Chalk and Cheese?‘Fielden’ and ‘Forest’ Communities in Early Modern England

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Abstract
This article argues that the conventional division of early modern rural England into ‘fielden’ and ‘forest’ regions serves well neither agrarian nor social historians. It is suggested that the ‘fielden‐forest’ model is too blunt an instrument to analyse the diversity of regional farming systems, social structures and landholding patterns. Drawing upon an alternative seven‐way classification of agricultural regions, a more open‐ended and flexible ‘continuum’ model is proposed. It is further argued that the new schema offers a more satisfactory way of examining local differences in social and cultural structures than a division into two opposing regional blocks.

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