ENCLOSURES: ESSEX AGRICULTURE, 1500-1900. 3
Roman and Saxon settlement patterns appear to have exercised
a dominant control on the progress of enclosure in the County,
and their varied field systems merit detailed description.
The similarity between the British and the Roman settle-
ment types and their attendant field systems is very close.
The British type of settlement was the hamlet or "trev"
system, and the cultivated area was to be found spreading
uninterruptedly around the farm. In certain northern districts
of Britain a similar hamlet type of cultivation existed until a
century or so ago, and was known under the local names of
"run-rig" and "run-dale." In this type of holding the culti-
vated plots were retained by one farmer for a number of years
before a redistribution took place, and, no doubt, this British
agricultural system would provide a strong incentive to the
cultivator to fence his plot. The ease with which the land
could be enclosed is obvious.
In the Roman cultivation system the centuriae or, holdings
were regularly laid out each with its vicus or hamlet.2 The
individual holdings were quite separate, and the principal
difference between the Roman settlement system and that of
the British was the regular and rectilinear pattern customarily
associated with Romans. Obviously enclosure could be carried
out with the same ease as in the case of the British cultivated
areas.
In the areas settled by Saxons an entirely different field
system is encountered. Here the well-known three-field system
flourished in which each villein had his several strip-like areas
scattered over the three fields. His work, therefore, lay in
various parts of the parish, and a central nucleated settlement
was necessary and, indeed, typical. It has been suggested
elsewhere by the writer that these Saxon villages could be
subdivided into linear and rosette types—-the former being the
lengthy single street village, so common in parts of Essex,
whilst the rosette village is the compact settlement with a
small nexus of roads, and is taken to indicate Saxon settlements
within the forested districts. It seems possible that the Saxon
three-field system may have shown some modification when
associated with the rosette villages, necessitated by forest
conditions.
2 See also Essex Naturalist, vol. xxiv., p. 122.