ABSTRACT
Most recent historical work on the rural economy has involved studies in depth of particular regions or even individual manors, and despite the patchiness of the surviving evidence it is clear that one cannot draw hard and fast lines of distinction between regions of arable farming and those of stock-rearing. The majority of the inhabitant's of late medieval England lived close to the soil and was engaged in agriculture. The development of farming beyond the subsistence level was most marked in areas of urbanization. Ecclesiastical landowners were also at a disadvantage compared with laymen. Their own acquisitions of property were severely curtailed by the provisions of the Statute of Mortmain of 1279, and they could not seek heiresses, offices or the profits of war. Chronology of building forms can be established only approximately, and archaeology cannot tell us of variations in the prosperity of a community from one year to the next.
