Saxon Food & Farming
Saxon (410 -1066)
With the breakdown of Roman authority, the countryside became less organised. Drainage systems were abandoned and woodland regenerated.
Saxon settlers and natives returned to subsistence-based farming based around villages like Long Wittenham.
At first, the land was worked cooperatively in large fields shared out into narrrow strips.
In the later Middle Ages, these were combined into large estates, or manors, owned by wealthy lords.
