The Vile, occupying a peninsular at Rhossili in South Gower, is a rare survival of an open field system, a relict of an early kind of communal agriculture which integrated arable and pastoral resources. The lay-out took the form of bundles of narrow, individually-owned, strip fields one to one-and-a-half acres each. Instead of being defined by hedgerows the strips were separated from each other by low grassy banks, or baulks, giving the entire system its open appearance. Another characteristic is that the cultivated strips were not allocated as compact blocks but were scattered across the field system. This arrangement ensured not only an equitable distribution of different quality land amongst the land-holders, but also that everyone participated in communal grazing after the harvest, manuring the land in readiness for the next crop. Despite becoming largely enclosed, the overall pattern is still clear. Though not the only kind of Medieval farming, fields like these were once widespread in the lowland landscape. Rhossili had a history of monastic settlement prior to the Conquest, so both village and fields probably originated in pre-Norman systems of social organisation.

David Leighton, RCAHMW, 13 November 2008

Portrayed on OS County series (Glamorgan. XXX.7 1879).

Sources: Davies 1956 (Ag. Hist. Rev. 4.2), 80ff;
Emery 1974 (Gower 25), 7-12.