The Common Fields


Each farm had several strips of land in each field. In Nurfurrow Field, nearest to St Kenelm's, the strips ran north to south. Some of them near to the modern Rectory are still visible in a low morning sun. In Holloway Field, between Romsley Hill and Fieldhouse Lane, the surviving cultivation strips run east to west and are more obvious. The third field was called Broadway, where the strips ran south towards Shut Mill.

In a given year a farmer would grow a winter-sown crop on his strips in Nurfurrow, a spring-sown crop on his strips in Holloway and pasture his cattle on Broadway. The next year Broadway would grow the winter-sown crop, because it had been rested and nourished by the dung from the cattle. In the third year Holloway would be sown in winter and so the three year cycle of cropping was maintained.