THE WESSEX TYPE OF VILLAGE COMMUNITY.
TWO DORSET MANORS--STRATTON AND GRIMSTONE.
Dorchester is bounded on the south by Fordington Field. The parish
of Fordington, up to the year 1875, was unenclosed; it lay almost
entirely open, and was divided into about eighty copyholds, intermixed
and intercommonable, the manor belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall. But
in 1875 the Duchy authorities bought out the copyholders, and the old
system disappeared.
About three or four miles from Dorchester, along the road to Maiden
Newton and Yeovil, are the two adjoining villages of Stratton and
Grimstone, forming together the Prebend of Stratton, belonging till
recently to the See of Sarum, which have only been enclosed since
1900. The enclosure was effected without any Parliamentary sanction;
it was brought about, I am told by the present lord of the two manors,
by the refusal of the copyholders, who held by a tenure of lives, to
“re-life.” In consequence, all the copyholds, except a few cottages,
have fallen into the hands of the lord of the manor; all Grimstone has
been let to a single farmer, and Stratton divided into three or four
farms.
Besides the very late survival of the common field system in these two
manors, there are two other features which make them specially notable.
In the first place they are, agriculturally, thoroughly characteristic
of the Wessex type of open field village, the type that prevailed
over Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset. In the second place,
the manorial system of village government survived with equal vigour;
the proceedings of the manorial courts and the customs of tillage
and pasturage forming manifestly only two aspects of one and the
same organisation. It is fortunate that the court-rolls for the last
two hundred years have been preserved, and that they are in the safe
custody of the present lord of the manor.
On the south-west the lands of Stratton and Grimstone are bounded by
a stream, the River Frome, flowing towards Dorchester, from which
Stratton Mill has the right of taking a defined amount of water.
Between the stream and the villages are the commonable meadows; on
the north-east of the villages the arable fields, tapering somewhat,
stretch up the hill slope to Stratton and Grimstone Downs. The whole
arrangement is shown very clearly in the tithe commutation map, dated
1839. The two manor farms were separate and enclosed, and lay side by
side along the boundary between the two manors, in each case comprising
about one-third of the cultivated land. The remaining arable land in
each manor formed, so far as fences were concerned, one open field,
divided into three oblong strips, known respectively in Stratton as
the East, Middle, and West Field; in Grimstone as Brewer’s Ash Field,
Rick Field, and Langford Field. The rotation of crops was: (1), wheat;
(2), barley; (3), fallow. The lower part of the fallow field was sown
with clover, and was known as the “hatching ground”--a term we find
elsewhere in the forms “hitch-land” and “hook-land”--the upper part
was a bare fallow. More recently an improved method of cultivation was
adopted. The barley crop every third year was maintained, but after it
was carried Italian rye grass was sown in the upper part of the barley
field (instead of a bare fallow). This was fed off with sheep in the
spring, and then put into turnips; the following year barley was sown
again. The lower part, however, continued to be sown with clover in the
fallow year, this was fed off with sheep, and wheat followed.
The arable fields consisted of “lands” or “lawns,”[3] each supposed
to be 40 “yards” (_i.e._ poles) long, and one, two or four “yards”
broad--hence supposed to be quarter acres, half acres, or acres. Half
acres were the more common; but whatever the area in theory it was
somewhat less in actual fact.
[3] Mr. A. N. Palmer notes the terms “loons,” “lawnds” and “lownts” in
N. Wales and Cheshire (“The Town, Fields and Folk of Wrexham,” p. 2).
The West Field in Stratton was somewhat smaller than the other two in
consequence of the extreme portion--that next the down and farthest
from the village--being enclosed. These enclosures in shape and
arrangement exactly resemble the lands in the open field; they are
about one acre each. They are called “The Doles.” Further there are a
series of small square enclosures taken out of the down, called “The
New Closes.” All the Doles and New Closes were in grass.
A remarkable fact is that all the “lands” were scrupulously separated
from one another by meres or balks of turf, which, however, were not
known by these names. Among the people they were, and are, known as
“walls,” but in the court-rolls one finds the term “lanchetts,” which
one connects with “lynches,” and “land-shares,” which seems to explain
the term “launchers” which I have found in Devonshire. In the level
parts of the fields the “walls” were mere strips of turf about a foot
wide; but in the sloping parts they formed steep banks, sometimes
several feet high, and the successive “lands” formed terraces one above
the other.
All the cultivators, except the tenants of the two manor farms, were
copyholders, holding for a tenancy of three lives, the widow of the
holder having the right to continue the holding during the period of
her widowhood. By the custom of the manor the lessee of the manor had
at any time (even though his lease had but a day to run) the right to
grant a copyholder two lives, _i.e._, to accept a fine and substitute
two new names for those of dead or dying persons on the “copy.”
The copyholds, when not “cotes” or simply cottages with common rights,
were either “half-livings,” “livings,” or, in one or two cases, other
fractions of a living. A half-living consisted of four or five nominal
acres in each of the common fields, and common rights upon the meadow,
common fields and common down, in Stratton, for one horse, two cows,
and forty sheep. A whole living consisted of a share about twice as
large in the field and meadow, and a common right for two horses,
four cows, and eighty sheep. But each copyhold, whether a whole or
half-living, included one dole and one new close. There were three
whole livings and twelve half-livings in Stratton, and five “cotes,”
_i.e._, cottages with one or two strips of land in the arable fields
attached to them. In Grimstone there were four whole livings, six
half-livings, one three-quarters living, and one whole and a-quarter
living. In either manor, therefore, if we reckon two half-livings as
equal to one whole, there were nine whole livings in all; those of
Stratton being normally held by fifteen copyholders, those of Grimstone
by twelve, though the number might happen in practice to be less. Thus
at the time of the tithe commutation (1838) there was in each manor one
copyholder who had two half-livings. In all formal documents a “living”
is termed a “place,” and a half-living a “half-place.” The common
rights attached to a living in Grimstone were slightly different from
those in Stratton. They are further explained below.
Once a year, at about Christmas, the tenants of each manor met, the
steward presiding; the elected officials submitted their accounts,
and resigned their offices, and their successors were re-elected. The
most important of these were two “viewers of the fields and tellers of
the cattle,” commonly known simply as the “viewers.” There was also a
“hayward,” and two “chimney peepers” (described in the Court-rolls as
“inspectors of chimnies”). The inspectors of chimneys do not appear in
the rolls of the eighteenth century; instead are the more important
officials the “constabul” (_sic_) and “tythingman,” who ceased to be
appointed presumably after the establishment of the county police and
the commutation of the tithes.
The duty of the “chimney peepers” was, as their name implies, to
see that chimneys were kept properly swept so as not to endanger a
neighbour’s thatched roof. The hayward was in charge of the pound; he
was entitled to charge 4_d._ a head for all stray beasts impounded if
they belonged to the manor, and 8_d._ a head for outsiders.
The “viewers” had more varied duties. In the first place they had
to appoint one villager as “Lacy’s Bridge man.” “Lacy’s Bridge” is a
structure of loose stones at a place where the stream, which for the
most part bounds Stratton meadow, crosses it; and the duty of the
bridge man is to keep it in sufficient repair to enable sheep to cross.
The viewers used to appoint the cottagers in turn, going down one side
of the road to the end of the village and up the other side.
Next the viewers provided the manor bull. They bought the bull, they
charged a fee for his services, and made all necessary regulations. The
breed favoured varied from year to year, and the viewers were never
known to please everybody with their choice.
Then the viewers appointed the common shepherd, in whose charge were
the sheep of the whole manor almost all through the year. And in
general they had to enforce all the decisions of the court with regard
to the times when sheep or cows should be allowed in the meadow, when
the sheep should come into the “hatching ground,” how and where horses
should be tethered, and particularly to see that each tenant sowed his
clover properly. And when the hay in the meadow was ripe, they marked
out to each tenant the plots which fell to his share that year. It
was usual to re-elect one of the viewers, so that though there was an
annual election, each viewer held office for two years, being for the
first year the junior viewer, for the second the senior.
There is much that is interesting in the management of the sheep
flock. From April 6th to September 18th the sheep fed by day on the
down, and were folded by night on the fallow field. The fold began at
the top of the field, and gradually worked downwards, covering about
half-an-acre every night, and so manuring the whole. There being no
other water supply on the downs, all the tenants had to take turns to
carry up water to fill the water-troughs, and the viewers saw that they
did so. On September 18th the sheep came into the “hatching ground,”
on which, as we have seen, clover had been sown; and it is noticeable
that this crop, sown individually by each copyholder on his own lands,
was fed off by the common flock under the supervision of the common
shepherd. In winter the sheep belonging to each tenant had to be folded
separately; and the doles and new closes were used for wintering the
sheep. Some made it a practice to sell off their flock when feed became
scanty, and to buy again the next spring; but the traditional custom
was to keep the sheep till they were four or five years old, at which
age they became fat, perhaps by superior cunning; meanwhile, of course,
they had been yielding wool and manure. In later years, though every
half living was entitled to forty sheep, by a common agreement the
number was limited to twenty-five in spring, and later in the year to
thirty-five, when the lambs reached the age at which they were counted
as sheep in the calculation of common rights.
Perhaps the most curious feature in the local system of agriculture
was the management of the common meadow. Sheep were allowed in it
from March 1st to April 6th (it would only bear ten or eleven), then
they had to come out and join the common flock, and the grass was let
grow to hay. At hay time the viewers went out and by the help of some
almost imperceptible ridges in the soil, and certain pegs driven into
the river banks, they marked out to each tenant the plots on which
he was allowed to cut and gather the hay. There were forty-seven
of these little plots; twenty-seven of them were definite parts of
particular copyholds, but nineteen were “changeable allotments,” each
of which belonged one year to one holding, the next year to another,
according to certain rules; while the remaining allotment, a little
three-cornered plot in the middle called “100 Acres,” amounting perhaps
to five perches in area, was divided among the holders of the adjacent
“Long lands.” On July 6th, the hay having been carried, the cows came
in, and grazed in the meadow till November 23rd, and then the meadow
was watered.
[Illustration: STRATTON MEADOW
Scale 1:2500]
I have before me the map of the meadow, now somewhat tattered,
being drawn upon a half sheet of thin foolscap, and a little notebook
recording particulars of the different plots in the meadow, and in the
case of the changeable allotments, who were entitled to them each year
from 1882 to about 1905, which the viewers used in partitioning the
meadow. The map I reproduce. The notebook reads[4]:--
STRATTON COMMON MEADOW.
Lear Croft Changeable Allotment next the Yard but one to Sparks.[5]
1882. Ozzard.
1883. Brett.
1884. Ozzard.
1885. Green.
Water Gates Changeable Allotment No. 1.
1883. M. Dean (Newberry).
1884. R. Davis.
1885. Dean.
1886. Davis.
Hole Rush--Changeable No. 1.
1883. Mr. R. Davis.
1884. Mr. Dean (Newberry).
1885. Mr. Davis.
1886. Mr. Dean.
Hole Rush No. 2.
1882. Ozzard.
1883. Brett.
1884. Ozzard.
1885. Green.
Hole Rush No. 3, or All Rush.
1883. R. Davis.
1884. Dean (Newberry’s).
1885. Davis.
1886. Dean.
Hole Rush near the Parish, No. 5.
1883. Mr. Dean (Newberry).
1884. R. Davis.
1885. Dean.
1886. Davis.
Hole Rush No. 4.
1883. Mr. Kellaway.
1884. Brown.
1885. Kellaway.
1886. Brown.
Hole Rush No 6, near the Parish.
1883. Brown.
1884. Kellaway.
1885. Brown.
1886. Kellaway.
Long Lands No. 2.
1883. Mr. Dean (Dunn).
1884. Brett.
1885. Brett.
1886. Dean.
Long Lands No. 3.
1883. Ozzard.
1884. Mrs. Dunn.
1885. Mr. Dean.
1886. Mrs. Dunn.
Long Lands No. 1.
1883. Mr. Tilley.
1884. Ozzard.
1885. Tilley.
1886. Ozzard.
Long Lands No. 5.
1883. Ozzard.
1884. Tilley.
1885. Ozzard.
1886. Tilley.
Long Lands No. 4.
1883. Mrs. Dunn.
1884. Mr. Dean (Newberry’s).
1885. Mrs. Dunn.
1886. Dean.
The first part of the Three Patches in the Great Horse Shoe is the
“Mill Bars Patch,” containing about 26 perches.
The second part is the narrow strip next to Mr. Channen’s--17 perches.
The third part is the lower patch adjoining Mr. Channen’s--1 rood 10
perches.
Total, 2 roods 13 perches.
CHANGEABLE ALLOTMENTS IN THE GREAT HORSE SHOE.
The Three Patches are one part.
Three Patches.
1883. Ozzard.
1884. Mr. Dean (Dunn).
1885. Mr. Tilley.
1886. Mill.
1887. Tilley.
1888. Mill.
1889. Ozzard.
1890. Brett.
The Square Patch is joining the patch by the Mill Bars, may be called
the fourth part of the “Great Horse Shoe,” it contains about 2 roods
and 4 perches.
1883. Mr. Tilley.
1884. Mill.
1885. Ozzard.
1886. Brett.
1887. Ozzard.
1888. Green.
1889. Tilley.
1890. Mill.
The Stake Weir is one part of the “Little Horse Shoe,” about 1 rood and
9 perches changeable.
1882. Ozzard.
1883. Dean (Newberry’s).
1884. Tilley.
1885. Mill.
The “Little Horse Shoe” changeable. The narrow strip and the strip
round the corner next to Stake Weir patch is one part.
1883. Mill.
1884. Ozzard.
1885. Dean.
1886. Tilley.
Narrow strip, 16 perches.
Patch round the corner, 1 rood 22 perches.
The small strip of land called “Hundred Acres” is a part of the Long
Lands and is divided amongst the half-acres.
The nine Cantons under the Parks Hedge are about 10 perches each.
[4] I give only four years, or a complete cycle, which is usually one
of two years, but sometimes of four, and in two cases of eight years.
[5] “Parks” in map.
About the agricultural merits of the whole system of managing common
fields, down and meadow, there is naturally a difference of opinion.
An old labourer says that before the old customs began to decay “they
made the most of everything,” that the crops are not so good now, and
“you can’t get the butter or the cheese” which used to be produced. The
butter nowadays goes rancid immediately, and the cheese has no taste.
On the other hand, the enterprising young farmer who now holds the
manor farm at Stratton, who has himself been a “viewer,” says: “They
always had two crops,” _i.e._, the corn crops had to struggle with
couch grass, which partly for want of sufficient ploughing, and partly
because it had a secure foothold in the “walls,” was never properly got
rid of.
That the life of the old system was gradually dying out before
it was ended by the extinction of the copyholds appears from two
circumstances: the old habit of mutual help in ploughing, one tenant
lending his horse to another, had died out; and the viewers had
difficulty in getting their expenses refunded. The wonder is that its
vitality was so persistent.
The history of the manors can be pretty fully traced by means of
the Court rolls, from 1649, when a Parliamentary survey was held, to
the present day. In 1649 Stratton had one copyhold tenant holding a
place and a-half, four holding one place each, and ten holding half
a place each, making 10½ “places” or “livings” altogether. There
were, besides, 12 copyholders who each held a “customary cottage with
thappurtenances.” During the next two hundred years (from 1649 to 1838)
the number of “livings” diminished from 10½ to 9; the actual number of
holders of livings or half-livings diminished only from 15 to 14; but
the twelve “customary cottages with thappurtenances,” which included
one or two acres of arable land and corresponding common rights,
diminished to five “cotes.” The other cottagers, however, retained the
right of cutting as much furze on certain “sleights” on the down, at
any one time, as they could carry home on their head and shoulders; and
the total number of cottagers was just two less in 1838 than in 1649.
The Court rolls contain, besides declarations of rights of the manor
to water from the stream, and to the allegiance of certain residents
outside, and a record of the changes in the tenantry, the names of the
officers elected, and regulations agreed upon for the management of
the land. Thus, there is usually some regulation as to the length of
the rope by which a horse may be tethered in the common fields; mares
are continually being prohibited from being kept in common or common
field; pigs must not be allowed to stray; cow dung must not be removed
from the meadow, nor certain thorny bushes in the meadow be cut, nor
may ducks or geese be fed in it. The penalty for each of these offences
is a fine of 5_s._ or 10_s._ The neglect to carry water up to the down
for the sheep is another punishable offence. In 1748 it was found that
the sheep pond needed to be mended; the viewers accordingly had to see
to its repair, and penalties were agreed upon for refusing to pay the
proper share of the cost.
Previous to 1765 the dates for, _e.g._, turning cows into the meadow
or sheep into the “hatching ground” varied from year to year; but the
settlement then arrived at was maintained for a succession of years.
The jury
“PRESENT that the Common Meadow be broke with horses on November
22nd,[6] that it be laid up on January 5th and continue unfed till
February 5th, then be broke and fed with sheep.
“That the Hatching Ground be laid up on January 5th, and not be fed
again till September 19th.
“That the Cow leaze must not be fed with sheep in time of sheep
shearing, nor with horses or mares at winnowing time.”
[6] At this time the Court met in October.
The year 1789 was a comparatively important date in the agricultural
history of Stratton during the eighteenth century. At the Court held
on October 9th, it was agreed that “the tenants shall meet in the West
Field on the 14th inst. between 9 and 10 in the morning, to bound out
the several lands, and afterwards each shall leave a lanchett of a
furrow between his and the adjoining land under penalty of a fine of
20_s._ And no tenant shall turn his plough on his neighbour’s land
after the 21st of November.” It would appear that the scrupulous
observance of the “walls” dividing one man’s land from another, which
was such an exceptional feature of Stratton and Grimstone Common
Fields, dates from this meeting.
Fordington parish, until the extinction of the copyholds, had many
features which compare curiously with those of Stratton and Grimstone.
It is very much larger; for whereas Stratton and Grimstone together
have an area of only about 1200 acres, the area of Fordington is
2749 acres, of which, up to 1876, nearly 1800 acres was common field
and common meadow, and 618 acres commons adjoining the common field.
Fordington is also peculiarly divided into three portions: the arable
field and common pastures lying immediately south of Dorchester, the
meadows forming a detached area by the side of the River Frome, and the
village itself a third detached area.
The copyholds in Fordington were known, some as “whole-places,”
“half-places,” as in Stratton and Grimstone, but others as “farthing
holds.” One cannot help asking what were the original meanings of these
terms, and how they are related to the “virgates” of Domesday, and to
the “yardlands” of the Midlands, and the “broad” and “narrow oxgangs”
of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Concerning these terms it appears to
be established that a “yardland” or “virgate” was originally one
quarter of a “carucate,” or ploughland, _i.e._, the amount of arable
land (about 120 acres in average soil) which a plough team of eight
oxen could plough in a year, together with its due share of meadow
and common pasture. A broad oxgang was about 24 acres of arable land,
and therefore apparently the northern representative of a yardland or
virgate; and a narrow oxgang was about 12 acres of arable, or half a
broad oxgang.
In Stratton, as we have seen, every “whole place” or “whole living”
had common rights for two horses, four cows, and eighty sheep; every
half-place common rights for one horse, two cows, and forty sheep. The
areas of land attached to the three whole places were respectively 18
a. 3 r. 35 p., 19 a. 2 r. 3 p., 22 a. 0 r. 11 p., averaging just 20
acres; the half-places varied from 9 a. 0 r. 19 p. to 13 a. 2 r. 25 p.,
the smaller half-places having an advantage in quality of soil, and the
average being almost exactly 11 acres.
In Grimstone the common rights as well as the area of land belonging
to particular whole or half-places varied somewhat. The half-places
consisted respectively of--
Area. Common Rights.
A. R. P. Horses. Cows. Sheep.
A 11 0 28 1 2 56
B 12 0 7 1 3 48
C 16 3 7 1 3 60
D 12 3 1 1 2 44
E (two half-places) 19 2 27 2 5 96
(average 12 acres)
The Whole Places.
A 21 1 25 2 5 104
B 21 1 38 2 5 96
C 21 0 19 2 4 96
D 20 2 32 2 5 96
The “whole and a-quarter place” had 26 a. 0 r. 13 p. of land
and rights for three horses, five cows, and 120 sheep, and the
“three-quarter place” 16 a. 1 r. 2 p., with rights for one horse, five
cows, and eighty sheep. If these be added together and divided by two
we arrive at two whole places of 21 a. 0 r. 27 p., with the common
rights for two horses, five cows, and 100 sheep. This may be taken
as the typical whole place, and the half-place is just a little more
than the mathematical half of a whole place. The fact that the common
rights attached to a given unit were more extensive in Grimstone than
in Stratton is the natural consequence of the fact that Grimstone had
244 acres of down and 35 acres of cow-common, Stratton only 190 acres
of down and 26 acres of cow-common.
But when we compare these with the whole places, half-places, and
farthing holds of Fordington, we find rather a puzzling discrepancy. In
the latter parish the fourteen whole places each had, in 1841, the date
of the Tithe Commutation, rights for four horses, three cows, and 120
sheep, except one, which had no common rights at all, but, apparently
by compensation, had 66 acres of arable land, eleven more than any of
the others. The smallest of the others had 42 a. 3 r., the largest 55
a. 0 r. 22 p., the average being about 48 acres; in other words, in
Fordington a whole place had more than twice as much arable land as
in Stratton or Grimstone, and carried a common right for four horses
instead of for two.
Each of the twenty-one half-places in Fordington had common rights
for three horses, two cows, and sixty-six sheep--which more closely
approximates to three-quarters than to a half of the rights of a whole
place. The area of land attached to a half-place is, however, on the
average somewhat less than half that attached to a whole place, the
largest having 25 a. 1 r. 6 p., the smallest 15 a. 1 r. 36 p., the
average being just under 21 acres. It happens curiously that the
largest “farthing holds” had more land than the smallest half-places,
as their areas range from 11 a. 1 r. 7 p. to 17 a. 3 r. 35 p. There
were nineteen of them, and their average area was 14½ acres. Each had a
common right for two horses, two cows, and forty sheep.
The following tentative hypothesis may be suggested as an explanation.
It is based on the presumption that the _names_ represent a more
ancient set of circumstances than the actual facts recorded in the
tithe apportionment.
I think it, on the whole, more probable that these units of holdings
are based upon ploughing by horses than upon ploughing by oxen. In
other words, I think that the system of co-aration persisted unimpaired
in these particular villages after horses had superseded oxen for
ploughing purposes, which might have happened at a very early date.
This seems plainly indicated by the fact that during the 190 years from
1649 to 1839 the majority of the copyholders in Stratton and Grimstone
had only one horse apiece, therefore they must have combined to work
even a two-horse plough; and, as I have said above, the practice of
helping one another with horses for ploughing only died out in very
recent years.
I think further, that in all three manors, a “whole place” or “whole
living” meant the land cultivated by one plough, but that in Stratton
and Grimstone the plough was a light and shallow one drawn by two
horses only, and in Fordington a heavier plough drawn by four horses.
The soil in Stratton and Grimstone is very thin and stony, and would
not bear deep ploughing; that of Fordington is much deeper and heavier.
Further, Stratton and Grimstone fields lie on the steep slopes
descending from the downs; Fordington field is gently undulating.
Therefore, a four-horse plough in Fordington would plough more than
twice as much land as a two-horse plough in the other villages. A whole
place then in Fordington naturally would have common rights for four
horses; in Stratton and Grimstone for two horses only.
A half-place in Stratton and Grimstone was, therefore, the holding
allotted to the tenant who had one horse, and it carried a common
right for one horse. Though a half-place in Fordington carried in 1841
a common right for three horses, I am inclined to believe that it
originally was the holding of a tenant who had two horses, _i.e._, half
a plough team, and originally had a common right for two horses only;
and, similarly, though a farthing hold in 1841 had a common right for
two horses, I am inclined to think it originally was the share of the
man who had one horse only, and only carried a common right for one
horse. That is to say, I think the _names_ here a better guide than the
nineteenth century common rights. If one were to adopt the opposite
view on this point, one would infer that a “half-place” was a misnomer
for a “three-quarter place,” and was the allotment of the man who had
three horses, and that a “farthing hold” should properly be called a
half-place. But on this assumption it would be hard to explain the fact
that the arable land attached to a half-place is, on the average, a
little less than half that attached to a whole place, and that attached
to a farthing hold only a little more than one quarter.
It seems quite probable that when in the course of the gradual
improvement of horses and ploughs in Fordington, the stage was
reached at which three horses were sufficient for a plough, the
holders of half-places already possessing two horses each endeavoured
to emancipate themselves from the necessity of joint-ploughing, by
obtaining an additional horse; and that when they had generally
succeeded in this they obtained the right of pasturing three horses
each on the commons and common-field; and when a two-horse plough had
come into general use, the holders of farthing holds would naturally
take similar steps, and so acquire common rights for two horses each.
There is one other noteworthy fact with regard to Fordington revealed
by the Tithe Apportionment. Certain lands scattered over the fields
of a total area of 4 a. 2 r. 20 p. were the property of the parish
constable for the time being; the churchwardens similarly held 1 r. 7
p., the parish hayward 1 a. 3 r. 18 p., and the parish reeve 3 a. 0 r.
17 p. These ancient village offices were therefore in Fordington not
entirely unremunerated.[7]
[7] The Boldon Book shows that in the Bishopric of Durham in the
twelfth century, the pounder, carpenter and smith generally occupied
holdings of about 12 acres in virtue of their callings, to remunerate
their services to the manor and to the common ploughs of the manor.
In its main features the common-field system of Stratton and
Grimstone appears to be typical of that prevailing before enclosure
in the counties of Dorset, Wilts, Hants, Berks, Oxfordshire, and
Gloucestershire.
The report of the Select Committee on Commons Enclosure gives a map
of a “rotation meadow,” in which each strip was held in rotation by
different occupiers, in Shilton, Berkshire; and one of a “lot meadow,”
in which the rotation was not by rule, but by lot, in Bestmoor,
Oxfordshire.