The Influence of People - Gower - page 67

must not put out his animals until every man had harvested his crops and he had to remove them again on
St Andrew's Day (30 November). Between then and Candlemas (2 February) animals were not allowed
on the Viel, to allow the sowing of wheat Triticum spp., barley Hordeum spp. and other crops. How suc-
cessfultheseregulations wereinpractice is,unfortunately,notrecorded,butitistobehopedthattheydid
'for hereafter be a Custome to be observed and kept by the present and all other future tenants'.
Surviving field patterns, tithe surveys and manorial records show that other Gower manors were also
once communally managed in a similar way, some surviving until the nineteenth century. With the excep-
tion of the Viel, however, all are now enclosed. In the southern half of Bishopston manor, for example,
thenumerousnarrowstripswhichcoveredthearableareain1844arestillnoticeable,andtheirlandshares
have not entirely disappeared. The field patterns here would have resembled those at Rhossili. Pennard
with its besanded lands had small groups of strips called Forge Field, Great Field and Bush Moor. Lun-
non, north of Pennard, had the remains of Middle, Great and High Grove Fields in fenced or unfenced
landshares. The five Lunnon farmers also had various landshares in Llethrid Common Meadow, which
lies in Parc le Breos Cwm. Similarly a map of the local estates of Thomas Mansel Talbot made by John
Williams in 1780 shows that the Penrice lands and those of several others were often unfenced and were
grouped under names such as Hoarstone, East Field, Great Park, Furzehill and the extremely descriptive
Great Longfield.
CORN AND CHEESE
Farming has always been the major land use in the area, whether it involves the use of the extensive
common grazing or the cultivation of individual fields. It is not until the sixteenth century, however, that
records become available and it is possible to reconstruct farming practices in some detail. At this time
west Gower was well known as a corn-growing region and Camden described it as 'more noted for Corn
thanTowns'.CamdenwasheadmasterofWestminsterSchool,butinhisfreetimehetravelledthecountry
andeventuallypublished Britannia ,ageographicalsurvey,in1586.Hisdescriptionissupportedbyanac-
count of the Welsh coastlands made in 1562 when Gower was recorded as 'the Countrey full of corne'. In
contrast to this rather fragmentary evidence for arable farming, the pastoral element is fully recorded and
from various wills and leases it is possible to draw a detailed picture of the number and kind of livestock
kept by Gower farmers in the late sixteenth century. In general the farmers relied heavily on the open
commons and the acreages of their farms were mostly arable. A Horton lease of 1551, which included 15
acres of arable land with 13 of rough ground, was not unusual.
All the farmers kept cows, both for the purposes of breeding and the production of milk. Dairy herds
yielded a good profit in cheese and butter and many farmers had enough dairy produce to bequeath it in
theirwills.Attheheightoftheseason(inJune1611),forexample,WilliamDavidMorganofLoughorleft
his daughter 'all my chees and butter which I have in my house or shalbe due unto me between this and
All Saynts next'. Some idea of the amount of tithe cheese rendered by the farmers of Ilston, an average-
sized parish, can be had from the deceased Rector's inventory in December 1605, which states that he
owned 40stones (290kilograms) ofcheese. (The 'cheese stone' equated to16pounds,or7.26kilograms,
instead of the usual 14 pounds or 6.35 kilograms.) Dairy produce was shipped to the West Country from
Swansea and particularly from smaller ports in Gower, like Oxwich and Port-Eynon, whose mariners' ac-
counts often refer to butter and cheese. One of the most typical farmhouses is Kennexstone, which was
builtin1610andmovedtotheMuseumofWelshLifein1963(Fig.33).Paintedavividredcolourwithox
blood and lime, it is one of the most iconic buildings at the museum. The colour of the walls was thought
to protect the house against evil spirits, as was the rowan tree Sorbus aucuparia , a specimen of which has
been planted in the garden nearby.