The Background To History

A new series on Radio 3, introduced by Professor Angus Jones of the Open University
Part IV: The Open Field Farming System in Mediaeval England.

PROF. JONES: One of the main elements in any study of the medieval open-field farming system is the allocation of plough tema for the winter sowing. Professor Tofts of the University of Manchester puts it like this.
PROF. TOFTS: "To plough once in the winter sowing, and again in Lent, sowing with as many oxen as he shall have yoked in the plough...oh yes...as he shall have yoked in the plough".
PROF. JONES: But of course there is considerable evidence of open field villages as far back as the 10th century- Professor Moorhead.
PROF. MOORHEAD: There's evidence-
PROF. JONES: Evidence?
PROF. MOORHEAD: - Evidence of settlements with one long village street, farmsteads, hamlets, little towns- the framework was complete.
PROF. JONES: By the time.....
PROF. MOORHEAD:.... of the Norman Conquest...
PROF. JONES:... the rural framework was complete.
PROF. MOORHEAD: The rural.....
PROF. JONES: ...framework....
PROF. MOORHEAD: ....was complete.
PROF. JONES:This is not to say of course that the system was as sophisticated as it later came to be. I asked the Professor of Medieval Studies at Cambridge why this was.
PROF. HEGERMANN: Well it may not have been a statutory obligation, but I mean, a guy who was a freeman was obliged in the medieval system to....
PROF. JONES: To do boonwork?
PROF. HEGERMANN: That's right. There's an example from the village rolls in 1313.
PROF. JONES: And I believe you're going to do it for us.
PROF. HEGERMANN: That's right, yes. It's written in the village rolls that "if one plougteam wants an oxen and that oxen's lent, then the villeins and the ploughman have got to have the lord's consent". ii
i Vita Edwardii, roll IV
ii Hungerford village rolls

Next week, The Background to History, Part V. Professor K.L. Hislop, "Gay Clubs in the 13th century Scotland".


danke an The Monty Python.