Editing Enclosure (section)

===Open-field system===
{{main|Open-field system}}

Before the enclosures in England, "[[Common land|common]]"{{efn|name=common}} land was under the control of the manorial lord. The usual manor consisted of two elements, the peasant tenantry and the lord's holding, known as the ''[[demesne]]'' farm. The land the lord held was for his benefit and was farmed by his own direct employees or by hired labour. The tenant farmers had to pay rent. This could either be cash, labour or produce.{{sfn|Bartlett|2000|pages=312–313}} Tenants had certain rights such as [[pasture]], [[pannage]], or [[estovers]] that could be held by neighbouring properties, or (occasionally) ''in gross''{{efn|Common in gross refers to a legal right granted to a person for access to another’s land, for example to graze their animals.{{sfn|British Government|2019}}}} by all manorial tenants. "Waste"{{efn|name=waste}} land was often very narrow areas, typically less than {{convert|1|yd|m}} wide, in awkward locations (such as cliff edges, or inconveniently shaped manorial borders), but also could be bare rock, it was not officially used by anyone, and so was often "farmed" by landless peasants.{{sfn|Clark|Clark|2001|pages=1009–1036}}

The remaining land was organised into a large number of narrow strips, each tenant possessing several disparate strips{{efn|There was no standard size for a strip of land and most holdings had between forty and eighty.{{sfn|Friar|2004|p=430}}}} throughout the manor, as would the [[lord of the manor|manorial lord]]. The [[open-field system]] was administered by [[court baron|manorial courts]], which exercised some collective control.{{sfn|Clark|Clark|2001|pages=1009–1036}}
The land in a [[Manorial system|manor]] under this system would consist of:
* Two or three very large common fields{{efn|Large area of arable land divided into strips.{{sfn|Friar|2004|p=300}}}}
* Several very large common hay meadows{{efn|Known as ''dole'' or ''dale'' meadow.{{sfn|Friar|2004|pages=120 and 272}}}}
* Closes.{{efn|name=closes}}
* In some cases, a [[park]].{{sfn|Friar|2004|p=145}}
* Common ''waste''.{{efn|name=waste}}
What might now be termed a single field would have been divided under this system among the lord and his tenants; poorer peasants ([[serfdom|serfs]] or [[copyhold]]ers, depending on the era) were allowed to live on the strips owned by the lord in return for cultivating his land.{{sfn|Friar|2004|page=299–300}} The open-field system was probably a development of the earlier [[Celtic field]] system, which it replaced.{{sfn|Friar|2004|page=300}} The open-field system used a three-field crop rotation system. [[Barley]], [[oats]], or [[legume]]s would be planted in one field in spring, wheat or [[rye]] in the second field in the autumn.{{sfn|Hopcroft|1999|pp=17–20}} There was no such thing as artificial fertilizer in mediaeval England, so the continual use of arable land for crops would exhaust the fertility of the soil. The open-field system solved that problem. It did this by allowing the third field, of the arable land, to be uncultivated each year and use that "fallow" field for grazing animals, on the stubble of the old crop. The manure the animals produced in the fallow field would help restore its fertility. The following year, the fields for planting and fallow would be rotated.{{sfn|Bartlett|2000|pages=308–309}}

{{multiple image|total_width=780px
| align=center
| image1=Plan mediaeval manor.jpg
| caption1=Conjectural map of a mediaeval English [[Manorialism|manor]]. The part allocated to 'common pasture' is shown in the north-east section, shaded green.
| image2=Three Field System.svg
| caption2=Three-field system with [[ridge and furrow]] fields ([[furlong]]s)
| image3=Anthropic Farm Units.png
| caption3=Division of farm land. 1 acre= 0.4 Ha. 1 [[virgate]]=30 acres{{efn|Although one virgate is shown to be 30 acres, as it was not standardised one virgate could range from 15 to 40 acres.{{sfn|Kanzaka|2002|pages=593–618}}}}
| footer_background = #BBDD99
| footer_align = center
| footer='''The open-field system'''
}}

The very nature of the three field rotation system imposed a discipline on lord and tenants in their management of the arable land. Every one had the freedom to do what they liked with their own land but had to follow the rhythms of the rotation system.{{sfn|Bartlett|2000|page=310}} The land-holding tenants had [[livestock]], including sheep, pigs, [[cattle]], horses, [[ox]]en, and [[poultry]], and after harvest, the fields became 'common' so they could graze animals on that land.{{sfn|Thompson|2008|pages=621–642}}{{sfn|Grant|1992|loc=Chapter 8}}  There are still examples of villages that use the open-field system, one example being [[Laxton, Nottinghamshire]].{{sfn|Friar|2004|p=300}}