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Authors: Trevor Yorke
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large, but could be later subdivided, so may contain straight hedges or fences within the patterns shaped by the earlier furlongs and strips. This could also occur when a farmer wanted to grow a different crop from the surrounding one in the open field. He could fence in his strip, leaving single thin fields within later regular ones.
Parliamentary enclosures
The Parliamentary enclosures of the 18th and 19th centuries usually had grids of straight walls and hedgerows (usually of hawthorn or blackthorn) ruthlessly laid down by surveyors. Earlier ridge and furrows can often be found with these features laid across them. Farmhouses were built out in the middle of the new fields and the architectural dating of these within a parish may help you uncover roughly when the enclosure took place.
Inevitably the roads between the fields would have to change course within the parish being enclosed, which could mean when they reached the parish boundary they would have to be realigned to meet the old route in the neighbouring parish (see Fig 4.4 ). If you have ever gone down a country lane and found a sudden 90° turn one way, followed by another 90° turn the other then it might indicate where this has happened (it should be along the line of a parish boundary but this could be affected by later boundary changes).
Water meadows
One problem with rearing sheep is feeding them in winter and especially at lambing time in March. Water meadows beside a river or stream were managed with a thin layer of water directed over the field, protecting the grass from frost and permitting an early growth for the flocks to feed on. Drains, sluices and ridges alongside rivers and streams are remains which you may find today. Shallow dams can also be found in some small rivers and streams, sometimes remains of an old industry or a mill, in other cases they created shallow beds so cress could be grown, or were associated with trout fishing.
FIG 6.4: Old ridge and furrow can show up on aerial photos or satellite images. These can also help identify older boundaries which fit in with the pattern of fields and later enclosure hedges which tend to cut straight over them .
FIG 6.5: Some older enclosures by agreement crystallised the former open strips, as here at Chelmorton in the Peak District .
FIG 6.6: In upland areas Parliamentary enclosure resulted in previously open lands being divided up by long straight lines of stone walling as seen here near Chelmorton in the Peak District .
WOODLAND
This was another important part of the medieval village landscape as timber was vital for building houses and erecting boundaries, such that the right to cut and collect wood was as tightly managed as the strips in the fields. The impression of dark, forbidding forests where the simple peasant would fear to tread is false. Most woodland up until the 19th century was managed, with the regular cropping and felling of trees creating gaps for light to flood in and flowers to grow.
Some trees like oak and elm would have been allowed to grow fully so their timber could be used for the major constructional parts of buildings. Others like hazel would have been coppiced, that is cut back to the stump every five to ten years to encourage thin, straight branches to grow, which were used for fence or house panels (the wattle in a timber-framed building). Hedges were also important, where a tree could grow larger than within a wood as there was no restriction of space.
FIG 6.7: A diagram showing a pollarded and a coppiced tree .
Another source of timber was wood pasture, which was usually common land with trees and open spaces for grazing. To avoid the livestock eating the young shoots growing on the trees, they were pollarded (i.e. the branches cut back to above the reach of the grazing animals). Pollarded willows were a common sight along the river bank, with the cropped branches (osiers) used for basket weaving. It is worth noting that a coppiced or pollarded tree will
Parliamentary enclosures
The Parliamentary enclosures of the 18th and 19th centuries usually had grids of straight walls and hedgerows (usually of hawthorn or blackthorn) ruthlessly laid down by surveyors. Earlier ridge and furrows can often be found with these features laid across them. Farmhouses were built out in the middle of the new fields and the architectural dating of these within a parish may help you uncover roughly when the enclosure took place.
Inevitably the roads between the fields would have to change course within the parish being enclosed, which could mean when they reached the parish boundary they would have to be realigned to meet the old route in the neighbouring parish (see Fig 4.4 ). If you have ever gone down a country lane and found a sudden 90° turn one way, followed by another 90° turn the other then it might indicate where this has happened (it should be along the line of a parish boundary but this could be affected by later boundary changes).
Water meadows
One problem with rearing sheep is feeding them in winter and especially at lambing time in March. Water meadows beside a river or stream were managed with a thin layer of water directed over the field, protecting the grass from frost and permitting an early growth for the flocks to feed on. Drains, sluices and ridges alongside rivers and streams are remains which you may find today. Shallow dams can also be found in some small rivers and streams, sometimes remains of an old industry or a mill, in other cases they created shallow beds so cress could be grown, or were associated with trout fishing.
FIG 6.4: Old ridge and furrow can show up on aerial photos or satellite images. These can also help identify older boundaries which fit in with the pattern of fields and later enclosure hedges which tend to cut straight over them .
FIG 6.5: Some older enclosures by agreement crystallised the former open strips, as here at Chelmorton in the Peak District .
FIG 6.6: In upland areas Parliamentary enclosure resulted in previously open lands being divided up by long straight lines of stone walling as seen here near Chelmorton in the Peak District .
WOODLAND
This was another important part of the medieval village landscape as timber was vital for building houses and erecting boundaries, such that the right to cut and collect wood was as tightly managed as the strips in the fields. The impression of dark, forbidding forests where the simple peasant would fear to tread is false. Most woodland up until the 19th century was managed, with the regular cropping and felling of trees creating gaps for light to flood in and flowers to grow.
Some trees like oak and elm would have been allowed to grow fully so their timber could be used for the major constructional parts of buildings. Others like hazel would have been coppiced, that is cut back to the stump every five to ten years to encourage thin, straight branches to grow, which were used for fence or house panels (the wattle in a timber-framed building). Hedges were also important, where a tree could grow larger than within a wood as there was no restriction of space.
FIG 6.7: A diagram showing a pollarded and a coppiced tree .
Another source of timber was wood pasture, which was usually common land with trees and open spaces for grazing. To avoid the livestock eating the young shoots growing on the trees, they were pollarded (i.e. the branches cut back to above the reach of the grazing animals). Pollarded willows were a common sight along the river bank, with the cropped branches (osiers) used for basket weaving. It is worth noting that a coppiced or pollarded tree will
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