Glossary

This glossary is expanding but only as fast as the terms are used in the other sections of the site. The main source of definitions is the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

BECK - a brook or stream; more specifically a brook with a stony bed or rugged course

CARUCATE - as much land as a team of eight oxen could plough in a season or year

ENCLOSURE - "the conversion by any means, legal, extra-legal or illegal, of open (common) lands; arable, meadow, pasture or waste into individual ownership, tenancy and use" - The English Village Community by W. E. Tate

FLATT - either a subdivision of an open field (i.e. furlong) or more specifically a grouping of one man's strips into a single block

HELM - see the Fragments section for this term.

HIND - locally (i.e. when used as a census occupation), a farm manager; more generally, a farm servant

OXGANG - one eighth of a carucate (or the share of a carucate attributed to each ox in a team)

PANNAGE - right of pasturing swine in exchange for a payment