Welsh Journals

WEST GLAMORGAN FARMING, circa 1580-1620 (PLATE X. I) II The first part of this paper attempted to outline the nature of the land in Gower and introduce the farmers who used its resources in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Geography causes us to recognize two distinct regions in western Glamorgan: upland Gower lying on coal measures, and the coastal plateau, mainly limestone, that retains its name in everyday use as 'the Gower peninsula'. Discussing the crops grown by Tudor farmers in each of these country- sides, it was found that there were certain likenesses and other contrasts between them. The separate aspects of land and its cultivation are brought together now in the problem of units of measurement used at that time. The customary acres of Pembrokeshire are known in terms of statutory measure,1 but their equivalents in Glamorgan need illustrating. A start can be made by reading Walter Davies, who stated that 'the greatest varieties of provincial acres obtain in the counties of Pembroke and Glamorgan; counties early subjugated by Norman, Flemish, or other foreign invaders; who introduced the hide of land, ox-land, forest pole, etc., into their respective baronies.'2 In lowland Gower, first of all, manorial lands were marked out with a pole nine feet in length, giving eighteen feet in the perch and a customary acre equal to 1.19 statute acres: Arthur Young encountered it in the Vale of Glamorgan,3 and it was used in Castlemartin hundred in Pembrokeshire-all three regions have fertile arable soils and were intensively anglicised in the twelfth century. The other 'English acre' so often listed in Tudor farmers' inventories was based on an eleven- foot pole, giving a customary acre of 1.77 statute acres. It corresponded to that found in the Flemish-settled districts of Pembrokeshire. In Gower it occurred in the large manor of Landimore, occupying an intermediate situation between Englishry and Welshry (like Deugleddy and Roose), and undergoing secondary colonisation in medieval times. For instance, a grant of freehold lands at Wyn- froyd (Wenffrwd) in 1315 was measured 'by the free rod of 22 feet of the King's feet', and was to be held in Englishry. In the same year and place a lease for two lives was made on several tenements of arable, meadow, grove and waste lands, at I6d. rent 'for each acre measured by the Landymor perch of 22 feet'; the tenants undertook to reside on the land, and had rights of pre-emption for improved lands.4 Gower wills and inventories sometimes refer to so many 'Welsh acres' of crops. This third measurement was also mentioned in a survey of Cwrt-y-Carne manor (1575), and indeed its distribution is restricted to the slightly anglicized uplands: Llanrhidian Higher and Loughor (1583); Caegurwen (1610); Llangyfelach (1641); 1 B. E. Howells, 'Pembrokeshire Farming circa 1580-1620': The National Library of Wales Journal, Vol. TX, No. 3, Summer 1956, p. 318. 2 General View of the Agriculture and Domestic Economy of South Wales, Vol. II, 1815, p. 502. 3 A Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales, 2nd ed., 1769, p. 157. 4Penrice MSS. 306, 308.