 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 o