• BINGHAM: AN OVERVIEW
• HISTORY OF BINGHAM
  • Introduction
  • Prehistoric times
  • Iron Age
  • Roman Bingham
  • The Anglo-Saxons
  • Medieval Bingham
  • Tudor times
  • Stuart times
  • Georgian times
  • Victorian Bingham
  • 20th Century
  • 21st Century
• ARCHAEOLOGY
  • Project Details
  • Field Walking
    • Summary
    • Field Walking Method
    • Database Design
    • Details about the Parish
    • Protocol
    • Description of Finds
      • Introduction
      • Flints
      • Stone Axes
      • Iron Age
      • Roman
      • Anglo-Saxon
      • Saxo-Norman
      • Medieval
      • Post Medieval
      • Stoneware
      • Clay Pipes
      • Glass
      • 19th-20th C
      • Miscellaneous
    • Analysis of Results
      • Introduction
      • Prehistory
      • Iron Age
      • Roman
      • Anglo-Saxon
      • Medieval
      • Tudor-Stuart
      • 18th Century
      • Modern
    • References
    • Conclusions
  • Crow Close
    • Purpose and location
    • Historical background
    • Topographical survey
    • Geophysical surveys
    • Analysis of results
    • Discussion/conclusions
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
  • Test Pits
    • Market Place Dig
    • Robert Miles Jnr School
    • Archaeological test pits
    • Churchyard
  • Warner's Paddock
  • STUDY OF OLD MAPS
    • Bingham in 1586
      • Introduction
      • Interpretation
      • Town Centre
      • Additional Holdings
      • The Open Fields
        • Furlongs/Holdings/Strips
        • South Field
        • East Field
        • West Field
        • North Field
      • Holdings and Strips
        • Reconstructing holdings
        • Analysis of holdings
        • Sizes of holdings
      • Street and road names
    • Bingham in 1776
      • The Estate Terrier
      • Town Map
      • The Fields
      • Homesteads
      • Shared Tenancies
    • Bingham in 1841
      • Apportionment
      • Town Map
      • Life in 1841
      • Analysis
      • 1841-1901
    • BUILT HERITAGE
      • Introduction
      • Development of Bingham
      • House Histories
      • Old and New Views
      • Architectural Details
      • Street Names
      • St Mary Church
    • CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
    • FARMING IN BINGHAM
    • BINGHAM AT WAR
      • World War I
      • World War II
    • BINGHAM'S RAILWAYS
    • CHURCHYARD
      • Introduction
      • Search the Churchyard
      • Churchyard Map
      • Genealogical Charts
      • Inscriptions
      • Species List
    • ORAL HISTORY
    • NATURAL HISTORY
      • Wildlife and Flora
      • Natural History Surveys
      • Linear Park
    • GEOLOGY

1776 MAPS - ARCHIVE

Georgian Bingham and the Estate Terrier of 1776 (5)

Joint Occupation of holdings

The detail in the survey reveals a few closes occupied by more than one name, perhaps a hangover from open field days. In most cases these were in the old common moorlands, but a few were in small closes.

Shared Grazing

Four areas of shared grazing replaced the common lands West and East Moor, Quakenfen and Camberlands of 1586. These were Bull Moor, Meadow Moor and Meadow Moor Menders, Far Little Moor and Near Little Moor. Tenants were allocated ‘gates’ to Bull Moor, each of which seems to have been the notional equivalent of an acre or perhaps one cow’s worth of grazing. Figure 1 shows the allocations.

Figure 1: Large Farmers and shared grazing

It is noteworthy that only seven of the fifteen main farmers had shared grazing, and then generally only small areas. This totalled 34 acres. They seem by 1776 to have developed independent grazing closes (e.g. Thomas Pacey in plot 239, Far Moor) to keep their stock separate for some reason. Figure 2 summarises the distribution of shared grazing between large landholders, other farmers and those with no holdings outside the village.

Only 15 of the 46 occupiers with less than 50 acres had a share of the four grazing fields, a total of 42 acres. Those without holdings in the fields can be divided into villagers with more than an acre of homestead/closes (10) and villagers with at most a house and garden of less than an acre (56). Of the ten, two had 14 acres of shared grazing; of the 56, 21 had 44 acres of shared grazing (a third of the total), leaving 35 householders with nothing more than a garden, and some not even a garden.

Figure 2: comparison of shared grazing

Shared Tenancies

A feature of a few enclosures was the use of joint tenancies of a number of enclosures totalling 91 acres. Figure 3 summarises the relationships between sharing tenants. The ‘fields’ were around what is now North East Brackendale and the meadows were around Chapel Lane. Richard Little, Askew, Skinner, Richmond and Wickham were large operators in their own rights, having between 70 and 100 acres each. There is no record of why they should share these tenancies nor of how, if they were not shared grazing, they would work the land between them. Might the shared tenancy arrangement have been a last vestige of the open fields system? The shared fields form three contiguous blocks (identified in the table by different colours), so could just as easily have been allocated individually. William Horspool held about 20 acres, 14 of which were single occupation moorland and a homestead of 3 acres. The Horspools were butchers, so he probably ran stock on these. Neither Jonathon Foster nor John Green had any other holding – perhaps they were young men just starting to earn their own living?

Figure 3: Shared tenancies, acres per tenant per field