Welsh Journals

parcel and building the Schedule lists the owner, occupier, name and description of the lands and premises, state of cultivation (arable, pasture, meadow, woodland, orchard, garden, homestead, cottage, etc.)(7), exact acreage and rental apportioned on the land within the titheable area(8). Hence the tithe documents provide local historians with 'an immensely detailed-almost exhaustive-local inventory, including details of settlement, parish, field and farm boundaries, land use, field names, the extent of common, heaths and greens, the progress of enclosure and the intricacies of tenure.,(9) William Appleby, the Hereford land surveyor, signed the preamble to the Tithe Schedule for Cwmyoy Parish on 17th August, 1850. The Tithe Map was drawn to the recommended scale of three chains to one inch and measures 115 inches by 66 inches. Sample checks made on the First Edition 1 2500 Ordnance Survey Map for the parish confirm that there are no gross errors in the acreages recorded for individual parcels of land. Agricultural Holdings and Farm Management Units Thirty-seven agricultural holdings with at least five acres are listed in the Tithe Schedule; 35 of these had less than 90 acres, and 14 less than 30 acres (Fig. 1). Over one quarter of the holdings ranged in size between 21 and 30 acres. The two largest holdings, The Court (267 acres) and Maesyberran (287 acres), are included among the 23 holdings owned by C. W. Landor. The Landor estate comprised 60 per cent of the agricultural land in holdings of at least five acres in the parish. Only three farms, The Vishan (90 acres), Tyrewen (41 acres) and Upper Sychtre (79 acres) were owner-occupied; the remaining eleven holdings were owned by absentee landlords, a number of whom owned land in adjoining parishes. The average size of agricultural holding in Upper Cwmyoy falls from 48.5 acres as shown in Figure 1 to 40.6 acres when The Court and Maesyberran are excluded from the acreage calculation. As Figure 2 indicates, the farm boundaries in Upper Cwmyoy display a close relationship to the physical geography of the valley. The margin of cultivation on the eastern side was appreciably higher than on the western slopes where in the winter months farms remain in the broad shadow of the neighbouring ridge for long periods of the day(,0). Most of the larger farms in the parish have the Honddu as one boundary and extend upslope from the narrow flood-plain to the moorland edge at an altitude rarely exceeding 1250 feet on the western side, and 1450 feet on the east. Towards the south a number of 'byetakes' and small- holdings had become established in the more rigorous climatic conditions of the moorland fringe0 1}. Arable land was a basic component in the land-use pattern of most agricultural holdings in the valley. A map of arable fields prepared using the land-use data in the Tithe Schedule shows that the pattern of cultivation was highly fragmented; it rarely extended above the 1000 foot contour0 2). Moreover, the relative intensity of arable cultivation effectively distinguished areas of less severe gradient on the valley sides and pockets of better soil along the valley bottom0 3).