History of countryside and agriculture 1100ad

UK Countryside history - 1100 AD

Anglo Saxon rule was replaced by the Normans in 1066 and the Domesday Book that followed in 1086 provides a unique record to assess society, agriculture and the countryside at large. Although the political upheaval of the Norman conquest was dramatic, long running changes had already developed in the late Anglo Saxon period and these were shaping the structure of the countryside.

Population
Approximately 2.5 million but with a rapid growth over the preceding two centuries. In the countryside small farmsteads started to nucleate, villages formed and the familiar landscape of villages, manor houses and churches took shape. Towns consisting of markets and traders grew up and contained as much as 10% of the population. Crafts and skills developed and prospered, buoyed by a significant surplus of produce in the countryside.
Crops
Cultivated land was in the region of 3.5 million hectares (cf. 5.5 million hectares in the year 2000) with grain being sold to local towns as well as for export. There were no new crops but the production system was different with widespread use of the open field system.
Livestock
An increasing number of sheep were being kept for wool production with numbers as high as three million by 1100AD. Wool was exported and sold locally for cloth production. Rabbits were introduced and warrens were run commercially for the next 800 years. Norman introductions also included the pheasant and fallow deer.
Farming Systems
The open field system developed by the Saxons was widely adopted by 1100AD. Its origin is uncertain but its cooperative nature may have arisen in response to both social and economic factors. Open fields were divided into strips and allocated amongst the community on a changing basis. This gave rise to a ridge and furrow effect across the field where the soil in the strip was continually ploughed back into the centre of itself and away from adjoining strips. During the late Anglo Saxon period a three field system of production was developed. This was a rotation based upon a first crop of wheat, a second crop of an alternative cereal followed by a fallow. This was more productive than its predecessor the two field system where a fallow every other year had left as much as 50% of land unproductive.
Woodland & Hedges
Woodland cover was around 15% of the countryside by comparison with 11% now and almost all of this woodland was coppiced. Hedges were more common in western areas or where woodland cover was greater but generally they were not common in areas where the open field system of farming was practised.
Social Economy
By the end of the Anglo Saxon period an increasing number of lords had led to a division of the landscape into smaller blocks, more akin to today's parishes, often with a single large manor and its associated church. A complete upheaval of the ruling political class in 1066 meant drastic changes for the population at large and within 20 years more than 4000 English lords were replaced by just 200 barons, almost all of Norman origin. Society was ruled by the French and until 1204 the histories of England and Normandy were interwoven. Norman rule produced new standards in general literacy and record keeping (hence the Domesday Book) which depicts an economy in which money and trade were central but where the wealth of the nation was vested with but a handful of people. 50% of the land was owned by 170 tenants in chief while the King and Church owned most of the balance. Craftsmen and guilds were now common and a widespread trade with France existed - wine and salt were imported while cloth and grain were exported.
Climate
Warmer than today with period from 800 AD through to 1300 AD (the medieval warm period) being significantly warmer than today.

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