Pre-Enclosure 

Landscape By the end of the sixteenth century there are two distinct settlements in the parish, the area between them being enclosed into a series of small fields. Around the northern, flyer boundary, and the western edges lies a rim of fen land, the rest of the parish is sand. The western end of the parish beyond Town Street is cultivated; there are four Infields, which are cultivated every year, and six Outfields, which are cropped every few years, but are fallow most of the time. The whole of the south of the parish is light sandy soil given over to warrens and sheepwalks. Travellers through Brandon describe its 'sands, terrible travelling to man and horse.' and people describe crossing the 'horrible Brandon sands' in the cool of the day to avoid distressing the horses. The present road to Barton Mills was laid out to speed and ease passage across the warren in 1780

John Basham ©2000