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Historical Title: Farming in Dark Age Britain In the Dark Ages, the early Anglo-Saxon settlers in Britain led a hard life farming the land, in total contrast to their Romano-British predecessors. When the Romans invaded Britain in 43AD, they found a land of thick forests, heath and swampland. There were no towns, no roads - or nothing that a Roman would have recognized as proper roads - and no bridges. After the Romans However, by the time the Romans abandoned Britain four centuries later, they had turned it into a quite different place. The Anglo-Saxon settlers who began to arrive in large numbers in around 450AD found the country criss-crossed by almost five thousand miles of straight, splendid roads. There were forty-five towns, about 2,500 villa-farms, rich, extensive cornfields and thriving mining and potter industries.The population at this time was small, only about half a million people. Many of the British Celts, mostly chieftains and other nobles, had been “Romanized”. They lived in fine town houses or country villas, enjoyed Roman education and generally led the Roman way of life Even so, Roman luxuries and leisure, did not touch all the British Celts . When the Anglo-Saxons arrived, these rural people were still living, as their long-ago Celtic ancestors had done, in small settlements and hill forts. They were mainly farmers and in general, their farming methods were much the same as they had been hundreds of years before the more sophisticated Romans turned Britain into their imperial province of Britannia. Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Plows Although Roman farming methods were practised in Britannia, by far the greater number of British farms were arranged on the Celtic field system. This first came to Britain in around 1000BC. Celtic fields were square-shaped and small, covering some 8,372 - 11,960 square yards of land. Here, the Celts used the somewhat primitive “ard” plows which did not turn the soil over, but simply cut it open. The Anglo-Saxons, on the other hand, used the “colter” plow which had cutters attached and farmed their fields in strips rather than squares.. The Anglo-Saxons heavy plow. or “carruca” was capable of slicing up the thick, heavy soil of Britain into deeper furrows. However, the “carruca” was such a hefty piece of equipment that it needed at least four oxen to draw it. Joint Ownership of Land Anglo-Saxon land was “common” land, owned jointly by everyone in a village or community. Each farmer was given a number of strips of land to work. Each strip measured between 1,555 and 2,392 square yards, although an individual farmer’s strips were scattered over both the fertile and less fertile land. The Anglo-Saxons realized the value of good land and were careful not to over-farm it or do anything else that might reduce its fertility. This was why they farmed by the “rotation” system which normally used three field, each employed differently every year. The Field “Rotation” System For example, in one year, farmers would grow oats in one field, barley in the second but would leave the third to lie “fallow”, growing no crops in that year so that it could “rest”. Instead, the fallow land, which was plowed and harrowed, but was used for grazing cattle and sheep. The next year, the crops would rotate, the second field growing oats, the third, barley and the first lying fallow. The following year, the crops would rotate again so that, in effect, no one field grew the same crop more than once in four years. The Anglo-Saxon Strip Fields It was not all “fair shares”, however. Some Anglo-Saxon farmers owed more strips than others, depending on their position in the community. A thane or village lord owned at least five “hides” of land measuring between 600 and 1,800 strips. A ‘”ceorl” or yeoman farmer owned on hide while other farmers, like the “gebur” or “cotsetlan” did not own the strips they farmed but rented them from their lords. In addition to farming their rented land - these poorest of Antl-Saxon farmers had to work two days a week on their lord’s land and three days in harvest time. However, even the “gebur” and the cotsetlan” were better off than the serfs. Many of them were captured Britons. In Kent in southeast Britain, they were called “laets” and elsewhere they were named “wealas” or “welsh”. The word meant “slave” and these unfortunate Britons were treated exactly like slaves. They wore heavy rings around their necks and could be bought and sold like farm animals. Aelfric the Farmer Life was hard for all farmers, but it was hardest for the poorest, who had to labor unendingly in all weathers. In later Anglo-Saxon times, a writer called Aelfric wrote his Colloquy, in which he described the lot of the poor farmer. "I go out at dawn, drive the oxen to the field and yoke them to the plow ....There is no storm so severe that I dare to hide at home, for fear of my lord, but when the oxen are yoked and the share (blade) and coulter (cutter) have been fastened to the plow, ``I must plow a whole acre or more every day ....I must fill the bins of the oxen with hay, water them and carry off their dung ....it is indeed great drudgery!” Although farmers also owned herds of pigs and goats, sheep were the most important animal they reared. From the sheep, a farmer obtained wool for clothes, milk to drink and meat to eat. The Lonely Herdsmen Herds of goats were tended by boys who spent long hours watching over them in hilly grazing country. Goatherds and shepherds spent most of their time alone with only their animals for company, listening to the wind as it whistled through the rocks and trees and watching the sun in the sky to make sure they returned to their village with their flocks before it grew dark. To be caught on the hill or mountainside at night could be dangerous and if any of the goats or sheep were lost, the herdsman would be harshly punished by his lord. Sources Creighton, John: Britannia: The Creation of a Roman Province (New York, NY: Routledge, 2006) ISBN-10: 0415487145/ISBN-13: 978-0415487146 Blair, Peter Hunter and Keynes, Simon: An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003) ISBN-10: 9780521537773/ISBN-13: 978-0521537773/ASIN: 0521537770
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