Farming - c850 - c1350
There can be no way of knowing what the precise field or even farm boundaries were in Anglo-Saxon Holt and Little Witley. An educated guess can however be made, based on field boundaries surviving at the end of the eighteenth century, before the improvements i.e. field reshaping, of the early nineteenth century. Rounded field edges, as still seen in the some fields within Holt and Little Witley today, are said to result from the use of large ox-teams for ploughing. The lack of agility of these teams resulted in wide 'turning-circles' and hence the field shapes. An alternative explanation may be that the boundaries followed natural contours, soil type differences or reflect the pattern of forest clearance.
An Anglo-Saxon Farmstead
Presuming that contiguous rounded field boundaries are remnants of the original forest clearances one can deduce a number of fledgling farmsteads or field systems. The well light, well drained and level land at the southern end of Holt parish is presumed to have been cleared relatively earlier in the history of the local landscape, indeed it may have remained under continuous cultivation since bronze age times. The higher country in Little Witley and around Ockeridge Wood was probably cleared much later, during the ninth and later centuries.
Medieval agriculture was based on the open field system which dated back to Saxon times? Three fields would be in cultivation in the manor, each divided into numerous strips. Several dispersed strips were allocated to each farmer, such that the good and poor land was fairly shared out. Only two of the fields were cultivated each year, the third being fallowed (rested). Medieval ploughs were extremely difficult to force through the soil and as many as eight oxen might be used in heavy conditions. The ploughs and oxen were communally owned, and the strips were allocated in rotation as they were ploughed so that sowing could be done progressively.
Medieval Ox-ploughing
A large number of topographical features are named in charter documents of the ninth and tenth centuries. The use of such features to delineated manor and later parish boundaries indicates that the features were in or on the edge of open ground, or were very evident within a forest setting. The description of fif acar (five oaks) to the extreme west of Holt parish would tend to indicate that this was free-standing group of trees. Similarly the ‘hoar apple tree’ (probably a crab-apple tree with conspicuous witches broom growth) and bogenan ac (bent-down oak) were obvious features and therefore probably free standing or on the edge of cleared areas. Some named features clearly predate the Anglo-Saxon period. A Roman milestone was described on the Sealt Staet (Salt Street) that runs through the northern parts of the two parishes. The dics (dykes) that feature around some of western boundaries may predate the Roman period.
Vegetable crops of the time included peas, leeks, onions, the black Celtic Bean and wild cabbage. Flax was grown for oil and fibre (from which linen was made).
The first fruit orchards were mainly planted in monastic times, for instance by monks from Worcester Cathedral and from the abbeys and priories of the county. By the reign of Henry III (1216-1272), one Richard of Gloucester was singing the praises of "the fruit of Wircestre." There are references to the Black Pear of Worcester from the 14th Century. It is said that the Worcestershire Bowmen at the Battle of Agincourt, in 1415, carried banners featuring a fruit-laden pear-tree and also had with them quantities of Black Pears which they had brought from England as part of their food provisions.
Worcester Black Pear
Anglo-Saxon livestock were generally smaller than their modern day equivalents. Although local variations in type may have existed, the breeds that we know today had not yet come about. The cattle or oxen were similar to the modern Dexter breed, the sheep similar to the surviving 'primitive' island breeds and the pigs somewhere between a Wild Boar and traditional breed such as Tamworth or Berkshire.
Dexter - similar to Anglo-Saxon Ox
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......................................Hebridean Sheep - similar to Anglo-Saxon Sheep............................................ Anglo-Saxon Type Pig
Wild-type Greylag Geese and Mallard Ducks were kept alongside Bantam type chickens.
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