Recent research has tended to refine the traditional view of the medieval economy of North Wales as being one which was dominated by pastoralism in an overwhelmingly free social context. In some localities it has been possible to clarify broad regional contrasts and elucidate variations occurring within them, chiefly as a result of the discovery of evi-dence in place names and field patterns of share-land cultivation and the calculation of the relative importance of the produce of pastoralism and tillage in the various administrative units for which there are early taxation records. For example, it is clear that the fertile and sheltered lowlands of Anglesey and the Lleyn coast acted as a granary for the incipient Welsh state,~while the vaccaries and upland grazings of the rugged interior of Caernarvon and Merioneth supported considerable numbers of livestock, some of which found their way to the border markets such as Whitchurch, thus establishing in a rudimentary form the drovers’ routes which became well travelled in later centuries.
Thirteenth century Farm Economies in North Wales
Agricultural History Review, Vol.16.1 (1968)
Abstract
Thomas, Colin
Recent research has tended to refine the traditional view of the medieval economy of North Wales as being one which was dominated by pastoralism in an overwhelmingly free social context. In some localities it has been possible to clarify broad regional contrasts and elucidate variations occurring within them, chiefly as a result of the discovery of evi-dence in place names and field patterns of share-land cultivation and the calculation of the relative importance of the produce of pastoralism and tillage in the various administrative units for which there are early taxation records. For example, it is clear that the fertile and sheltered lowlands of Anglesey and the Lleyn coast acted as a granary for the incipient Welsh state,~while the vaccaries and upland grazings of the rugged interior of Caernarvon and Merioneth supported considerable numbers of livestock, some of which found their way to the border markets such as Whitchurch, thus establishing in a rudimentary form the drovers’ routes which became well travelled in later centuries.
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