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The study of field systems (collections of fields) in landscape history is concerned with the size, shape and orientation of a number of fields. These are often adjacent, but may be separated by a later feature.
So called Celtic fields can date from the Bronze Age through to the early Middle Ages. These fields are typically small and rectangular. (However, he says the term "celtic fields" is "totally misleading and meaningless.") They are frequently coaxial - that is they form a system in which the boundaries of adjacent fields make a series of long, roughly parallel lines. The extensive coaxial field systems established by the Romans are described as centuriation.
Open fields were very large fields in which many individual farmers cultivated their own strips. These were a frequently found feature in the Midlands but less so in the South-east and West country. No documents survive which explain how and when the change to open fields took place, but signs of the change are apparent in some areas in the 8th, 9th or 10th centuries. The use of open fields began to decline in the 15th century. The landscape of open fields was frequently called "champion country".
In England, there was a significant rise in enclosure during the Tudor period. Enclosure was quite often undertaken unilaterally by the landowner, sometimes illegally.3843 The widespread eviction of people from their lands resulted in the collapse of the open field system in those areas. The deprivations of the displaced workers has been seen by historians as a cause of subsequent social unrest.38
Enclosure of open fields during the 18th and 19th century produced field systems with larger rectangular fields, often with blackthorn hedges. Adjacent areas were often enclosed at different times, leading to a change in orientation of the field systems between the two areas. The pattern of ridge and furrow will often reveal the layout of the original open fields.
In parts of England where enclosure took place early (or which were never enclosed), fields are often small and have an irregular shape, sometimes described as "pocket handkerchief".
Recent changes of agricultural practice are eliminating old field boundaries, particularly by removing hedgerow removal, to produce much larger fields reminiscent of traditional open fields.
The primitive ard plough used in Gaelic Ireland only scratched the surface of the soil, so cross-ploughing was necessary to break up the earth better. This favoured square fields, so groups of square-shaped fields are likely to have been laid out in the pre-Norman period. The Normans brought the Carruca to Ireland in the 12th century. This favoured long rectangular fields, so groups of fields with that shape are likely to postdate the Norman invasion of Ireland.
The open-field system ("champion system") predominated in medieval Ireland. In the better land of the eastern part of the island, a manorial system similar to that of the rest of Europe was practiced. Strips of land belonging to the village farmers lay in two or three enormous open fields, each cultivated with the same crop on an agreed cycle — typically a three-year cycle of cereal, then legume, then fallow.
In marginal land (especially the high-rainfall west of Ireland), the rundale system was used. The land was divided into discontinuous plots, and cultivated and occupied by a number of tenants to whom it is jointly. Houses were clustered in a clachán on the better land ("infield"), which was surrounded by mountainous or grazing land of lower quality ("outfield") where livestock (sheep, cattle) were grazed during summer or dry periods (Transhumance). Only the infield was fertilised with manure. The outfield might be used to grow oats after a few years of lying fallow.
The present system of fields in Ireland dates to the 17th–18th century onwards, with enclosure of land by ditches (stone-and-sod banks) and hedgerows (made of hawthorn, Fagus sylvatica and sycamore), with a centrally located farmhouse and farmyard, being the hallmark of "improvement." Rapid population expansion prior to the Great Famine (1845–49) resulted in fragmentation of farms and fields. After the famine, continuous emigration resulted in consolidation or abandonment of fields. Relicts of these deserted villages and clacháns are still visible in the form of lazy beds and drystone walls.
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Ireland
The most famous ancient field system in Ireland is the Céide Fields, an extensive series of stone walls dating back to 3500 BC. Similar stone wall field systems dating back to the Atlantic Bronze Age are visible in western Ireland and on the Aran Islands.
The Rodings (the largest group of parishes in England to bear a common name) (Registration required.) was investigated by Steven Basset. Basset showed that a broadly rectilinear field system (and other features such as roads) continued across parish boundaries thus showing that the field system pre-dated the formation of parishes. He therefore concluded that they had originally been a single estate.
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