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 5s. or 10s. 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.