The economic history of the fourteenth century is hotly contested. While historians acknowledge it as a century of disease and demographic upheaval, there is little agreement on the causes and consequences of these traumas. However, the view that marginal regions were the most sensitive barometer of economic change stands unchallenged and thus we would expect Breckland to have responded quickly and decisively. Demographic decline in England as a whole ought to have resulted in swift and sharp falls in demand for land in the region, particularly in the aftermath of the agrarian crisis of 1315–22 and with the arrival of plague in 1349. Similarly, these disturbances ought to have resulted in permanent disruption to farming in Breckland, as peasants gradually abandoned their holdings in search of more responsive soils elsewhere. Yet how far did Breckland's experience fit these predictions?

THE AGRARIAN CRISIS OF 1315–22 AND ITS AFTERMATH

A traumatic combination of successive harvest failures and epidemic cattle disease between 1315 and 1322 had profound effects on agriculture throughout Europe. In upland areas of northern England this ‘agrarian crisis’ marked an economic turning point, and ushered in over a century of decline. The extent of its impact on the marginal soils of Breckland is difficult to evaluate exactly, because thorough documentation is lacking, but it would appear to have been serious rather than critical. In this respect, Breckland's experience mirrors that of East Anglia in general, which appears to have avoided the worst of the elements in 1315–22.