Re-Defining Farming Practices on the Hampshire and Wiltshire Chalklands, 1250-1850

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, 136 hants2015.indb 136 11/09/2015 14:29:00 BOWIE: RE-DEFINING FARMING PRACTICES ON THE HAMPSHIRE AND WILTSHIRE CHALKLANDS, 1250–1850 137 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 hants2015.indb 137 11/09/2015 14:29:00 138 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 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.

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