Some land had been
specifically allocated to certain individuals. Some was common
land, held by communities. If a family came to pay the dues and
fines on certain common land, it could become personal to that
family and was then known as heir-land. Most land came to be
privately held from community-witnessed allotments or inheritance.
Book-land was those holdings written down in books. This land was
usually land that had been given to the church or monasteries
because church clerics could write. So many thegns gave land to
the church, usually a hide, that the church held 1/3 of the land
of the realm. Folk-land was that land that was left over after
allotments had been made to the freemen and which was not common
land. It was public land and a national asset and could be
converted to heir-land or book-land only by action of the king and
witan. It could also be rented by services to the state via
charter. A holder of folk-land might express a wish, e.g. by
testamentary action, for a certain disposition of it, such as an
estate for life or lives for a certain individual. But a distinct
act by the king and witan was necessary for this wish to take
effect. Small private transactions of land could be done by
"livery of seisin" in the presence of neighbors. All estates in
land could be let, lent, or leased by its holders, and was then
known as "loenland".
Ploughs and wagons could be drawn by four or more oxen or horses
in sets of two behind each other.
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