A manor would have two or three very large fields.  These would look strange to our eyes because each field would have been divided into strips.  People had strips of land scattered over the large common fields. Each strip would take about a day to plough using a plough pulled with a team of eight oxen. The villeins and others with land would each be responsible for farming their own land -- but they had to agree with the others what they would grow.  Every year one field would not grow anything it would have been left to recover some of its goodness. Sheep would have grazed this land after harvest and in the fallow time - treading in their manure to fertilse it.  Marl, a soil with lime in, it would alos have been used to enrich the soil. Arable land  was used for wheat, barley, oats and legumes.  

The flood plains near the river made rich meadow land, fine for pasture and for making hay for the animals kept over winter.  Most animals were killed and salted in the autumn to provide food for the winter period. In a bad winter many peasants would go hungry some even starved to death.

Sheep and cows roamed the Commons. and pigs  were fattened on the acorns etc. inthe woods. Drovers drove herds of cattle and sheep long distances along special routes to urban markets

Read Chapter 30 Poor Stupid in The Seeing Stone for a description of the killing of the pig and contact the Go West Teme Valley project for an oral history memory of a 20th century version of pig killing in the Teme Valley.  Listen to how important the pig was to the rural economy and hear about how every scrap of the pig was used.