Monument record 5467 - Open Field System, Tiffield

The common fields of the parish were enclosed by an Act of Parliament of 1780.

{1} The common fields of the parish were enclosed by an Act of Parliament of 1780 (NRO, Enclosure Map). At that time there were three open fields. Meadow Field to the S. of the village, Water Slade Field to the N. and N.W. and Full-Well Field to the E. and N.E. The Enclosure Map depicts the named furlongs of the common fields and it is of interest that each furlong is made up of a number of separate blocks of ridges, sometimes arranged at right angles to each other, an unusual system in Northamptonshire. This ridge-and-furrow survives on the ground or can be traced from air photographs in parts of all three fields and the pattern is almost complete W. of the village in the former Water Slade Field (SP 695515). There a group of rectangular furlongs, set at right angles to each other, lie around a long narrow close also containing ridge-and-furrow which was an old enclosure in 1780. To the E. of the village, in the former Full-Well Field (SP 705520), another large area of rectangular, interlocked furlongs survives. Immediately S.E. of the village, within the former Meadow Field (SP 702513), a broad hollow-way, presumably the precursor of the enclosure road to the N., passes between two blocks of reversed-S ridge-and-furrow. Ridge-and-furrow also survives around the village within paddocks which were old enclosures in 1780.

The unusual eastern projection of the parish which lay beyond Full-Well Field in 1780 was, at that date, already old enclosures. The field names there indicate that some of it had been cleared from woodland, but large parts of it have traces of ridge-and-furrow arranged in rectangular blocks. Some of the latter appear to lie within the field boundaries and may be of a relatively late date. (RAF VAP CPE/UK/1926, 1030–7, 3031–7; FSL6565, 2107–9)

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1982, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.149 (unchecked) (Series). SNN77382.

Record last edited

Jul 30 2026 2:24PM