ECONOMIC HISTORY.
Yelford's medieval
open fields probably covered much of the area
of the Hastings family's inclosed estate depicted
in 1625, (fn. 18) together with Yelford field to the east
which formed part of Hardwick's fields until
inclosure in 1853. (fn. 19) In 1086 Yelford manor had
land for 3 ploughs, (fn. 20) and there may have been
other, unrecorded, land in the parish: in 1279
various estates there comprised a ploughland,
10½ yardlands, and some odd acres, a total of
perhaps 15 yardlands. (fn. 21) In the 17th century the
former Walwyn estate comprised 2 yardlands (fn. 22)
and the Edwards (later Wadham College) estate
c. 5 yardlands; (fn. 23) thus unless the Hastings manor
had changed greatly from the ploughland and 4
yardlands recorded in 1279, there were probably
still c. 15 yardlands in Yelford. The 11 yardlands
on which the parish was rated for poor-relief in
1708 presumably excluded much of the open-field land, certainly the college estate, which by
then was regarded as part of Hardwick. (fn. 24) In 1305
a yardland on the Hastings manor was said to
contain only 24 a., (fn. 25) but Wadham College's
estate in 1649 comprised 162 estimated acres,
implying a yardland of 30 a. or more. (fn. 26)
The valuation of a ploughland in 1305 as only
60 a. of arable worth 4d. an acre suggests that
half the land then lay fallow. (fn. 27) Change to a
three-field rotation of crops before the mid 17th
century may be indicated by the fairly even
distribution of Wadham College's arable between three major subdivisions of Yelford field. (fn. 28)
In 1086 Yelford manor contained 36 a. of
meadow and 15 a. of pasture; the meadow was
worth 1s. 6d. an acre in 1305 when the manor
included 10 a., together with common pasture
worth 3s. (fn. 29) At that time the inhabitants of
Yelford intercommoned with those of Shifford,
Cote, and Aston between Michaelmas and Martinmas, probably in the meadows along Shifford
brook. (fn. 30) No early woodland was recorded in
Yelford, but in the later Middle Ages the Hastings family acquired Boys wood (c. 72 a.) on the
northern edge of the parish, and it descended
thereafter with Yelford manor. (fn. 31) Within the
parish in 1625 there were only a few small
coppices, covering c. 5 a. (fn. 32)
In 1086 Yelford manor's demesne was worked
by 4 servi with 2 ploughs, while the tenants (3
villeins and 3 bordars) had ½ plough; undercultivation may have accounted for a fall in value
from 60s. to 50s. since the Conquest. (fn. 33) By 1279
Yelford men were tenants of three manors. The
Hastings manor, its demesne reduced to 1
ploughland, supported 4 freeholders, 1 villein
yardlander, and 2 cottars, the tenant land
amounting to perhaps 4 yardlands; rents yielded
£1, and the villein's works were valued at 9s. By
1305 there were 6 free tenants paying a total of
12s., 1 yardlander paying no rent but providing
works worth 6s. 11½d., and 6 cottars with works
worth 4s. 2d. (fn. 34) In 1279 the Grey manor, of which
the demesne lay in Hardwick, supported 5 villein
yardlanders in Yelford, each paying 6s. 7d. rent
and works worth 4s. 2½d.; one of them held
additional land for 2s. 6d. A freeholding of ½
yardland and ½ a. on the Grey manor, for which
Robert of Yelford paid 3s., probably lay in
Yelford. Robert also paid 2s. for a house and
yardland in Yelford attached to Isabel de Grey's
Standlake manor. (fn. 35) In 1328 the Yelford family's
estate in Yelford, of which parts belonged to
three different manors, included 40 a. of demesne arable and 6 a. of meadow, and supported
3 cottars paying total rent of 4s. 1d. and works
worth 10d. (fn. 36) Tenants of the Greys' Hardwick
manor, of whom some presumably lived at
Yelford, continued to provide works in the early
14th century. (fn. 37)
In 1306 Yelford's assessment of 17s. 3d. for a
thirtieth was payable by c. 10 persons, of whom
the highest assessed were Robert of Yelford (6s.)
and Reynold (? Roland) of Hastings (2s.). (fn. 38) In
1327 an assessment of 48s. for a twentieth was
payable by 16 persons, of whom 8 were assessed
at 2s. or below, while 3, including John de Grey,
were assessed at 5s. 6d. (fn. 39) For later medieval
taxes Yelford seems to have been included
with Hardwick and its members. (fn. 40) Yelford's
only contributor to the subsidy of 1523-4 was
John Hastings, resident lord of Yelford manor,
assessed on goods worth £40. (fn. 41) By then much of
Yelford was an inclosed farm in single ownership,
but a few other substantial residents were included in later subsidies: in 1542-3, when
Hastings paid on land worth £30, three members
of the Edwards family, tenants of the former
Grey manor, were assessed on goods worth a
total of £15, and two members of the Moseley
family, tenants of the Walwyn estate, on goods
worth £5. (fn. 42)
The transformation of the west part of the
parish into pasture and meadow closes (fn. 43) probably followed depopulation through plague in
the mid 14th century, which elsewhere in the
area caused widespread abandonment of arable. (fn. 44) The retention of open fields east of the
stream which bisected the parish, and their
incorporation into the fields of Hardwick, may
have resulted from a deliberate exchange of
holdings, creating an integrated inclosed estate
wholly owned by the Hastings family, (fn. 45) and
leaving the former Grey manor, centred on
Hardwick, with most of the open-field land to
the east. Existing closes near the village may
have been shared out, since in the 17th century
some closes attached to the former Grey manor
duplicated the names of closes on the Hastings
estate. (fn. 46) A third Yelford estate, that of the
Walwyns, may have retained land on both sides
before it was absorbed into the Hastings estate
in the mid 16th century: the site of its chief house
seems to have been on the west, (fn. 47) while there are
hints that the open-field strips on the east held
by the Hastings family in the 17th century had
only been acquired with the Walwyn estate. (fn. 48)
From that time Yelford's division effectively
into two farms was reflected in subsidy returns
in which only the Hastings and Edwards families
were assessed. In 1576 John Hastings paid on
land worth £18 and William Edwards, assessed
under Hardwick, on goods worth £4; in 1600
the Hastings land was valued at £10 and the
Edwards assessment was unchanged. (fn. 49) That the
Edwardses were substantial yeomen is indicated
by the will of Richard Edwards (d. 1609) which
included cash bequests of c. £250. (fn. 50)
In 1625 the inclosed Hastings estate, later
Manor farm, comprised 218 a. of pasture, 109 a.
of meadow, 4 a. of 'old leys', and 75½ a. of wood
and coppice, a total of 407 a.; (fn. 51) Boys wood and
the Lawns, c. 29 a. of pasture acquired with the
Walwyn estate, though contiguous with the
Yelford estate, lay in Standlake. (fn. 52) In the mid
17th century the Hastings family also held a
small quantity of arable in Yelford field (presumably 2 yardlands if it was the former Walwyn
land). (fn. 53) The inclosed farm as let by the Lenthalls
from the mid 17th century was resurveyed in
1811 as 316½ a., which excluded the Standlake
land and a coppice (c. 3½ a.) kept in hand; (fn. 54) after
small adjustments in the mid 19th century
Manor farm comprised c. 336 a., the entire civil
parish. (fn. 55)
At least one pasture close depicted in 1625 was
ploughed before 1629 (fn. 56) and, although the Lenthalls imposed the standard penalties on lessees
for converting established grassland, (fn. 57) by the
mid 19th century a third of the farm, chiefly its
higher, northern part, was arable. (fn. 58) Before 1876
most of the southern part of the farm was
ploughed, increasing the arable proportion to
two thirds. (fn. 59) The farm without its woodland was
reckoned to be worth c. £250 a year in the mid
17th century, reflecting the high valuation of
inclosed land. (fn. 60) Leases were usually for 7 years
or fewer until the mid 18th century when the
Bakers, tenants for several generations, acquired
leases of 20 years or more. Annual rents doubled
from £101 in 1674 to £220 and 100 'good milk
cheeses' in 1726, falling steadily thereafter until,
during the Napoleonic wars, there was a sharp
increase to £360; in 1822 the rent was still £340
with penalties as high as £40 an acre for conversion to arable. (fn. 61) In the agricultural depression of
the later 19th century it may have been difficult
to let the farm, and in 1881 and 1891 the house
was occupied by farm managers. (fn. 62)
The Edwards (later Wadham College) farm
remained largely uninclosed until the mid 19th
century. In the 1630s its roughly calculated
value, on the basis of 5s. an acre for open-field
land and twice that for closes, was c. £81 a year. (fn. 63)
When surveyed in 1649 it comprised, in addition
to a house and farmstead on the site of College
Farm, c. 36 a. of meadow and pasture, much of
it in closes around the farmstead, and 162 a. of
open-field arable. (fn. 64) The arable lay chiefly in
Lawn, Middle, and Stockwell fields (45 a., 42 a.,
and 58 a. respectively), evidently subdivisions of
the area depicted as Yelford field in 1853. Small
quantities of arable lay in Sheepstead (16 a.) and
Brighthampton West field (1½ a.), which were
probably never part of Yelford's early fields. (fn. 65)
Within the main fields there had been much
union of strips; pieces of 5 a. or more were
commonplace, and some of c. 18 a. were recorded. (fn. 66)
When the college's Yelford farm was resurveyed
in 1715 it comprised c. 168 statute acres, of which
some 48 a. were grass. (fn. 67) In 1772 another survey
mentioned only c. 148 a., made up of 22½ a. of
meadow and pasture closes, 19 a. in Brighthampton's meadows, and c. 107 a. of open-field arable
distributed as before. (fn. 68) At inclosure in 1853
Wadham College and its lessee Thomas Pinnock, in return for 152 a. of land and 160 sheep
commons, were awarded 138 a. of new closes
adjacent to the farm's existing old inclosures,
which, including the house and farmstead,
comprised c. 25 a. (fn. 69) In 1863 the farm, still 163
a., comprised 130 a. of arable land, described as
strong loam on clay above a substratum of
gravel; the grass, of good quality, was chiefly in
the old closes. (fn. 70) By 1876 the arable area had
increased to c. 139 a. (fn. 71)
From the 17th century Wadham College's
leases were for 20 years. (fn. 72) At first the whole
estate was let for £40 a year, but from 1715 it
was divided into Yelford and Hardwick farms,
let respectively for £32 2s. and £8 18s. The rent
for Yelford farm was unchanged until the mid
19th century, but substantial renewal fines were
payable: in 1834 the tenant successfully appealed
to the college to reduce his fine to £200, (fn. 73) and
in 1848 he paid £198 on renewal. From 1868 the
farm, with 22 a. of newly purchased land in
Hardwick, was let year to year for £274; from
1879 it was let without the extra land for only
£200, but with a fine of £50 an acre for new
tillage. Many of Wadham's nominal lessees,
such as Mary Mountford of Oxford in the later
17th century and the Groves of Woodstock or
Maximilian Western of Cokethorpe in the 18th,
were intermediaries. Farmers long-established
at College farm included the Terrys from the
1680s, (fn. 74) the Mountains in the earlier 18th century, and the Pinnocks for much of the 19th.
The residence of a shepherd in Yelford's small
farming community in 1584 (fn. 75) reinforces the
indications given by field names and land use
in 1625 that sheep farming and probably cattle
grazing were dominant, at least on the inclosed
land. Conversion from arable to pasture is
suggested by field names such as Linthorn, probably once an enclosure for flax, but by the 17th
century applied to pasture closes on both the
Hastings and Wadham estates. (fn. 76) Specialization
seems to have been reduced by the later 17th
century: the tenant of Manor farm in 1683 had
cattle worth c. £44, hay worth £46 10s., and
wheat, barley, oats, and pulse worth c. £60; there
were a few pigs and only 4 sheep. (fn. 77) The inclusion
of cheeses in the annual rent of Manor farm in
1726 and 1731 suggests that dairy farming was
of particular importance there. (fn. 78) Until inclosure
the lessees of College farm carried on the mixed
farming practised elsewhere in Hardwick's open
fields. (fn. 79) Yelford's principal crops in the mid 19th
century were wheat, barley, beans, and turnips, (fn. 80)
and many livestock were grazed: in 1852 the
departing tenant of Manor farm sold over 30
cattle, 30 sheep, 25 pigs, and 2 ricks of wheat,
and in 1862 another sale at Yelford included 68
dairy cattle and 100 Oxford Down ewes. (fn. 81) Despite
the enlarged arable area there was continued
interest in stock and dairy farming, with particular
emphasis on cheese-making. (fn. 82) In 1851 Yelford's
two farms employed 12 labourers. (fn. 83)
After the Lenthalls acquired both farms in
1904 they rearranged their estate so that Manor
farm (302 a.) comprised all the fields north of
the Aston-Hardwick road, and College farm
(196 a.) all those to the south. (fn. 84) The Weeks
family held both farms in the earlier 20th
century, and continued at College farm after J.
F. Florey took on Manor farm on a yearly
tenancy in the 1940s. In 1937 a 'Danish' pig
house for 300 pigs was built near the
Brighthampton-Boys wood lane. (fn. 85) When Manor
farm was sold in 1949 only a third (107 a.) of the
land was arable. In modern times the farm
formed part of a larger unit worked from Barley
Park farm in Ducklington. In 1949, when the
Weekses bought College farm, over four-fifths
(165 a.) of the land was arable, but in the later
20th century much was converted to pasture.