Bourne Archive:
BAEM: Bourne West Field
http://boar.org.uk/ghiwxs7BAEM(pic7.htm Latest edit 6 Feb 2011.
Text, page
and picture ©R.J.PENHEY 2010.
The Bourne Archive Gallery
Bourne West Field, from the Bourne
Abbots Estate Map of 1825.
The medićval open field system of Bourne
parish was divided into three groups of fields, each group laid out so as to be
worked from one of the main settlements in the parish: Bourne, Dyke or
Cawthorpe. The North, East, South and West Fields were laid out so as to be
best worked from Bourne. The West Field was large and of a complex shape. It
also appears on the most worn part of the Bourne Abbots map, so that it is
difficult to reproduce it in a way which clearly shows the details of its
boundary. On this page, Figure 7. shows
its whole extent and this is followed, on subsequent pages, by details in which
the more difficult parts of the boundary line may be followed.
The West Field forms a zone to
the west of the town southwards from the North Field, to its boundary with the
South Field, quite close to the southern border of the parish. Also, a spur of
land extends westwards to the western boundary of the parish, along each side
of the spine formed by the turnpike roads towards Edenham and
In Figure 7, the pale brown
boundary between the North and West fields is fairly clear and Fig. 7a begins
to trace its course from the western end of this, where the boundary separates
the West Field from Bourne Wood.
Most of the
landowner’s names can be found in the 1817 Land Tax Assessment.
Follow the
boundary on page 7a