ENCLOSURES : ESSEX AGRICULTURE, 1500-1900. 13
It is not a matter for surprise to find that the other hundred
mentioned in the Domesday of Enclosures lies in a "Saxon
area"—the Clavering Hundred situated in the north-west at
the junction of the Boulder Clay and Chalk. In this area we
have noticed smaller holdings and fewer enclosures occurring
during the later Middle Ages. In the first decades of the six-
teenth century the Domesday of Enclosures only reports two
small enclosures apparently carried out without the dereliction
of a homestead. It is the support that these returns give to
the theory already advanced that suggests that Leadham may
be wrong in his insistence that the returns for the other hundreds
are missing.
During the remaining years of the sixteenth century evidence
of other enclosures is available.14 In the light of the theory
here put forward the distribution of these enclosures excites
little surprise (Fig. 2). They are confined to the "Saxon areas,"
although those districts where unenclosed land remained in
1775 appear as blank areas. The. size of the enclosures (where
they are given) indicates differences in their use. The north-west,
south-west, and extreme north-east had small enclosures—
presumably for arabic farming, whilst the east had large en-
closures, probably for pastoral farming.
Thus, by the close of the sixteenth century, it seems very
probable that Essex exhibited the following features: In the
extreme north-east, north-west and south-west—the "Saxon
areas," difficult to enclose—extensive areas of unenclosed arable
and pasture land remained. The east—partly a Saxon area—
was being enclosed rapidly, principally for pastoral purposes,
in spite of the attendant difficulties. Within the central region
occurred extensively enclosed arable tracts. In view of the
statements of Tusser and others, and in the absence of evidence
to the contrary, we are forced to conclude that the southern
area (Romanised area) was, at this time, largely enclosed for
both arable and pastoral fanning.
Information relating to the rather obscure history of the
central and southern area may be found in the place-names of
the maps of the time (c. 17th cent.). Throughout these districts
the name "Champion" appears as if open fields were of such
14 Principally from Ashley, W. J. "An Introduction to English Economic History," the
Victoria County History and additions.