The retreat of settlement, which began generally in England in the early 14th century and which gathered momentum after successive outbreaks of plague, has frequently been associated with the abandonment of marginal lands. As the pressure of population eased off, as the relative land shortage of the 13th century gave way to a relative land surplus in the 14th century, “there followed a retreat from the marginal lands” and “infertile farms were abandoned in favour of the more rewarding farms elsewhere”. Attempts to explain this retreat have invoked soil exhaustion and climatic changes in addition to an easing of the pressure of population upon land but, whatever the causes, it is invariably suggested that marginal land, or as M. W. Beresford has called it “half-wanted land”, was the first to be abandoned. This paper aims to examine the contracting arable lands of Bedfordshire in relation to edaphic and topographic conditions within the county.

An opportunity to probe this relationship in 1341 is afforded by the Inquisitiones Nonarum, which relate to a grant by Parliament to Edward III in 1342, to assist him in his wars, of one-ninth of the value of corn, wool and lambs produced in the realm. The value of these items was assessed, parish by parish, from the evidence given by groups of parishioners upon oath. Since the ninth was assessed after the tithe had been taken, it was in fact one-ninth of nine-tenths of the total value of lay agricultural production and therefore identical with the tithe of these three items (corn, wool and lambs). As a guide, therefore, the jurors who compiled the parish returns had before them an assessment of one-tenth of clerical incomes in 1291. The parishioners were required to explain the discrepancy between the older and newer values. Discrepancy there inevitably was, for clerical incomes included more than the tithe of corn, wool and lambs: there was, in addition, the value of the glebe and monastic holdings, the revenue from the small tithes of cider, flax, hemp, pigs, geese and poultry, together with oblations, mortuary fees, and other items.