jan 1, 1443 - foreland

Description:

The various meanings given for foreland in the OED are not relevant to the use of the word in Yorkshire where it referred to land which formed part of an expanded open field system. In 1258, for example, a survey of Barwick in Elmet listed <i>Forlande</i> in a separate category, giving the names of nine tenants with holdings in excess of thirty acres (YRS12/62). It occurs alongside holdings in the open fields in several regions and an undated deed for Draughton refers to ‘a bovate and all the land called <i>Le Forland</i> adjoining that bovate’ (YRS120/53). Similar examples include: 1361 <i>Et de redditibus liberorum natiuorum Cotariorum cum forland per annum</i>, Leeds (Th45/108); 1382 ‘tenement, 2½ bovates of land and 6 acres of <i>Forland</i>’, Yeadon (SW74); 1385 a messuage, 5 bovates of land and ‘six acres of <i>forland</i>’, Dodworth (YRS39/64); 1443-4 ‘two acres called <i>Forland</i> at <i>Staynrawes</i>’, Stockeld (YRS76/151). The land referred to might be arable or meadow but as it had come into use after the field system was established, it may be that ‘fore’ described a location beyond or in front of those fields. It is a complicated topic but has been discussed by several landscape specialists, notably by Stephen Moorhouse (WYAS668-9). The word can be compared with forbyland, fordole and foreshut and contrasted with rodeland, which are all listed separately.

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