Proc. Hampshire Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 70, 2015, 136–154 (Hampshire Studies 2015)
RE-DEFINING FARMING PRACTICES ON THE HAMPSHIRE AND WILTSHIRE CHALKLANDS, 1250–1850
By Gavin Bowie
ABSTRACT sheep in the arable field, and the subject will be referred to frequently in the text. Tupping Joan Thirsk suggested that the complex history of (when the rams were let in with the ewes) English agriculture has sometimes been misun- was usually organised for October, just after derstood through the misreading of documents, Michaelmas, so that the ewes lambed early in generalisation, and a lack of practical knowledge. spring. Cattle were more expensive to keep In such a vein, this article offers a study of the than sheep as they required better summer evolution of arable sheep farming on the Hampshire forage and winter feed than sheep, and had to and Wiltshire chalklands between the fourteenth be kept indoors at night between the beginning and nineteenth centuries, bringing a local and of November and the end of March. Generally nuanced perspective to more general histories of speaking, only enough cattle were kept to farming in pre-modern England. The article traces maintain the functions of the farming system; developments specific to this region across the longue these were dairy cows and their followers, and duree. It interrogates documentary evidence in com- oxen for working the arable fields. However bination with a detailed knowledge of agricultural this can be recognised as a mixed-livestock practice in order to qualify widely-held assumptions system as the oxen provided beef at the end of about sheep farming in this region specifically, and their working lives. the more general idea of an English ‘Agricultural The evolution of the sheep and corn system Revolution’. on these chalk uplands can be best under- stood if divided into three phases. The first phase, from the early thirteenth century to INTRODUCTION the late-seventeenth century, corresponds with the late medieval and early modern periods. This paper explains the practical manage- The early modern period is combined with ment of the arable sheep farming system on the late medieval period because, as will be these chalk uplands during six centuries. explained, during this time the farming Documentary sources deployed here raise system remained essentially unchanged. Key questions about the validity of some historiog- factors for an understanding of arable sheep raphy in the area and these will be addressed farming during the first phase are considered in the course of this examination. Sheep were here. The underlying theme of this phase is the main type of livestock kept on these dry flock management in open field farming. chalks. They could survive on the scantiest of Aspects of it have either been misinterpreted feed and pasture, needed only a fraction of the or not described in sufficient detail before and water required by cattle, and could be over- these are, therefore, explained in five related wintered outside, except in very inclement sections. The second phase is in two sections weather. There really was no viable alternative focused on changes and developments during to sheep on these marginal upland soils. It is the period 1670–1770, beginning with the also difficult to exaggerate the importance impact of the introduction of a new range of of sheep manure as a fertiliser. This fertiliser fodder crops towards the end of the seven- was delivered by means of a movable fold of teenth century. The third phase, 1770–1850,
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considers the impact of the main period best described in terms of a three part or a of private and parliamentary enclosure on three flock flock, and its characteristics are as the south central chalks, together with the follows. farmers’ responses to the need to feed an increasing and urban population. Breeding ewes: kept to produce replacement ewes and replenish the wether flock. Aged between 15 months and 5 years, they needed and received the FLOCK MANAGEMENT ON THE WIN- best feed and treatment. Even older ewes were retained within the flock provided their udders CHESTER ECCLESIASTICAL ESTATES IN were sound and they had kept their teeth. THE LATE MEDIEVAL PERIOD Wether flock: castrated males kept for up to 7 years. They were tough and hardy and could survive on Most of the historical evidence for arable the scantiest of feed. They were also the mainstay sheep farming on these chalklands in the of the flock, providing manure, wool and meat. late medieval period comes from the annual Hogasters/hogastres (or hoggs for short): these Michaelmas audit records of the Winches- were ewe and wether lambs which had been ter ecclesiastical estates. The Winchester weaned at about 4 months, and would join their ecclesiastical estates consisted mainly of the respective flocks at about 15 months old (that is, bishopric manors, but also included those after their first shearing as an adult). The male lambs that were not required for breeding stock of St Swithun’s Priory, which serviced Win- were normally castrated soon after birth, but chester Cathedral. The manors and granges occasionally it was left until late summer. The of both organisations were concentrated on hoggs were sometimes referred to as lambs right the Wiltshire and Hampshire chalks. These up to the time they joined their adult flocks. two ecclesiastical estates maintained both a large number of flocks and particularly large The main disadvantage of keeping wethers individual manorial flocks. Both estates were was that they had to be managed separately characterised by significant numbers of sheep from the other sheep in the flock. If mixed throughout the late medieval period, and they would drive off the ewes and the young these peaked in the late fourteenth century. sheep and secure the best feed for themselves. The bishopric demesne flocks averaged It will be shown that separate and distinct 33,000 sheep between 1388 and 1397 and, in wether flocks were a feature of this farming 1390, the priory had twenty demesne flocks system. with a total of over 20,000 sheep. The priory The pasturing arrangements for flocks sheep numbers alone were far greater than appear to have been fairly rigid. The breeding any other estate in southern England (Hare ewes and wether hoggs were kept on common 2006, 203–5). It is difficult to estimate the arable fields, sheep downs and enclosures size of the peasant ‘common’ flocks at this as appropriate and convenient, and wether time, but evidence from the priory estates flocks were restricted to the common arable on the Wiltshire chalks indicates that such fields and sheep downs. The ewe hoggs were flocks were as large, if not larger, than their kept only in enclosed fields. They were looked respective demesne flocks (Harrison 1995, after in this way because they required the 6). The functions of the demesne flocks on highest plane of nutrition (Oschinsky 1971, these ecclesiastical estates were to provide 277; 44 M 69, E4/2/14). The hogg flock was manure, a wool crop, and a surplus of lambs. not generally regarded as strong or mature A feature of both estates was the production enough to withstand winter conditions on the of ‘summer’ cheese; output was increased by chalk hills, and the usual practice from at least supplementing the milk from the ewes with the late fourteenth century was to agist (move cows’ milk (Page 2003, 137,153; Broad 2004, and graze) them on lowland pasture, off the 96). chalks, between early November and the end The flock structure which prevailed in the of March. This also helped to ease the problem region at this time had evolved to support the of the chronic shortage of winter fodder on working of common open field farming. It is these uplands (Drew nd, ref year 1384). A
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typical large three flock flock was kept on the business activity, an interpretation expressed bishopric manor of Twyford on the Hampshire about sheep farming in southern England in a downs. At Michaelmas 1410 the flock had 606 recent publication (Aberth 2013, 157–8). The ewes, 421 wethers and 547 lambs. By this time author claims that sheep-rearing was a ‘risky 100 hoggs had been added to the ewe flock, business’ in the late medieval period, and that 72 to the wethers and 7 to the rams in order ‘the biggest threat to the wool trade was the to sustain the flock structure, and the lambs devastating sheep murrains, especially among had become the new hogg flock. It should be large flocks’. Furthermore it is claimed that noted that sheep were not only bought and lamb mortality rates in southern England in sold in local markets, but also traded between the late medieval period were such that it was bishopric manors. The surplus hoggs were ‘nearly impossible for flocks to be self-repro- sold to three other bishopric manors: 200 ducing’. This is emphasised by Aberth who had been sold before shearing to the sergeant suggests that ‘even on the well-run Winches- at Waltham St Lawrence, and 193 sold after ter bishopric estates the entire flock of ewes shearing, 163 to the reeve at Merdon, and 30 and wethers needed to be replaced every five to the reeve at Marwell. Meanwhile 185 lambs years’. This interpretation may be appropriate had been bought from the reeve at Merdon for other parts of southern England, but is not (Page 1999, 363, 369). supported by documentary evidence from the Flocks were also managed on an inter- Winchester ecclesiastical estates. manorial basis. For example, there is detailed To begin with there is no evidence, periodic evidence for the management of a large or otherwise, for the restocking of flocks with three flock flock on the southern edge of the sheep bred away from these chalk hills. The Hampshire chalks between 1248 and 1325. assertion that ‘the entire flock of ewes and The flock consisted of about thirteen hundred wethers needed to be replaced every five years’ sheep, and was kept on the priory manors of is also incorrect. It will be understood from Michelmersh and Houghton. The ewe and the description of flock structure in the first hogaster flocks were kept at Michelmersh, section that this five year period was actually and the wethers at Houghton, three miles just the average age at which the old wethers to the north. The wether flock at Houghton and ewes were replaced as part of normal flock varied between 350 and 400 wethers during management. The emphasis on ‘devastating the period. Michelmersh provided the replace- sheep murrains’ in the late medieval period ment hogasters, and the surviving 5–6 year old should also be treated with caution. It is also wethers were sent to the priory itself (presuma- unwise to exaggerate both the incidence and bly for mutton) or to other priory manors. Few the overall impact of infectious diseases on were sold on the open market. It has already the Winchester ecclesiastical flocks. A prelimi- been explained that wethers were tough nary study suggests that flock mortality rates and hardy and such a wether flock incurred actually reflect a more complex situation. This minimal labour costs. No salaried shepherd is illustrated by available figures for the Win- is mentioned at Houghton after the entry chester priory manor of Silkstead, Hampshire for 1299, and it is probable that a customary downs between 1267 and 1384. The Silkstead tenant did the job in return for a reduction in demesne flock can be regarded as a typical rent or labour services (Drew December 1943, three flock flock of about six hundred sheep. 63–7; Drew March 1943, 41–2). The average mortality rate during this period was 6.5% for wethers, 7% for ewes, 20.5% for hoggs and 15.5% for lambs before weaning. ASSESSING RISK IN LATE MEDIEVAL It is not known why the hogg losses were so ARABLE SHEEP FARMING ON THE high. It is evident that the only year that the HAMPSHIRE AND WILTSHIRE CHALKS flock was ‘practically wiped out’ by an infec- tious sheep disease was in 1280. The wethers There is a current view that sheep manage- suffered losses of 68%, the ewes 81%, the hoggs ment in late medieval England was a high risk 96%, and the lambs 85%. It would appear that
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the flock was gradually built up again over a sheep rearing on the Winchester ecclesiasti- number of years using the surviving ewes. cal estates does not appear to have involved It can be shown that normally only one part an unusual element of risk. Business or con- of the Silkstead flock suffered serious losses textual risk is particularly difficult to assess, in any one year, and that generally a different being dependent on the state of external part of the flock was affected in the succeed- markets and the necessity to make a profit ing year. In 1314, for example, the ewe and from the sale of the sheep products. In any hogg losses were below average, the wethers case the records necessary to study this have slightly above average at 10% and the lambs not survived. However internal risk (in this 60%. In 1315, the wether and ewe losses were case the limitation of risk with regard to the below average, the lamb losses about average maintenance of livestock) is easier to appreci- and the hoggs 41%. Such heavy losses that ate. Practical and fairly simple strategies were affected only one part of a flock could be adopted to reduce the risk of managing such accommodated within the system. Assuming a a large number of sheep. five year replacement cycle the critical annual Take for example the management of flocks losses percentage for each part of the flock on four adjacent bishopric manors in the early would be about 55%. With a percentage below years of the fourteenth century. It is evident that the surviving stock would be sufficient to that a system was planned and developed here sustain the overall flock structure. It was only to provide maximum productivity and labour rarely that more than one part of the flock efficiency. Each manor had its own demesne suffered critical losses in the same year at flock of about five hundred sheep, which is Silkstead, and even these crises appear to have about the maximum number of sheep one been managed effectively. One of these years shepherd could look after provided that was 1335 when wether losses were 19%, ewes he had assistance at lambing, weaning and 10%, hoggs 67% and lambs 66%. Such high tupping, and the four flocks were managed hogg and lamb losses in the same year threat- as one three flock flock. The ewes, rams and ened the flock structure, and 44 lambs were lambs were kept at Highclere and Burghclere, bought in as replacements. Another such year the hoggs and wethers at Ecchinswell and Ash- was 1381 where ewe losses were 34%, hoggs mansworth. All the lambs bred at Highclere 38%, lambs 63%, and wether losses below and Burghclere were sent after weaning to average. The remaining hoggs, however, were Ecchinswell or Ashmansworth, where they still sufficient to provide the replacement stock were overwintered as hoggs. After shearing necessary for the ewe and wether flocks, and the next year, the ewe hoggs and young rams the flock recovered its structure and numbers were sent back to join the two breeding flocks, in less than two years (Drew 1947). and the wether hoggs added to their own stock There appears to be no evidence for (Page 1996, 110, 117, 120, 131). Risk would be unmanageable lamb mortality rates at contained here because all the famuli (salaried Silkstead between 1267 and 1384, nor is staff) involved had clearly defined responsibil- there evidence for an ongoing crisis in flock ities, which varied little from year to year, and numbers afterwards. The demesne farm was also formed part of a team which had simple leased at Michaelmas 1384, but the priory and clearly defined objectives. With such a kept the sheep flock in hand. Sheep numbers staff structure in place, an organisation would were sustained, with only short-term fluctua- normally be capable of responding promptly tions, until 1434. Thereafter the flock was to crises such as sheep murrains as and when reduced to about 400 sheep, and in the late they arose. The ultimate expression of the 1460s handed over to the care of the demesne adopted management strategy is evident in a tenant farmer. There is no evidence for insta- comprehensive audit of livestock on the Win- bility here, and the decline in the size of the chester priory estate in 1390. This shows that flock after the 1430s can be largely explained there were about 21,000 sheep kept on the by less favourable market conditions for various granges and manors with groups of sheep products (Drew nd). Furthermore about 7,000 breeding ewes, hoggs and wether
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sheep respectively. This was simply the normal This movable fold system can be defined as three flock flock made large, whereby the pasturing the sheep on permanent downland, individual manorial flocks were managed on rough grazing and other pasture available a whole estate basis (Hare 2006, 206). during the day and then at night walking them The evidence from the Winchester ecclesi- to, and intensively folding them on, a portion astical estates does not support the contention of arable land that was being prepared for that there was a chronic instability in sheep growing a crop. The movable fold itself was farming during the late medieval period. On a temporary enclosure made of hurdles and, the contrary, the dry chalk country of these according to the few surviving references, Winchester ecclesiastical estates provided an appears to have been moved to a new location appropriate environment for breeding lambs, each night. However it is not known how and it has been shown that, far from requiring the movable folds were actually managed or ‘periodic re-stocking’, these demesne flocks arranged in the common arable fields. What generally produced both sufficient lambs for is clear is that the system was about feeding replacement stock and a surplus of lambs for off the pasture in one area, and depositing disposal at Michaelmas. It is also evident that the manure in another. It is also evident that there was a buoyancy in the management the system as practised on the south central system that belies the idea that sheep farming chalks depended on maintaining between on the Winchester ecclesiastical estates in the 30% and 50% of the total farmed land as late medieval period lurched from crisis to permanent down pasture. In the late medieval crisis. and early modern periods the movable fold system was only practised in the spring and summer months (Thirsk 1967, 188). The WALKING AND WORKING FLOCKS: THE practice of walking and ‘working’ the sheep PRACTICE OF THE MOVABLE FOLD generally started on about May Day (the first of May) each year and finished by about the The practice of walking and working sheep is end of September. By the latter date a combi- generally regarded as the vital element in open nation of the cooler weather and diminishing field sheep and corn farming, but historians daylight caused a slow-down in the growth of have given scant attention to how the system herbage which meant that it was ‘not worth- actually worked. However it is possible to while to carry it on longer’ (Ellis 1749, 284). establish what is likely to have happened, and It is probable that the movable fold was what could not have happened, with regard to principally carried out on the full fallow which farming these chalk uplands during the review preceded the sowing of the winter wheat crop. period. The current confusion about the This was a ‘bare fallow’ in the sense that very practice is understandable because the sheep little grass was allowed to grow on it. It was management system which came to replace it normally ploughed twice between about during the course of the eighteenth century the beginning of May and mid-August. This was also described as ‘folding’ by contempo- ploughing buried some weeds and encour- raries, and similarly involved moving wooden aged surface weed seeds to germinate and hurdles around a field in order to confine and grow; these would be weeded by hand or fed control the stock. The later system can best be off by livestock. Such attrition with the plough, described as strip grazing where sheep were combined with the movable fold, had the no longer walked and worked, but instead potential to provide a weed-free and manured lived more or less sedentary lives feeding off soil by the time of the third ploughing. Here arable fodder crops in enclosed fields. Hence the furrows were made shallower and closer the system to be described here predates the together than with the first two ploughings, so introduction of arable fodder crops for green as to provide a seedbed (Oschinsky 1971, 265, feed in the late seventeenth century, but 315, 321; Chalkin 1965, 82–3). A reasonably continued well into the eighteenth century abundant supply of daytime feed was essential where common field farming prevailed. to make the night fold worthwhile. In the mid-
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eighteenth century William Ellis stated that survive on the scantiest of feed, and provided without a ‘bellyful’ of feed a sheep’s ‘dung an annual wool crop at minimum cost. Perhaps and stale will prove a poor dressing’. Fur- more importantly, these wethers were the only thermore in Master Fitzherbert’s 1534 Book sheep available for folding throughout the of Husbandry, the shepherd is advised that ‘in spring and summer months. Firstly, wethers the morning when he cometh to his fold, let alone provided the spring fold and, secondly, not his sheep out anon, but raise them up and they were the only part of the flock available let them stand still awhile, that they may dung for the late summer fold for the autumn-sown and piss’ (Skeat 1882, 28). The fresh herbage wheat crop. A theory has been current for required to provide the energy and protein many years that the movable fold was carried necessary for an effective fold would normally on ‘with the whole flock all the year round’. be available on permanent downland pasture This theory was proposed by Eric Kerridge and rough grazing during spring and summer, (1954, 284–5; 1967, 45) in the early 1950s and and this is the key to the system (Ellis 1749, repeated in the late 1960s. Recent examples 220). Winter wheat is much more demanding of historians who have adopted this idea as than spring sown barley and oats in terms of part of their interpretation include Edward the plant nutrients it removes from the soil. Newman (2002, 165, 172) and Joseph Bettey Nitrogenous fertiliser requirements are in the (2005, 158). However it has been shown above proportion of ten for winter wheat, five for that this could not possibly have happened in spring barley and three for spring oats and, practice: it would have been impractical given because the nitrogenous fertiliser require- the demands put on, and the limitations of, ments are low for the spring-sown crops, they the sheep farming system at this time (Bowie do not need the same specific fertiliser input 2014, 2–3). that an autumn-sown crop does (Young nd, 6, 48,72). It can be understood that the best way of providing the nutrients for the wheat crop THE PROVISION OF WINTER FEED AND was with the controlled application of sheep THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE CROPS manure in the movable fold. Sheep manure provides a balanced organic fertiliser, the An enduring problem for arable sheep farmers urine contains nitrogen and the dung contains on these marginal chalk uplands was the phosphates and potash. Also the nutrients in shortage of winter feed for livestock. In partic- sheep manure were instantly available to the ular there was a shortage of suitable meadow following crop, and provided a manure that land from which to make hay. Sheep were would sustain the wheat crop through the expected to survive on what scant herbage winter (Hale 1756, 23). was available, supplemented by additional It should be noted how flocks were managed feed that was intended to be just enough to for the spring and summer folds. The breeding keep them alive. In the late medieval and ewes of a flock had a time-limited role in the early modern periods this feed consisted of system, as they could only be folded between meadow hay, chopped straw (wheat, barley, midsummer and the beginning of September, oats) and hay made from pulse crops. Hay was a total of about 10 weeks. They were not folded in chronically short supply, and most of it had in spring while they were suckling their lambs, to be bought or brought in from where it was and were only available for the fold after made on adjacent lowland pasture (Harrison weaning (when their lambs were sorted out, 1995, 5). The practice of agisting hogg flocks and either retained or sold). This occurred on lowland pasture during the autumn and before they were drawn out of the fold to be winter months in order to ease this winter prepared for being put to the rams in October. feed problem has already been described. A It should also be recognised that the wether paper written in 2003, however, has caused sheep of the flock were the mainstay of this confusion about the role of pulse crops in this folding system. It has already been explained arable sheep farming system, and this section that such wethers were tough and hardy, could will explain how these crops were cultivated
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and their actual significance in the farming but most of the rest of the yield was threshed system (Stone 2003, 7–9). and sold off-farm as seed as, for example, on Nowadays such pulses are described as the bishopric manors of Crawley, Droxford grain legumes. The pulses available to the late and Merdon at the very beginning of the medieval farmer were beans, peas and vetches. fourteenth century (Page 1996, 83, 90, 265). Beans grow better on heavier loams, and peas Vetches were also used for human consump- and vetches perform better on medium and tion at this time, as for example on the priory light loams (Sheldrick et al. 1995, 66). Peas manor of Silkstead in 1299 when the whole and vetches were being cultivated as an innova- of the net yield (14.5 qtr.) was threshed and tive crop on some of the Winchester bishopric mixed with barley as part of the wages of estates on the south central chalks in the early the famuli (salaried staff). Meanwhile all of years of the thirteenth century (Campbell the net peas crop (12 qtr.) was threshed and 1988, 196). Peas were usually denoted as sold (Drew nd, ref year 1299). It is evident, lenten vetches. These pulses were innovative however, that the feed value of these pulses in that they were the first of such crops that crops for livestock (as a function of nutritive were grown on fallows especially for livestock, value, trace elements and digestibility in the and can be regarded as the precursors of a rumen) was appreciated only a few years later range of new fodder crops introduced in the in the fourteenth century. At Silkstead in 1315 seventeenth century. Vetches and peas were the winter vetches yield was 16 qtr. of which grown either as part of the open field arable 3.5 qtr. was kept back for seed, 9 qtr. were acreage, alongside the winter and spring sown sold, and 3.5 qtr. fed as hay to the manor’s cereal crops, or as small acreages in the fallow sheep (Drew nd, ref 1315). Thereafter there is field (Harrison 1995, 10). These pulses usually an increase in references to these pulse crops constituted 5–15% of the total sown acreage being fed to a manor’s livestock, particularly on the Winchester ecclesiastical estates. after the Black Death. Winter vetches were sown in September, and It is significant that the pulses hay at peas were sown between late February and Silkstead in 1315 was described as being ‘in mid-March, depending on weather condi- husk’ or ‘in the pod’ (that is where the seed tions. The seed was initially broadcast and this pods were left adhering to the crop when it was followed by a shallow ploughing to bury was harvested), which would further increase the seed and try and avoid the depredations the protein value of the hay (Frame et al. of pigeons and crows; in such ploughing the 1998, 1, 5). It is also evident that by the early furrows were made shallow so that most of the fifteenth century very little of these pulse seed did not end up more than two inches crops were sold, and most of the net yield was deep, and also close together so as to make kept back as a hay crop in husk for a manor’s a fairly flat seedbed (Oschinsky 1971, 321; own livestock. This shift is clearly evident on Chalkin 1965, 82–3). the bishopric manors of Crawley, Droxford Both winter vetches and spring peas have a and Merdon mentioned above (Page 1999, peak nutritional value for only about two or 198, 377, 384). It can also be shown that such three weeks around harvest (Young nd, 15). hay provided a high protein feed supplement In the late medieval and early modern periods that was used for the treatment of ailing or they were converted into a dry crop, and not feeble farm animals. A detailed study of the used as a green feed. Hence they were treated Winchester bishopric manors in the early in the same way as a meadow hay crop, that is, fifteenth century shows this. At Overton, cut and air dried on the ground in about June, North Waltham and East Meon manor, the and then stored in the rick for late autumn, whole of the net pulses yield was given as dry winter, and early spring feed. Peas and vetches feed to ewes, young sheep and ‘other feeble appear to have been treated primarily as cash cattle’. Similarly at Bishops Sutton the pulses crops on the Winchester ecclesiastical estates were reserved for ‘sheep, cart horses and before the early fourteenth century. Sufficient other feeble cattle’ in winter. At Beauworth seed was kept back for sowing the next crop, five percent of the arable had been sown with
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pulses, and the whole of the net yield devoted was acquired to provide for the anticipated to ‘feeble plough horses and sheep’ (Page need of the flock (Stephenson August 1988, 1999, 218, 250, 270, 322, 352–3). 383–4). It has also been shown that the hay in Furthermore it is evident that peas hay in husk made from pulses crops was recognised husk was particularly valued at lambing time. by contemporaries as superior in feed value to This would be partly because it was a high meadow hay. Modern analysis proves this: the protein feed but also because it acted as a protein value of the pulses grown at the time vermicide to help prevent the young lambs was probably in the range of 20–25% whereas from being infected with intestinal worms. Peas that of the meadow grasses was 5–10%. This contain about 20% protein, and the tannins research thus challenges a theory postulated in the seed coat act as a vermicide (Younie by David Stone in 2003. He proposed that a et al. 1996, 56). There is plentiful evidence decline in sheep productivity after the Black for this practice. For example at Twyford the Death was due to a shift in emphasis from peas crop (estimated 8 quarters in husk) was meadow hay to pulses hay for winter fodder. devoted to ‘supporting the ewes at lambing This cannot be correct as pulses hay is superior time, and the vetches (8 qtr. in husk) used in feed value to meadow hay, and there is no ‘in supporting sheep in winter’. It was similar evidence for a relative increase in the cultiva- at Merdon, though in this case the 8 qtr. of tion of peas and vetches after the Black Death vetches were used in supporting calves as well (Bowie 2013, 1–2). as sheep during the winter. Finally at Crawley the peas crop (5 qtr.) was used ‘in support- ing ewes at lambing time’, and the vetches CONTINUITY AND INNOVATION IN THE (10 qtr.) in ‘supporting sheep, horses and ARABLE SHEEP FARMING SYSTEM IN THE other cattle in winter’ (Page 1999, 367, 377, EARLY MODERN PERIOD 384). The use of pulses hay was probably only limited by its high cost. It was three to four There was little change in flock structure and times the price of meadow hay in the late- in the way that the sheep and corn system was fourteenth and early-fifteenth centuries as, for practised on these chalk uplands during this example, on the priory manor of Chilbolton, period. Arable crops continued to be culti- Hampshire downs, in 1406 where a cartload vated with the same limited variations of the of meadow hay was valued at 2s. 4d. and a basic three-course rotation in the sixteenth cartload of vetches hay at 9s. 2d. Pulses were and seventeenth centuries as they had been in more expensive than meadow hay because of the late medieval period. Changes took place cultivation costs, because they were difficult in the early modern period, but the princi- crops to grow and their seed was difficult to ples of agriculture were still firmly rooted thresh (Drew 1945, 37). in the late medieval period. This is evident It has been shown that, by the late four- in the probate inventory of Robert Hurle of teenth century, peas and vetches hay provided Kingston Deverell, Wiltshire downs, dated for the specific needs of a flock. This can be 25th September 1696. He farmed in the tra- demonstrated when extra feed rations had ditional way, growing the usual arable crops to be bought in on the bishopric manor (winter wheat, spring barley and oats and of Crawley, Hampshire downs, during the vetches and peas) in the rotation. The farm’s very severe winter of 1434–35. These rations tractive power was provided by two ox plough consisted principally of thirteen cartloads teams and five carthorses, as would have been of meadow hay and twenty of straw, both of the case in the late medieval period. He also which were intended to provide sufficient kept a conventional three flock flock which bulk, fibre and nutrients to help keep the consisted of 360 wethers, 310 ewes, and sheep alive during the exceptionally severe 340 hogg sheep. 100 old wethers and ewes weather. However only three cartloads of peas remained to be disposed of in the October and beans hay were purchased, and it is clear sheep fairs and sales (Bettey 2005, 111–2). that just enough of the expensive pulses hay It should also be noted that some forms of
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enclosure would not have had a significant The lease is dated 27 June 1599 and, as well as impact on the prevailing farming system. Both the usual farm buildings, the farm consisted enclosure and the consolidation of strips in of a field of pasture called Hawkersdowne, 24 the open fields may have simplified the organ- acres, part of a former arable open field, 57 isation of farming activities, but it should be acres, and part of another former arable open remembered that much of what is described field, ‘commonly called Furthereastfield’, as enclosure during the period was actually 27 acres (E2/25). There was little change in an extension of open field farming, where land management in Southrope tithing which only the boundary of the area involved was contained the tenants’ hamlet, three common marked by a hedge or fence. There is a good arable fields, and the common sheep down. example of this process on the southern edge Sir Richard does not appear to have wanted of Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, where, at the to change the system here. In an agreement Brigmerston and Milston manorial court held regarding the redistribution of land in the on 20th March 1610, permission was granted common fields, dated 25th June 1606, three to fence off 64 acres of common downland. tenants were to have an acre each in each Every customary tenant was to be granted field, and Sir Richard Paulet was to have 13 one acre for every right of cattle pasture held acres in one field, 10 acres in the second and on their existing holdings, and the demesne 9 acres in the third (E8/2/15). farmers, freeholders, and other tenants were The Herriard demesne flock in the late to have ‘such an estate of the said land as they sixteenth century consisted of about six now have in their several tenements’. Here the hundred sheep which was managed as a three 64 acres were to be worked as common open flock flock, the same flock structure that had field (Bettey 2005, 79). The policies of Sir characterised sheep management on ecclesi- Richard Paulet, lord of the manor of Herriard, astical estates in the late medieval period. At Hampshire downs, show what changes might Herriard the wether flock was described as be made in estate management and farming the ‘common flock’, probably because it was in the early modern period. During the last kept mainly on the common downland, the years of the sixteenth and the first few years ewe flock was called the ‘ingroundes flock’, of the seventeenth centuries he created a new because it was based on the demesne’s fallow manor house and parkland, and carved one arable, dry pasture and meadow, and the hogg enclosed farm for lease out of former open flock was called the ‘lambe flock’ for obvious field and common down pasture. The farming reasons (E4/2/14). There is evidence of system on the rest of the estate, however, innovations in flock management elsewhere remained unchanged. on these chalk uplands in the early modern The Herriard Estate at this time consisted period. For example, an interesting variant of of the Manor of Herriard and the Tithing of the three flock flock was being worked with Southrope, divided north-west to south-east a demesne flock at Rockbourne, Hampshire by a through route now known as Bagmore downs, between 1620 and 1623. The flock Lane. It would appear that the Herriard part consisted of 800–850 sheep, half of which of the estate was enclosed during the last years were ewes and the other half wethers. Flock of the sixteenth century. Part of the evidence management, here, centred on midsummer for this is provided by two early seventeenth- (21st June) rather than Michaelmas. By the century estate maps (44 M 69, P106 & 107). end of June the flock’s lambs had been sold, Most of the former open fields were converted the old ewes and wethers disposed of, and into parkland and managed woodland. The the replacement ewes and wethers bought in. tenants’ village of Herriard probably ceased to This would have been cost effective as about exist at this time and some of the remaining eight hundred adult sheep were available to land was enclosed. This was enclosure as it provide the summer fold and there was no is normally understood to be, as a new farm hogg flock to be sent away for agisting over of just over one hundred acres was created the coming autumn and winter. immediately to the north of Bagmore Lane. There also appears to have been an
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increased emphasis on lamb production on into bedwork watermeadows in the late sev- these chalks at this time. The Rockbourne enteenth century. Here Henry Mildmay of accounts above, for example, show that selling Shawford was making a major investment lambs for rearing elsewhere made more profit in order to improve the value of an existing than that from the wool crop. By the end of boggy summer pasture. Work started in June 1621 the profit from the lambs sold was autumn 1670, and was completed at the end of £82 while profit from the wool crop, including 1672; about one hundred acres of the Itchen lock wool (broken wool) and lambs’ wool, was valley flood plain was converted into waterm- £47, a ratio of 8:5. Here the wool crop was still eadow in this project (46 M 72 E2/ff 93–4). important, but the emphasis appears to have The investment was usually paid for in seven shifted to producing lambs for rearing and years, because of the increased rental value of finishing elsewhere (Bettey 2005, 159–63). the water meadow as pasture (Boswell 1790, Innovative industrial or alternative crops were 108–9). Such watermeadows provided both a tried on the Hampshire and Wiltshire chalks reliable hay crop in mid-late June, and an early in the late-sixteenth and the first half of the spring grass growth, or ‘bite’, during March seventeenth centuries, but were only grown and April. Where farmers were fortunate in small acreages, and contemporaries recog- enough to have access to them, they had a nised that they could be more trouble than significant impact on the grazing and fodder they were worth. The principal crops were aspects of the farming economy (Smith 1806, oil-seed rape, which was used as a machinery 30–1). However their importance should not lubricant and in cloth finishing, woad, which be exaggerated. It will be explained that the was made into a blue dye for the textile connection between bedwork watermead- industry, and hops which were used in making ows and the sheep fold for spring barley that beer. These crops did not fit in with the pre- has been postulated as a feature of the early vailing open field farming system because they modern period did not actually take place needed high fertiliser inputs which had to be until the late eighteenth century. brought in. Hence woad was usually grown by cultivating it on the same ground for three or four years, and then abandoning the plot as THE IMPACT OF INNOVATIVE FODDER exhausted of all natural fertility (Bettey 2005, CROPS ON THE HAMPSHIRE AND 276–91). Woad cultivation was also subject to WILTSHIRE CHALK UPLANDS, 1670–1770 government interference and obstruction in the late sixteenth century because it threat- Reliable secondary sources are few in this ened the customs revenue from imported region for this period. The most useful are woad (Hoyle 2004, 56–73). In the event, the Eric Jones’s ‘Eighteenth century changes in only alternative crop to survive these experi- Hampshire chalkland farming’ in the Agricul- ments on the south central chalks was hops, tural History Review for 1960 and M. C. Naish’s and even then cultivation was limited to closes unpublished MA thesis (1960) The Agricul- and small enclosed fields in the early modern tural Landscape of the Hampshire Chalklands, period. 1700–1840. This section explains that major Another innovation was bedwork water- changes in the arable sheep farming system meadows, which were constructed in the in this area did not begin until the very end vales of the south central chalks from the of the seventeenth century. This second phase early seventeenth century. The construction was characterised by the cultivation of inno- process involved converting the boggy parts vative fodder crops on a field scale from the of floodplains, which could otherwise be only last years of the seventeenth century. The used for summer pasture, into drained and underlying theme of this phase is the change irrigated meadow land (Bettey 1977, 37–9). in flock management during the transition to Note for example the conversion of Twyford enclosure. Moors (immediately to the south of the village During the period 1630–1680 a range of Twyford in the Itchen valley, Hampshire) of new fodder crops were introduced into
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Britain from Friesland, Flanders and northern farming because it was a delicate plant which France. The impact of these crops on farming took time to become established. Sainfoin on the south central chalks will be explained translates as ‘holy hay’ and was said to be in here. Such crops had already been grown on ‘common use’ in French limestone and chalk a small (garden) scale, but were now culti- country in the mid seventeenth century. Seed vated on a field scale. They facilitated a shift was first imported into England at about that to what was described by contemporaries as time (Hartlib 1652). alternate or ley farming. The latter was par- It was to become an important crop, par- ticularly suited to medium and light soils, and ticularly on the Hampshire chalks. In a survey was characterised by the lengthening of the made of the manor of Stoke Charity in 1742, traditional three-course rotation cycle to four for example, there were 50 acres of watermea- and five or more courses, and the cultivation dow, 30 acres of dry meadow and 150 acres laid of fodder crops in the extra courses (Lane down to sainfoin. The sainfoin represented 1980, 29). A principal aim of this develop- 10% of the land in arable cultivation (63 M 84 ment on the south central chalks was to grow /108). Sainfoin seed was generally undersown fodder crops for sheep. Root crops were tried, with a grain nurse crop, which was normally but there was no particular emphasis on their spring-sown barley. The first year the crop cultivation. Instead there was an emphasis on was just mowed for seed. Thereafter the ley growing ‘artificial grasses’ (seed mixes based was normally grazed, and at the end of March on ryegrass or clover) both for grazing (green laid up for a hay crop. It was said to be easier feed) and making into hay. It should be noted to make hay from sainfoin than from clover, that before this only the grasses from dry ‘the leaves and stalks not being so juicy’. The meadows and bedwork watermeadows, and crop came to be grown as a three to four year the hay made from pulse crops, had been ley as part of a seven to ten year rotation, available to make into hay for winter feed. and was best refreshed with a top dressing As an example, Edward Lisle, a progres- of ashes (potash) in the spring of the third sive farmer who farmed at Crux Easton on year in order to maintain its vigour. It was also the northern edge of the Hampshire downs grown as a crop separate from any rotation. In at the beginning of the eighteenth century, this case the ley was made to last longer, and kept a detailed diary. He describes experi- grasses allowed to take over and replace the menting with the cultivation of a range of sainfoin in the pasture. The practice on poor the new fodder crops on a field scale. He also land that was at a distance from the farmyard incorporated the traditional pulses (the grain was to pare and burn the ley, take a couple legumes, peas and vetches) in the ley farming of grain crops off it and then sow again with system established (Lisle 1757). Similar inno- sainfoin (Hale 1756, 437). vations to those at Crux Easton were also On a tour through England in the early being made at Ansty Farm on the Wiltshire seventeen twenties, Daniel Defoe described a chalks, the home farm for Breamore House ‘novel method of husbandry’ that was being in Hampshire. At the end of 1700, 72 bushels practised by farmers on the chalk hills between of hop clover and ryegrass were bought at Winchester and Salisbury, and his observa- 2s.5d. per bushel, and the two crops were tions may now be put in context. This novel cultivated on a field scale from 1701. This husbandry was based on the movable fold and venture must have been successful as cleaned fodder crops grown especially for sheep, and clover and ryegrass seeds were both being can be recognised as the same system that was sold as cash crops in 1703. A sainfoin ley was being worked at Crux Easton and Ansty Farm established in 1702. By the summer of 1702 a few years before (Defoe 1724, 187). The way fodder crops, including the traditional peas that this system was worked on severalty farms and vetches, occupied nearly one third of the (farms with land that was mainly composed farm’s 150 arable acres (Bettey 2005, 38–44, of enclosed fields) was that after a night fold 48, 50). Sainfoin was particularly suited to dry on one fallow field the flock was pastured on chalk soils, but was not suited to open field another in order to “eat and keep down the
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growth of weeds and so get near a fourth part Breeding flocks can be directly linked with of their living”. Then at 2 or 3 pm the flock was severalty (enclosed) farms. A good example of put into a field of clover, ryegrass, sainfoin and this is the flock kept by James Edwards who the like where it stayed until taken to the night leased Manor Farm, Silkstead, on the southern fold. In open field or tenantry farming (farms edge of the Hampshire downs, between 1739 with arable land that was principally held in and 1760. He farmed about 560 enclosed patches in the open fields) the common flock acres, and also had the sole grazing rights on was pastured during the day on down pasture 238 acres of the adjacent Silkstead Down. He or any available rough grazing, and shifted ran a typical breeding flock of about 400 ewes. onto a crop of mixed grasses in mid-afternoon He tupped the ewes (417 ewes and 11 rams before being taken to the night fold (Ellis in 1753) from about the tenth of October 1749, 219–20, 284). Such a mixed grass crop to lamb in March. In an inventory made on was viable as a two year ley in the common 19th September 1757 he had 415 stock ewes, arable field, and was adopted in the open and 134 stock replacement ewe lambs; 155 field rotations practised by some parishes on wether lambs, 51 surplus ewe lambs and 102 these chalklands in the eighteenth century. old (draft) ewes remained to be sold. The 134 Here winter wheat was followed by spring stock ewe lambs had just been sent for agisting barley, and the spring barley was undersown on lowland pasture, and would return to the with the grass crop. The first year the crop farm in early spring the following year (2 M was only mowed for hay and the aftermath 37/338). The Stratton Park Estate provides pastured, and in the second year the ley was an example of an estate in transition in the just pastured (Davis 1811, 57–60). second half of the eighteenth century. The This four-course was also used as a means estate was inherited by the Duke of Bedford of expanding arable farming onto common in 1730 and sold in 1800. The main part of it permanent pasture as, for example, with the straddled the Winchester – Basingstoke road tenantry inspired ‘enclosure’ of Micheldever from the hamlet of Bradley in the east to the Sheep Down in November 1736. Here nine hamlet of Weston in the west. The estate’s leading tenants were given leave to fence the administrative centre was Stratton Park and its perimeter of about four hundred acres, and economic centre was the village of Michelde- jointly work it four-course with a two year ley. ver. The estate also had land at Abbotsworthy to The lease was for twenty one years, and the the south. The total acreage in the mid-eight- tenants also had to provide a bond of £100 to eenth century was about five thousand acres, secure the agreement. This enclosure appears and about one-third of this was maintained to have failed, as the land had been returned as common down pasture. Attention will be to permanent pasture by 1755 (149 M 89 focused on land management on the estate R4/6039/6063). These developments had an in the 1750s and the 1760s, particularly the impact on flock structure and management. period 1755–1761 when a Robert Butcher was The three flock flock remained appropriate its chief steward (149 M 89 R4/6039/6047). where farmers had to share common pasture Robert Butcher had to deal with a crisis with other farmers, and also had to fold some on the estate when he arrived in 1755 in that of their sheep in common on arable fields. there was an acute shortage of local farmers However a new type of flock management able or willing to lease farms. In 1755 there was being introduced at this time, in which were nine farms in hand. Farms in hand were the wether flock was dispensed with. Such those which could not be let and had to be a flock was described by contemporaries as managed as demesne (this is farmland that a ‘breeding flock’ and the emphasis was on is farmed directly by an estate). These nine lamb production, with the aim of selling lamb farms comprised some eleven hundred arable in a ‘forward’ condition at the Michaelmas acres (about 20% of the estate’s arable land) sales. Here most of the surplus ewe and wether and an unspecified acreage of associated lambs were reared and finished for mutton by rights of common down pasture. This crisis lowland farmers off the chalks. had abated somewhat by 1761, though there
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were still four different farms in hand at that nine acres of closes, three acres of coppice time. Despite this crisis, or possibly because woodland, 39 acres in common arable and the of it, detailed proposals and estimates were right of 42 sheep commons (R4/6076). made for the enclosure of the common fields It is evident that there were just too many and downlands of the estate between 1755 stakeholders with vested interests in the tradi- and 1756. These proposals were not carried tional farming system to allow the landowner out. There were only two severalty farms on to implement the change in land manage- the estate in 1755. These were Sheep House ment that he desired. In fact the enclosure of Farm (245 acres which had been created in the whole estate was not to take place until the about 1734) and Warren Farm (about 470 last few years of the eighteenth century, as will acres which had been made between 1736 be described later. The demesne flock kept on and 1742). The only new severalty start the Stratton Park Estate also reflects the tradi- during the period was New Down Farm (453 tional open field and common down pasture acres made between 1757 and 1760). These farming system which prevailed on the estate three farms represented at most only eight in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1755 Robert percent of the farmed acreage of the estate Butcher inherited a poorly managed three (R4/6048/6051/6063). There were clearly flock flock in that it had insufficient sheep to problems with trying to create severalty farms provide an adequate spring and summer fold on the estate at this time as the only other for the arable land of the farms in hand. In new farm built can be regarded as a hybrid June 1755 there were about 1400 two to four at best. This was Borough Field Farm and year old breeding ewes, 200 five year old ewes its farmhouse, buildings and stockyard were (which normally would have been disposed built in 1759–60. When advertised to be let of the previous Michaelmas), and 1230 lambs in the Gazette and Reading Mercury, 19th although there were only about 500 wether September 1763, it had 362 farmed acres con- sheep instead of the 1100–1200 required for sisting of 20 acres of watermeadow, 8 acres of the movable fold. Two decisions were made sainfoin in a close and 129 acres of ‘inclosed to deal with this problem. Firstly 629 wether several ground’. The new farm, however, had sheep were bought in immediately to make 203 acres of common field arable, and pasture up the wether flock numbers, and then used rights for 20 cows on Micheldever Cow Down with the existing wethers to underpin the and 400 sheep on Micheldever Sheep Down summer fold. Secondly it was decided to tup (R4/6051/6063). the five year old ewes ‘early’ so as to lamb in The rest of the farming on the estate at this January or February; 173 of these old ewes time was based on traditional tenantry holdings were tupped with the aim of fattening them – that is farms with a mix of enclosed meadow and their lambs together for the June markets and pasture, enclosed arable, common field of 1756. From Michelmas 1756 to at least 1761 arable, and rights of common down pasture. the demesne flock size was kept at about 3000 This is illustrated in the lease of a farm with sheep – that is about 1400 breeding ewes, four hundred arable acres at West Stratton in 1200 ewe and wether lambs at weaning and 1759 which had 25 acres of enclosed meadow, 1000 wethers (R4/6039/6051). 140 acres of enclosed arable, 268 acres in arable common field, and the right to graze 500 sheep on West Stratton Sheep Down, 150 ENCLOSURE IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH sheep on Woodfields Down, and 25 cows on CENTURY AND THE FINAL ADAPTATION West Stratton Cow Down (R4/6047). On a OF THE SHEEP AND CORN SYSTEM smaller scale Northbrook Farm had four acres of enclosed pasture and 67 acres of arable There was a surge in both private agreements land ‘lying disposedly in the three common to enclose, and parliamentary enclosures fields in Micheldever’ (R4/6048). Also note on, the Hampshire chalks after about 1770. the typical holding in East Stratton in 1764: Such wholesale enclosure, and the reorgani- as well as the usual farm buildings it had sation of the layout of farms, was the major
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feature of arable sheep farming in the late- provide’, and also that the lambs needed fresh eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. pasture and feed rather than be pastured on Such enclosure meant that that the three stale arable fallows (Lisle 1757, 179,181–83). flock flock no longer had a place in the Whatever the origins of the watermeadow- arable sheep farming system, and by 1810 spring barley fold system, it can be shown that there were hardly any of these flocks left on the connection between the early spring grass the downland farms (Stevenson 1812, 406). ‘bite’ and the arable barley fold was not made A drive to enclose the Stratton Park Estate generally until the late eighteenth century took place during the last eighteen years of (Bowie 2010, 5–7). This involved folding 500 the eighteenth century. By the time the estate ‘couples’ (500 breeding ewes and their lambs, was sold in 1800 nearly all of the estate had about 1,000 sheep) to the acre on a waterm- been enclosed. The sales catalogue shows that eadow during the day, from about mid-March farming operations had been consolidated in to the end of April. The couples were then 11 large leased units. The smallest farm was walked to, and folded on, an acre of barley over 400 acres and the largest over 1000 acres; fallow for the night, and returned to a new the latter farm consisted of four-fifths of the fold on the watermeadow the next morning. tithing (hamlet) of Weston, together with all Usually the barley seed was broadcast and of its former common pasture (R4/6011). harrowed in the same day, and the adjacent Just at the time when the traditional form acre of fallow prepared for the next night fold. of sheep and corn husbandry was in terminal The activity was continued until the barley decline, however, the practice of walking and acreage was sown (Wilkinson 1861, 289–90). working sheep was adapted for a new function Thomas Davis snr. makes the first published in the late eighteenth century. Here the aim reference to this innovative practice in the was to provide manure to promote the estab- area around Salisbury, Wiltshire, in the first lishment of the spring barley crop, and the series of the county General Views. He advised main feature of this development was that that ‘when folding the water meadows the the sheep were intensively folded on both the sheep are penned on the barley land’ (Davis bedwork watermeadows and the spring barley 1794, 17). The authors of the General Views ground. It has been generally assumed until … of Dorset, 1793, and Hampshire, 1794, now that this practice of folding ewes and simply describe the traditional practice of their lambs on watermeadows during the day, grazing just four to five couples to the acre and on the barley fallows at night, had existed on watermeadows, and do not connect this since the introduction of bedwork watermea- with the fold for spring barley (Claridge 1793, dows in the seventeenth century (Kerridge 34–5; Driver 1794, 19). In the General View… 1954, 287–8; Bettey 2007, 8–21; Williamson of Hampshire (second series, dated 1810) 2013, 38–39). However wether flocks actually Charles Vancouver describes the close-folding provided the spring barley fold for most of the of four hundred couples on the watermeadow eighteenth century. Edward Lisle who, it will during the day and on the winter fallows, for be remembered, farmed at Crux Easton on spring barley, at night. He also explains that the northern edge of the Hampshire downs this system ‘was generally continued from the in the first few years of the eighteenth century, last week in March until the first week in May, explained how the system worked. He wrote both inclusive’ (Vancouver 1810, 269–70). that the ‘principal value’ of the wether flock It would appear that the watermeadow/ was for folding on the fallows in preparation spring barley fold system originated in south for sowing spring barley, continuing ‘You may Wiltshire and spread from there. have the benefit of the fold for barley when The couples provided a better quality it does most good … on the fallows between of manure than wether sheep, principally the latter end of February and the middle of because they were fed on lush watermea- April, when the ewes cannot be folded’. He dow pasture during the day, and such flocks reminds us that the ewes needed a ‘clean layer replaced wether flocks in the provision of at lambing time, which the fallows do not the spring barley fold. The couples provided
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more urine than wether sheep, the source were made on the inside of these walls in the of the nitrogen in sheep manure, and it was manner of a cloister. The fold was built on claimed that such couples fed on watermea- fresh ground each autumn, and the lambing dows provided eight bushels extra of barley activity provided manure on surrounding per acre compared with a wether fold (Davis land. It was usually supported by a mobile 1794, 38–9). It has already been explained shepherd’s hut which provided off-the-ground that the usual practice on these chalks was storage and accommodation for the shepherd. to lamb between mid-March and mid-April. The ‘early’ lambing was turned to advantage, The change to using ewes and their lambs to the aim being to rear a single fat lamb that was provide the spring barley fold, however, neces- in a forward condition to sell in June or July, sitated a shift to lambing between Christmas so that only the flock’s stock lambs remained and the end of January. This was because the to be looked after for the rest of the summer. lambs had to be at least six weeks old when This was not always achieved, but at least such the early bite became available, thus strong lambs are likely to have made a good weight and sturdy enough to withstand being folded and price at the Michaelmas sales. on and walked between the two folds. In Butchers’ requirements were also changing. practical terms this meant tupping between This was first highlighted in the mid-eight- mid-August and mid-September so that the eenth century when the ‘smaller sort’ of the last lambs born were six weeks old by the native West Country Down breed of the west end of the second week in March, the time Hampshire and east Dorset chalks was said to when most watermeadows were available for ‘furnish the butcher with the joints of mutton pasture or folding. Thomas Davis explained that best answer the service of a private family that the flock was put into the watermeadows [for a] hot joint of meat every day’. This shift to ‘as soon as the lambs are able to travel with smaller joints was as a result of social changes; the ewes’ (Davis 1794, 68–69). It is probably more disposable income for the middle classes no coincidence that the development of the and fewer servants living and eating with the watermeadow-spring barley fold system took family (Ellis 1749, 41–2). A new breed of sheep place during the main phase of enclosure was developed to take maximum advantage of on the south central chalks (c. 1770–1810), both the new system and the changing market as it would be impractical to work it in an for sheep meat. The native West Country Down open field and common pasture system. An sheep were noted for their ‘hardihood of con- enclosed farm was needed where the farmer stitution’, for possessing ‘early maturity of and shepherd had complete control over land growth’, and for the ewe’s ability to take the use and the management of the flock (Jones tup from about July onwards (Squarey 1869, 50; 1960, 10–11). Hale 1756, 224–5). However the Southdown The management of lambing in mid-winter sheep breed, which was being introduced on necessitated both the cultivation of winter the south central chalks in the late eighteenth fodder crops in enclosed fields to support century, had a better conversion rate (feed the ewes’ nutritional needs, and the construc- to lean meat) than the native breed, made tion of a temporary lambing fold to provide smaller joints, and had a higher stocking rate shelter and protection for the flock during per acre, that is a ratio of three Southdowns to the period of lambing. The farmer simply two of the native sheep (Bowie 1987, 16–17). could not risk lambing in the open as was Contemporaries clearly recognised that the the usual practice with the traditional spring Southdown breed was the way forward. The lambing. Such lambing folds could be novel problem with the Southdown was that the ewe as there is no evidence for their construction would not take the tup until late October or on the south central chalks before this period. early November, which gave lambs much too The lambing fold was square or rectangular late for the new system. In Sussex the tupping in shape and generally contained one-quarter of the Southdowns was organised from 25th to one-third of an acre. It had walls of solid October ‘to continue with the ewes about five wooden hurdles and thatched roofed pens weeks from first to last’ (Young 1808, 308). This
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led breeders to try and fix a cross-bred sheep Such high input systems were generally which retained the desirable characteristics of based on proximity to the expanding working both the native West Country Down sheep and populations in the new industrial towns and the Southdown. The Hampshire Down breed cities. Unfortunately the south central chalks that was eventually established by the 1840s can were in a much less favourable location. Tra- best be described as a modified Southdown ditional industries were in decline and there suited to the needs of the watermeadow-barley was a surplus of agricultural labour (Bowie fold system, namely ‘early’ lambing, the ability 1990, 117). Moreover the major towns in the to walk the distances between folds and tolerate region were either stagnating or not develop- close folding, and the characteristic single ing. For example Portsmouth went into a long lamb which matured rapidly when properly fed decline in the second decade of the nineteenth (Squarey 1869, 48–9; Bowie 1987, 20–21). century at the conclusion of the Napoleonic The prevailing farming system on the Wars, and Southampton was only a small spa Hampshire and Wiltshire chalklands remained town during the period. Southampton did a low input one, with a minimal need for off- not really begin to grow until the comple- farm purchased fertilisers. Take, for example, tion of the railway line from London in 1841, the fodder crops grown by Thomas Edwards, which allowed it to function as an outport of who farmed near Broughton on the Hampshire London. Hence it can now be understood why downs during the last years of the eighteenth a low-input farming system was retained on the century and the early years of the nineteenth south central chalks. It gave downland farmers century. His farm was a fully enclosed consoli- an acceptable income with rather less capital dated holding (parliamentary enclosure act for outlay, running costs and operating risk than a the parish, 1790), and consisted of arable fields, high-input system. bedwork watermeadow and some downland pasture. He can be regarded as a progressive farmer. It should be noted that he put far more CHANGES IN THE FARMING SYSTEM resources into grass, legume and hay crops ON THE HAMPSHIRE AND WILTSHIRE than on roots. Between 1802 and 1805 nearly CHALKS AFTER 1850 100 acres were maintained annually in sainfoin alone, whereas only a fifth of that acreage was There was rapid change on this chalk hill sown with roots each year. It is probable that country after about 1850, a change that was the roots grown were regarded as a reserve or triggered in part by growing prosperity in standby crop for use if there was a shortage of the farming sector and also because of the other winter fodder (2 M 37 / 340). This low introduction of relatively cheap inorganic fer- input system can be compared with the devel- tilisers. What developed can be recognised as opment of high input systems in other English ‘high farming’ (Dodd 1979, 258–9; Jones 1962, regions at the time. The best known is the 219–21). The practice of agisting ceased at this Norfolk system of husbandry with its emphasis time, and the ewe lambs were kept on the farm on the cultivation of root crops, short term for the autumn and winter instead (Wilkinson grass leys, and intensive grain crop produc- 1861, 286). What contemporary agricultural tion. High input systems were also developed writers still confusingly described as ‘folding’, on the chalk hill country of northern England. was actually strip grazing with hurdles where For example, a system was developed on the flocks were not walked and worked but simply Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire wolds in the shifted from one arable feed crop to another late eighteenth century where tenant farmers as the farmer deemed appropriate. Unculti- bought huge quantities of bonemeal to provide vated downland might remain, but such land the phosphates essential for the reliable culti- rarely retained common pasture rights and was vation of root crops. This in turn facilitated generally regarded as just a convenient place the development of a more intensive system to park sheep. of sheep husbandry and also provided higher With regard to fodder crops, superphosphate, grain yields (Bowie 1990, 121–3). which was introduced in 1843 and initially
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produced by dissolving animal bones in dilute parliamentary enclosure on the south central sulphuric acid, facilitated the more reliable cul- chalks, and also a period when arable farmers tivation of turnips and swedes for autumn and in England had to respond more or less to the winter feed. There is clear evidence for a major need to feed an increasing and urban popula- increase in the cultivation of root crops on the tion. Accepted theories and ideas have been Hampshire chalks between about eighteen fifty challenged during the course of the paper, and and eighteen seventy (Morgan 1978, 136, 270). most of these have been shown to have been Superphosphate was especially important for incorrect simply in terms of the laws of practical sustaining the swede crop. The swede crop was agriculture. In all of the theories and ideas generally fed off between February and April, that have been challenged here, the necessary which filled the last gap in the aim to provide primary source evidence is either missing or green feed throughout the year. Hence the has been misunderstood. The late Joan Thirsk green feed cycle was complete, and sheep made this point in a letter dated May 2010. She flocks fully integrated into the arable farming wrote ’how very complex are good systems of system on the south central chalks. farm management; it is often difficult for their subtlety to be fully understood if too cursory a reading is made of the documents’. CONCLUSION
The main aim of this paper has been to explain ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in practical farming terms how the sheep and corn system actually worked. Three periods Much of the research was done as a contribu- of rapid change have been identified in the tion to the work of the New Hampshire VCH evolution of the system. The dating of the first Project, which provided very useful feedback. is uncertain, but it probably took place between This paper is based on a paper read to the about 1170 and 1250. The second was between Sussex Archeological Society, September 2011. about 1670 and 1720, and the third between The late Joan Thirsk made helpful comments about 1770 and 1810. The latter phase can be about previous drafts. Advice has also been equated with the traditional concept of an ‘Agri- given by John Hare, Christopher Dyer, E J T cultural Revolution’ in England in the sense Collins, John Broad, Jean Morrin, John Coutts that this was the main phase of private and and Henry Edmunds of Cholderton.
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Author: Gavin Bowie, Otterbourne, Winchester, Hampshire
© Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society
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