Medieval farm management and technological mentalities: Hinderclay before the Black Death

Abstract

Medieval farm management and technological mentalities: Hinderclay before the Black Death. This article examines the nature and impact of decision making in arable and pastoral husbandry on the well-documented demesne farm of Hinderclay (Suffolk) during the economically turbulent years of the early fourteenth century. Remote and low-yielding demesnes such as this are often depicted as inefficient and unsophisticated, but this case study reveals that farm management at Hinderclay was rational and flexible, particularly in response to market conditions. By reconstructing technological mentalities, low yields are shown to have been the result of deliberate choice, a finding which has important implications for our understanding of agricultural progress in the middle ages and beyond.