[Regia-NA] Field measurement

[Hazel Uzzell]

Hi all,
for anyone still interested in the subject, I found my old copy of 'The
Turning Year' compiled by David Hill some years ago for the students on the
Anglo Saxon England course at Manchester University.
His comments on ploughs:
the heavy plough was definately in widespread use as opposed to the ard.
Light or early ploughs depicted in manuscripts are following mediterranean
exemplars. If anyone is interested in the construction and use of an
Anglo-Saxon heavy plough, let me know and I will bore you to death with it.
(David is something of a plough freak, even going to the trouble of bringing
back an oxbow from a European holiday)
The plough was pulled by 6 or 8 oxen. The team would measure some 45 feet
from ox nose to ploughman's heel. Charter evidence (available on request)
shows open field terminology in use by 10thC These show a mixed strip system
in operation.
In 'The Origins of the Open Field System' Ed Trevor Rowley 1981 London. the
process is associated with settlement nucleation in the later Saxon period.
The heavy plough is only economic with a long run therefor a long field is
most convenient. The result is a long narrow strip. Long strips have
relatively long perimeters in comparison to their enclosed area and are
therefor expensive to fence and protect. By placing the strips side by side
into one common field the growing crop is protected. The converse is that
the resultant common field has to be worked in concert, animals cleared off,
sown and harvested at agreed dates, the common hedge maintained. If a man
puts temporary fencing round a portion, he must not block access to water
etc.
The plan, width and shape of the ridge and furrow reveal differences. Some
ridge and furrow is straight, but much is curved in a serpentine plan. These
are not simple curves, they are always in the form of an elongated and
reversed 'S' .This feature is widespread throughout the country, so it must
have been a convenient way to plough. An 8 oxen plough is cumbersome,
particularly at the end of a furrow, when turning. Throughout the last 1,000
years, the mould-board has always been on the right hand side of the plough,
the furrow slice has thus been turned over towards the right, into the
centre strip. This process is called 'filling' or 'gathering'. Obviously,
the only way to 'fill' a land was to plough round it in a clockwise
direction beginning near the centre and working outwards. This means that
the turning about at the end of the furrow was ultimately to the right, and
not to the left, as the reversed 'S' shape might suggest. The need to keep
the plough firmly against the furrow up to the end of the strip leads to the
reversed 'S' shape. This, together with the easy re-entry into the furrow by
having a smooth curve dictates the shape of the field. The 'headland' must
be fairly short before the return is begun, otherwise too much time would be
lost in travelling across the end of the fields.
Walter of Henley stated that the way to plough a 'land of 40 perches by 4',
was to 'go round it 36 times'
Regards,
Hazel