open field
An unenclosed field; undivided arable land. Chiefly attrib. in open-field system, a system by which the arable land of a village was planned out into a number of unenclosed portions or strips and distributed among the villagers.
| 1780 A. Young Tour Irel. 130 The mischiefs of our open field system in England. 1808 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. V. 220 Land inclosed and subdivided is reckoned worth from a fourth to one-half more rent than in an open-field state. 1884 Seebohm Eng. Vill. Comm. (ed. 3) i. 7 The most..important feature of the open field system..is the fact that..the several holdings were made up of a multitude of strips scattered about on all sides of the township. Ibid. 8 Under the English system the open fields were the common fields—the arable land—of a village community or township under a manorial lordship. 1900 Jenks Hist. Politics vi. (ed. 2) 50 There were practically no hedges in the medieval village. The arable land of the village lay in great open fields, many hundreds of acres in extent. |