THE LOWER THAMES BASIN 397 



upon enclosed demesne.^ Of evidence, however, which proves the 

 practice of three-course husbandry upon demesne acres lying in 

 common fields there is only the brief amount just cited. Apart 

 from the testimony of four townships in northern Hertfordshire 

 and of one in Essex, we have from a considerable body of extents 

 no suggestion that a three-field system prevailed in the counties 

 of the lower Thames. 



As to these exceptions, the Hertfordshire townships, lying as they 

 do on the borderland of the midland area, may well have adopted 

 midland husbandry without coming to be in any way abnormal 

 phenomena. The Essex instance, however, is more difiEicult of 

 explanation. Tolleshunt is situated, not in northwestern Essex 

 on the edge of the midlands, where three fields might be expected, 

 but in the eastern part of the county near the coast. The state- 

 ment, then, that one-third of the demesne lay fallow and com- 

 mon there seems to import into the region the usages that lay 

 behind similar statements in Norfolk and Suffolk extents. In 

 those counties, as we have seen, a three-course rotation of crops 

 on common fields did not, either in the sixteenth century or in the 

 fourteenth, necessarily imply a three-field system. The same 

 may have been true of Tolleshunt, and the field arrangements 

 there may have been like those with which we have become fami- 

 liar at Weasenham in Norfolk.^ 



Forms 01 tillage other than a three-course rotation of crops 

 were also known in Tourteenth-century Essex. At Chingford, in 

 12 Edward III, 240 acres from a total demesne of 260 acres were 

 sown;^ at Newport and at '' Lachlegh " during the same decade 



1 C. Inq. p. Mort. Edw. Ill, F. 66 (27), Bennington, Herts: " Sunt ibidem ccc 

 acre terre arabilis quarum due partes seminari possunt per annum. Et valent si 

 seminantur Ix s. viiii d. pretium acre iiii d. Et quando non seminantur pastura 

 eorum duarum partium valet per annum xvi s. viii d. pretium acre i d. et non plus 

 quia terra ilia est valde petrosa et inde male herbata. Et dicunt quod due partes 

 seminabantur ante mortem dicti Petrum. Sed tertia pars, viz., c acre de predicta 

 terra iacent ad warectam que valet per annum viii s. iiii d. pretium acre i d." 



2 Cf. above, pp. 316-325. 



' C. Inq. p. Mort., Edw. Ill, F. 56 (i): " Sunt ibidem cclx acre terre arabilis. 

 . . . De quibas seminabantur ante mortem predicti Egidii de seisona hyemali cl 

 acre et de seisona quadragesimali iiii^^ x acre." 



