 acres apiece numbered 

 only about a dozen.' Although the open-field arable thus con- 

 stituted no large fraction of a township, parliamentary awards 

 often refer as well to considerable stretches of waste.^ At Ewell, 

 for instance, Slater, following the act of 1801, reports that 1200 

 acres were enclosed.^ The award and map, enrolled in 1803, 

 show the enclosing of down on the south and of common on the 

 north (Chessington common) amounting to some 350 acres, but 

 the arable allotted was not more than 600 acres.* The map fails, 

 as enclosure maps so often do, to indicate the old field names or 

 arrangements. Even were these given, we should be disinclined 

 to accept them as representative of an early field system, since 

 the arable constituted so small a fraction of the township's area. 

 The reporters to the Board make statements which seem to 

 ally Surrey tillage with that of the midlands. In a general way 



1 W. James and J. Malcolm, General View of the Agriculture of the County of 

 Surrey (Lx)ndon, 1794), pp. 45-50. The reporters' list is as follows: from Carshalton 

 to Sutton and Cheam, 3000 acres; Ewell, 600-700; Epsom, 800; Ashted, 700; Fet- 

 cham, 150; Bookham, 450; East and West Clandon, 300; Merve and Horsehil, 

 510; Egham, 300; Hythefields, 250; Thorp, 350; Mortlake, Putney, Wandsworth, 

 and Battersea, 1340; Runnymead, 160; Yard Mead and Long Mead, 100; Wey- 

 bridge and Walton meadows, 350; Send Common Broad Meadow, 365; Scotches 

 Common Broad Meadow in Send parish, 50; Send Little Mead, 70. 



^ The award and map for Croydon are among the few that have been printed: 

 J. C. Anderson, Plan and Award of the Commissioners appointed to Enclose the 

 Commons of Croydon, Croydon, 1889. 



' English Peasantry, p. ^oi. 



* The map reveals the northern half of the township entirely enclosed, while its 

 open field lay compactly in the southern half, stretching toward the downs. Where 

 arable and downs met on the east, another enclosed area of some 200 to 300 acres 

 was marked off as North Loo Farm. The award is in the Public Record Office. 



