 as comprising Little Dagnall, Great Dagnall, Mount Field, Out Field next Mount Field, Middle Field, Field next Thornton, and the Out Field next Dagnall Great Field. (fn. 236) Virtually the same names appear in a late 17th-century survey made for the 2nd earl of Sunderland. (fn. 237)
It is impossible to say for certain how the open-field arable, which in 1717 was already in the process of piecemeal inclosure, was distributed in the Middle Ages, especially in a parish whose landscape history is complicated by the presence of a large area of woodland and a 500acre park. Perhaps the best explanation is that the fields to the north and east of the village (Wood Furlong Field, the Great Field and Kingdom Field) belonged to the manor of Wick Dive (although the latter lies to the south of the brook which is supposed to have been the boundary between the two parishes); that a hamlet at Dagnall had its own fields; and that the arable adjoining the village to the south, together with the Out Field beyond the Buckingham road, represented the common fields of the manor of Wick Hamon.
Some piecemeal inclosure, as well as additional imparking, took place at Wicken around the turn of the 16th century. In 1490 Thomas marquess of Dorset converted 30 a. of arable to sheep pasture, displacing four families, and in 1512 John Spencer did likewise with a further 40 a. (fn. 238)
The Wicken Estate in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Spencers let the farms on their Wicken estate on 21-year leases, each typically including a house, buildings, one or more closes of pasture, and land in the open fields and meadows, the latter generally reckoned in half-yardlands. (fn. 239) The manor house and park were also let, (fn. 240) which led to litigation against a tenant in 1590 concerning the alleged cutting down of 400 oaks belonging to Sir John Spencer in the park. (fn. 241) In 1630 the estate was producing a gross income of about £290 a year, most of which came from the park, which appears to have been let in two halves. The Wick Dive farms were worth about £37 a year, those in Wick Hamon £20, and the two at Dagnall a further £22. (fn. 242) The manor of Deanshanger, which the 1st Lord Spencer bought in 1615 and sold a couple of years later, (fn. 243) briefly accounted for a further £29. (fn. 244) There were only two freeholders on the manor at that period, paying a total of 16s. a year in chief rent. (fn. 245) The Spencers' limited interest in the Wicken estate is illustrated by an inventory drawn up in 1628 after the death of the 1st Lord Spencer, totalling £13,950, of which just £35 was represented by a few items of furniture at 'Wicken Lodge', (fn. 246) presumably the park keeper's house. In 1641 the 3rd Lord Spencer sold the Dagnall farms to Anthony Gibbs of Wicken for £1,050. (fn. 247)
What remained of the estate was worth £570 a year in 1662, of which £300 came from the 600 acres of woods, valued as coppice cropped on a twenty-year cycle to produce £10 an acre annually. Anthony Gibbs was paying £86 7s. 6d. for the park (110 a.), three closes of pasture (21 a.), and a farm of 2¾ yardlands (probably about 100 a.), and another 13 tenants had between a quarter of a yardland and 4½ yardlands (about 160 a.) each, with rents ranging from £2 to £38. There were also 19 cottage tenants paying between 3s. and £2. (fn. 248) Gibbs's lease, which included the Park House or Lodge, was renewed for a further 21 years in 1681; (fn. 249) his son Charles surrendered the lease early in 1700 in return for a new one for 24 years at the same rent and a fine of £400. (fn. 250) The other large holding in this period, described as 'The Great Farm all lying together' (440 a., presumably the consolidated manorial demesne), was let with the Manor House in 1679 for 21 years at £130 a year to James Bevin of Deanshanger, (fn. 251) in place of Richard Pease, who had held the farm on a nine-year lease from 1670 at the same rent. (fn. 252) In the late 17th century, besides the Park Lodge and Manor House, there were 18 other holdings which included at least a small amount of land (am