Chapter IX
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The reason why the medieval three-field system was retained in Laxton, but was altered in Castor to an improved three-field system, is to be found in the nature of the soil. That of Laxton is a heavy clay, growing wheat of noted quality; that of the Northamptonshire parish is lighter, in parts very shallow and stony. Another result of the difference of soil was a different system of ploughing. The Castor method was that technically known as “Gathering and Splitting,” viz., alternately to plough each strip from the margin inwards, turning the sod inwards, and the reverse way, turning the sod outwards, so that the general level of the field was not broken into a series of ridges. In Castor, as in Laxton, no grassy “balk” divided one man’s “land” from his neighbour’s, the furrow only had to serve as boundary, and sometimes the boundary was bitterly disputed. Before the enclosure there was one spot in the common fields where two neighbours kept a plough each continually, and as fast as one ploughed certain furrows into his land, the other ploughed them back into his.
Another difficulty occasionally arose when high winds prevailed at harvest time. The great extent of the open fields, and the slightness of any opposition to the sweep of the wind, at such times allowed the corn to be blown from one man’s land, and scattered over his neighbours’. Indeed it recently happened that one year when peas had been chosen as the fallow crop, that a storm carried the whole crop to the hedge bordering the field, and so mixed together in inextricable confusion the produce belonging to thirty or forty different farmers.
Another source of dispute was one that has been a prolific cause of trouble in common fields for centuries. Where the extremities of a series of adjoining “lands” abut on a land belonging to another series at a right angle, the land so abutted on is termed a “head-land,” and the occupiers of the lands that abut on it have the right of turning their ploughs on the headland, and taking the plough from one strip to another along it. The occupier of the headland therefore has to defer ploughing it till all his neighbours have finished, and often chafes at the delay. Recently a farmer in the unenclosed parish of Elmstone Hardwick, near Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, attempted to find a remedy for this inconvenience. He ploughed his headland at the time that suited his convenience, and then sued his neighbours for trespass when they turned their ploughs in his land. Needless to say he lost more by his action than by the trespass.
In Castor quarrelsome farmers were wise enough to avoid the law courts. Instead, they wrote appealing against their neighbours to their respective landlords, but the landowners were unable to restore harmony. The death of a farmer who had won the highest respect of his neighbours, and who had continually used his great influence to allay ill-feeling and promote harmony, brought on a state of tension that gradually became unbearable; and the appointment by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of a new agent, who could not understand and had no patience with the peculiarities of common-field farming, led to steps being taken for enclosure.
The first step necessary was to obtain the agreement of the great majority of the people interested. The agent in question, assisted energetically by the leading farmer in Ailesworth, succeeded in doing this without much difficulty. In 1892, application was made for an order to the Board of Agriculture, whose inspector reported warmly commending the project. The simple statement of the farmers with regard to their farms, _e.g._, “I hold 175 acres in 192 separate parcels,” would convince him that a change was necessary. The figures for holdings are not given by the enclosure award, but a summary of the facts with regard to some of the smaller properties gives the following:--
The glebe consisted of--
A. R. P. 16 scattered strips of land in Wood Field, area 10 1 16 5 ″ ″ ″ Nether Field, ″ 3 1 12 7 ″ ″ ″ Normangate Field, ″ 4 0 2 33 ″ ″ ″ Mill Field, ″ 20 2 28 34 ″ ″ ″ Thorn Field, ″ 24 2 29 50 ″ ″ ″ Milton Field, ″ 37 0 37 18 ″ ″ ″ four meadows, ″ 10 1 20 2 Lammas closes, ″ 7 2 24
making a total of 165 outlying parcels of land, scattered far and wide over a parish of five thousand acres in extent, and yet amounting, with some small closes near the village, only to 118 acres in area. Further--
A. R. P. Proprietor A owned 17 3 19 in 32 parcels ″ B ″ 3 0 16 ″ 6 ″ ″ C ″ 80 1 5 ″ 164 ″ ″ D ″ 9 0 18 ″ 8 ″ ″ E ″ 2 0 2 ″ 5 ″ ″ F ″ 2 3 14 ″ 6 ″ ″ G ″ 1 2 10 ″ 5 ″ ″ H ″ 2 2 3 ″ 9 ″ ″ J ″ 2 1 18 ″ 7 ″ ″ K ″ 166 2 24 ″ 217 ″ ″ L ″ 13 3 37 ″ 30 ″
Parliamentary enclosure, however, is not to be obtained without conditions. That reckless disregard of the wider public interests both of the locality and of the nation at large in the land to be enclosed of which the administration of the General Enclosure Act from 1845 to 1874 has been accused, has been dispelled by the vigorous and ably-conducted agitation to which we owe the preservation of Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, and many other priceless commons. In the enclosure of Castor and Ailesworth, in the first place, Ailesworth Heath, which occupies the highest and most remote corner of the parish, was excluded from the operation of the Enclosure Act. It is a wild little common which, beyond feeding a few sheep and furnishing a quarry, seems to be fit for nothing but picnics and blackberrying. Situated at the distance of about five miles from Peterborough, which again stands on the margin of the fen country, it will probably come to be valued by the townsmen for its unprofitable wildness.
Next, the parish boasts its antiquities, the remains of a part of the ancient Roman road from London to York, and certain blocks of stone, locally known as Robin Hood and Little John. The Enclosure Act provides for the preservation of these.
A bathing place in the River Nen, which bounds the parish on the south, selected at the most convenient spot, and three recreation grounds of 6 acres each, and one of 14 acres, are handed over to the safe keeping of the parish councils of Castor and Ailesworth, besides four pieces of land, making 42 acres in all, for allotments and field gardens. The farmers mournfully point out that these 76 acres thus reserved for the common use and benefit of the villagers are some of the best land and the most conveniently situated. The recreation grounds in particular they scorn as foolishness. Possibly, however, because the village prides itself on its prowess in the football field, the indignation against this supposed fad of the central government is mild compared with that expressed by some of the thrifty people of Upton St. Leonards, near Gloucester, which was being enclosed at the same time. Here the recreation ground was dubbed by some the “ruination ground,” enticing as it did the young lads from digging in their fathers’ allotments to cricket and football, and so subverting the very foundation of good morals.
Subject to these deductions, the whole of the open commonable lands and many of the old enclosures, after being surveyed and valued, and after roads, where necessary, had been diverted or newly set out, were redistributed among the old proprietors so as to give each his proportional share, as far as possible in the most convenient manner. This was both a lengthy and a delicate task, but it was finally completed in 1898, six years after the matter first came before the Board of Agriculture. Each several proprietor was then required to fence his allotment in the manner prescribed by the commissioners who make the survey and award. The cost of the survey and allotment usually works out at about £1 per acre; the cost of fencing may be a great deal more. Though the Parliamentary expenses are now trifling, the total cost of abolishing the “system of mingle-mangle,” as Carew called it in 1600, in any parish where it still exists, is not to be lightly faced in times of agricultural depression.
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