ENCLOSURES: ESSEX AGRICULTURE, 1500-1900.
9
land. Unless otherwise stated the following account will relate
only to the former type of enclosure.
Some idea of the nature and extent of enclosures may be
obtained from a consideration of the known enclosures prior
to 1400. The few instances that have been found have been
gathered from several sources. With only three exceptions
the sites of these enclosures are within the central area of the
County where the field systems appear to be varied in origin.
The type of agriculture obtaining in the enclosed land is
worthy of comment. In many instances this is given, and in
the remaining cases it seems possible to make an assumption
from a consideration of the acreage involved. For example,
it is assumed that several hundred acres (as in Tiptree) would
be enclosed for pastoral farming, whilst the enclosure of a
messuage of six acres (in Great Waltham) would, in all pro-
bability, be enclosed for arable farming.12 Some localisation is
apparent from the distribution thus obtained, since the majority
of the enclosures are found within the two central areas. The
land enclosed for pastoral farming is chiefly in the east and west
of the central areas—mainly upon the London Clay, while the
Boulder Clay country shows a predominance of arable enclosures.
The east, west and south of the County do not figure pro-
minently in this distribution, and since the former two districts
were still unenclosed in much later periods, we may assume that
they were largely unenclosed in mediaeval times. The history
of the southern area is more obscure. Neither at this time
nor in later periods does this region appear unenclosed, and,
since it seems impossible that such an extensive area should
be enclosed without mention during the more recent centuries,
we may reasonably conclude that this Romano-British area
had been enclosed during the preceding, earlier mediaeval
period.
Thus, at the beginning of the sixteenth century the north-
east, north-west and south-west remained largely unenclosed,
the south was probably almost entirely enclosed, whilst central
Essex was being rapidly enclosed. Only on this assumption
can Tusser's statement gain credence. It remains for us to
consider the effect of these activities on the settlement of the
12 This suggestion gains some support from the size of the holdings of the time. They
arely ran into three figures, and enclosures of this extent suggest enclosures of pastoral land.