ABSTRACT
The farmers of the medieval world for many centuries elected to perform their most vital function of corn growing in a communal system. The hedge-less fields presented a different picture from our own characteristic landscape, and they were subject to a different form of tenure. Land was not individually owned in the modern manner but held and occupied in common by the farmers of the manor or the village. Each village would usually have three vast, open arable fields, each extending to several hundred acres. The farm cottages would be situated closely together in a group, forming the village. Each farmer would have a large number of strips widely distributed across the open fields and intermingled with those of other villagers. It was certainly supposed by most commentators that, according to the Bible, the earth had originally been held in common and that this 'natural and blessed community' should still be regarded as the ideal arrangement.
