Friends of Hob Moor

Samuel Parsons was a nationally known surveyor, working between 1618 and 1639. His map of Dringhouses, which includes parts of Hob Moor, is the earliest surviving large-scale plan of any part of York and is notably accurate.

This wonderful map, in colour and with the names still legible, shows the ownership of land in the Manor of Dringhouses. The inscription reads: "The Plott of the Mannor of Dringhouses lyinge within the Countie of the Cittie of York. Taken Anno Domini 1624 and made up 1629 by Samuell Parsons, survaier." The map is held at the City of York Reference Library and an extract of it is shown below.

South is at the top of the map. Thus, the Knavesmire (or "Knares Myre Common") is shown on the left-hand side of the present Tadcaster Road ("London Roade"). To the right of this road are written hundreds of individual names, each being the owner of that piece of land.

In the bottom right of the map is the southern part of Hob Moor ("Hobb Moore") and an enlarged version of this section is shown below.

The names of the owners of the individual strips at the southern end of Hob Moor are written along the alignment which we still see today in the ridges and furrows. The names on the strips in the field called Hobmoor Side furlong, part of which is now North Lane Field, include Raphe Naggs, Margeret Knaggs, Geo Allyn, A Breary, Tho Donnington, Mr Padmore and Wm Richmond. The numbers after each person's name relate to their holding and are detailed in acres, roods and perches (1 acre = 4 roods = 160 perches).   

The strips of each farmer were distributed either regularly or randomly around the village. All the strips were grouped into convenient blocks within a field (often based upon furlongs), and hedges were few, in order to allow communal work and the pasturing of an area in fallow years. The same crop was grown by all the farmers on any one furlong.

The ridge and furrow seen in North Lane Field is a particularly well-developed and excellently preserved example of this historic landscape feature. It was created over the centuries by ox-ploughing and has the characteristic reversed-S curvature of mediaeval ridge and furrow. The undulations will have ensured that there were ridges of better-drained soil, and it is noticeable on Parsons' map that the strips are at right angles to the nearest stream, thus facilitating drainage.

The photo below shows the very pronounced ridge and furrow in North Lane Field.