Patterns of colonization, contraction and crop rotation on the demesne arable on some Bishopric of Winchester manors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
Date
1980
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ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This thesis examines the patterns of colonization,
contraction and crop rotation on the arable of eight
demesnes of the Bishopric of Winchester in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries.
The late thirteenth century is characterized by an
expansion oath in the population and in the economy. But
in the fourteenth century the population growth suffered
several serious checks in the form of famines and plagues.
The economy was also affected to a lesser extent. These
changes had their effects on agriculture. During the
buoyant thirteenth century the bishops of Winchester,
absentee landlords holding about fifty manors in seven
counties of England, began to exploit their demesnes, and
new land was broken to the plough in an expansion of the
frontiers of the arable.
From the evidence resulting from an examination of
eight selected sample manors in forty-two sample years
spanning the century and a half from 1244 to 1397, some
conclusions are drawn about the patterns in which land
was colonized. By the thirteenth century most of the
available waste land had been used, and so colonization
took the form of small reclamations on the edge of the arable, with a few larger clearances resulting in the
creation of whole fields. The period of colonization ended
about the third quarter of the thirteenth century.
There followed over a century of contraction of
the demesne arable. Declining soil fertility, the
waning of the buoyant economy, and the curtailment of
the population growth, all combined to make the abandonment
of land inevitable. Land was discarded in the
same method by which it had been added: small sections
excised from the perimeters of the arable. Whole
fields were seldom abandoned. The bulk of the contraction
occurred before the Black Death, but abandonment
continued to the end of the fourteenth century
and beyond at a slower pace.
The crops grown on the demesne arable and the
rotation of those crops were not affected either by
colonization or by contraction. The crop rotation
dominated the arable; the fields were arranged to serve
it. The simplicity or complexity of the pattern of
crop rotation on the various sample demesnes did not
change the importance of crop rotation on the arable.
The period of direct demesne exploitation by the
bishops of Winchester lasted over two centuries. It
was brought into being by the newly expanding economy
of the thirteenth century and succumbed to the combination
of falling soil fertility, shrinking population,
and the end of the economic expansion in the
fourteenth century.
Note:Page 214 is missing in the original thesis.
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Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Program
History