Agricultural History Review, Volume 44 Part 2 (1996), pp. 131–180

What was the character of English demesne-farming systems in the half century or so after the Black Death and how does this compare with their character before? Data from three major samples of accounts (representing Norfolk, a ten-county area around London, and the country as a whole) are analysed in an attempt to answer this question. To clarify developments demesnes are classified into seven basic types, replicating the methodology used to develop an equivalent typology for the earlier period. The same methodology is also used to test the relative merits of regionally- versus nationally-derived classifications, with the latter being shown to possess significant advantages over the former. Each of the resultant seven national farming types is both mapped and described and the paper concludes with a consideration of what their configuration reveals about the changing agricultural geography of England in this post-plague era of population decline and economic contraction. 

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