| Area. | Common Rights. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. | R. | P. | Horses. | Cows. | Sheep. | |
| A | 11 | 0 | 28 | 1 | 2 | 56 |
| B | 12 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 48 |
| C | 16 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 60 |
| D | 12 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 44 |
| E (two half-places) | 19 | 2 | 27 | 2 | 5 | 96 |
| (average 12 acres) | ||||||
| The Whole Places. | ||||||
| A | 21 | 1 | 25 | 2 | 5 | 104 |
| B | 21 | 1 | 38 | 2 | 5 | 96 |
| C | 21 | 0 | 19 | 2 | 4 | 96 |
| D | 20 | 2 | 32 | 2 | 5 | 96 |
The “whole and a-quarter place” had 26 a. 0 r. 13 p. of land and rights for three horses, five cows, and 120 sheep, and the “three-quarter place” 16 a. 1 r. 2 p., with rights for one horse, five cows, and eighty sheep. If these be added together and divided by two we arrive at two whole places of 21 a. 0 r. 27 p., with the common rights for two horses, five cows, and 100 sheep. This may be taken as the typical whole place, and the half-place is just a little more than the mathematical half of a whole place. The fact that the common rights attached to a given unit were more extensive in Grimstone than in Stratton is the natural consequence of the fact that Grimstone had 244 acres of down and 35 acres of cow-common, Stratton only 190 acres of down and 26 acres of cow-common.
But when we compare these with the whole places, half-places, and farthing holds of Fordington, we find rather a puzzling discrepancy. In the latter parish the fourteen whole places each had, in 1841, the date of the Tithe Commutation, rights for four horses, three cows, and 120 sheep, except one, which had no common rights at all, but, apparently by compensation, had 66 acres of arable land, eleven more than any of the others. The smallest of the others had 42 a. 3 r., the largest 55 a. 0 r. 22 p., the average being about 48 acres; in other words, in Fordington a whole place had more than twice as much arable land as in Stratton or Grimstone, and carried a common right for four horses instead of for two.
Each of the twenty-one half-places in Fordington had common rights for three horses, two cows, and sixty-six sheep—which more closely approximates to three-quarters than to a half of the rights of a whole place. The area of land attached to a half-place is, however, on the average somewhat less than half that attached to a whole place, the largest having 25 a. 1 r. 6 p., the smallest 15 a. 1 r. 36 p., the average being just under 21 acres. It happens curiously that the largest “farthing holds” had more land than the smallest half-places, as their areas range from 11 a. 1 r. 7 p. to 17 a. 3 r. 35 p. There were nineteen of them, and their average area was 14½ acres. Each had a common right for two horses, two cows, and forty sheep.
The following tentative hypothesis may be suggested as an explanation. It is based on the presumption that the names represent a more ancient set of circumstances than the actual facts recorded in the tithe apportionment.
I think it, on the whole, more probable that these units of holdings are based upon ploughing by horses than upon ploughing by oxen. In other words, I think that the system of co-aration persisted unimpaired in these particular villages after horses had superseded oxen for ploughing purposes, which might have happened at a very early date. This seems plainly indicated by the fact that during the 190 years from 1649 to 1839 the majority of the copyholders in Stratton and Grimstone had only one horse apiece, therefore they must have combined to work even a two-horse plough; and, as I have said above, the practice of helping one another with horses for ploughing only died out in very recent years.
I think further, that in all three manors, a “whole place” or “whole living” meant the land cultivated by one plough, but that in Stratton and Grimstone the plough was a light and shallow one drawn by two horses only, and in Fordington a heavier plough drawn by four horses. The soil in Stratton and Grimstone is very thin and stony, and would not bear deep ploughing; that of Fordington is much deeper and heavier. Further, Stratton and Grimstone fields lie on the steep slopes descending from the downs; Fordington field is gently undulating. Therefore, a four-horse plough in Fordington would plough more than twice as much land as a two-horse plough in the other villages. A whole place then in Fordington naturally would have common rights for four horses; in Stratton and Grimstone for two horses only.
A half-place in Stratton and Grimstone was, therefore, the holding allotted to the tenant who had one horse, and it carried a common right for one horse. Though a half-place in Fordington carried in 1841 a common right for three horses, I am inclined to believe that it originally was the holding of a tenant who had two horses, i.e., half a plough team, and originally had a common right for two horses only; and, similarly, though a farthing hold in 1841 had a common right for two horses, I am inclined to think it originally was the share of the man who had one horse only, and only carried a common right for one horse. That is to say, I think the names here a better guide than the nineteenth century common rights. If one were to adopt the opposite view on this point, one would infer that a “half-place” was a misnomer for a “three-quarter place,” and was the allotment of the man who had three horses, and that a “farthing hold” should properly be called a half-place. But on this assumption it would be hard to explain the fact that the arable land attached to a half-place is, on the average, a little less than half that attached to a whole place, and that attached to a farthing hold only a little more than one quarter.
It seems quite probable that when in the course of the gradual improvement of horses and ploughs in Fordington, the stage was reached at which three horses were sufficient for a plough, the holders of half-places already possessing two horses each endeavoured to emancipate themselves from the necessity of joint-ploughing, by obtaining an additional horse; and that when they had generally succeeded in this they obtained the right of pasturing three horses each on the commons and common-field; and when a two-horse plough had come into general use, the holders of farthing holds would naturally take similar steps, and so acquire common rights for two horses each.
There is one other noteworthy fact with regard to Fordington revealed by the Tithe Apportionment. Certain lands scattered over the fields of a total area of 4 a. 2 r. 20 p. were the property of the parish constable for the time being; the churchwardens similarly held 1 r. 7 p., the parish hayward 1 a. 3 r. 18 p., and the parish reeve 3 a. 0 r. 17 p. These ancient village offices were therefore in Fordington not entirely unremunerated.[7]