Tending the land
On Your Farm RADIO Radio 4 Scheduled for August Laxton in Nottinghamshire is the only village in England that still operates an open-field farming system, where fields are divided into strips that are tended in common by the villagers. It thus offers a glimpse into how agrarian life would have been lived in the medieval era, before the Enclosure Acts.
However, the Crown Estate may sell the fields, meaning working land could become a museum. Historian Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough of Durham University joins local farmers to discuss their futures, as they meet for their annual auction over rights to cut hay from the fields.