Area. Common Rights. A. R. P. Horses. Cows. Sheep. A 11 0 28 1 2 56 B 12 0 7 1 3 48 C 16 3 7 1 3 60 D 12 3 1 1 2 44 E (two half-places) 19 2 27 2 5 96 (average 12 acres)
A 21 1 25 2 5 104 B 21 1 38 2 5 96 C 21 0 19 2 4 96 D 20 2 32 2 5 96
The “whole and a-quarter place” had 26 a. 0 r. 13 p. of land and rights for three horses, five cows, and 120 sheep, and the “three-quarter place” 16 a. 1 r. 2 p., with rights for one horse, five cows, and eighty sheep. If these be added together and divided by two we arrive at two whole places of 21 a. 0 r. 27 p., with the common rights for two horses, five cows, and 100 sheep. This may be taken as the typical whole place, and the half-place is just a little more than the mathematical half of a whole place. The fact that the common rights attached to a given unit were more extensive in Grimstone than in Stratton is the natural consequence of the fact that Grimstone had 244 acres of down and 35 acres of cow-common, Stratton only 190 acres of down and 26 acres of cow-common.
But when we compare these with the whole places, half-places, and farthing holds of Fordington, we find rather a puzzling discrepancy. In the latter parish the fourteen whole places each had, in 1841, the date of the Tithe Commutation, rights for four horses, three cows, and 120 sheep, except one, which had no common rights at all, but, apparently by compensation, had 66 acres of arable land, eleven more than any of the others. The smallest of the others had 42 a. 3 r., the largest 55 a. 0 r. 22 p., the average being about 48 acres; in other words, in Fordington a whole place had more than twice as much arable land as in Stratton or Grimstone, and carried a common right for four horses instead of for two.
Each of the twenty-one half-places in Fordington had common rights for three horses, two cows, and sixty-six sheep--which more closely approximates to three-quarters than to a half of the rights of a whole place. The area of land attached to a half-place is, however, on the average somewhat less than half that attached to a whole place, the largest having 25 a. 1 r. 6 p., the smallest 15 a. 1 r. 36 p., the average being just under 21 acres. It happens curiously that the largest “farthing holds” had more land than the smallest half-places, as their areas range from 11 a. 1 r. 7 p. to 17 a. 3 r. 35 p. There were nineteen of them, and their average area was 14½ acres. Each had a common right for two horses, two cows, and forty sheep.
