Hungerfield is a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in the parish of
Easenhall
Easenhall is a small village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, three miles north-west of the town of Rugby and a mile south of the M6 motorway. According to the 2011 Census the parish had a population of 291, reducing to 255 at the 202 ...
in the borough of
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
in the County of
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Hungerfield is a small collection of four houses roughly located around bridge 35 of the
North Oxford Canal in Easenhall. It is believed that the place gets its name from the clay soil it inhabits.
There is no record of Hungerfield's existence as a place prior to the
Enclosure
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
of the 1700s; it is believed to have been created as part of the enclosure of Easenhall undertaken by the Skipwith family. There is no record of when this was carried out but evidence from a number of sources suggest sometime around 1760. Prior to this the area had operated the
Open-field system
The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acre ...
of which evidence remains. Many of the surrounding fields have much of the traditional
ridge and furrow
Ridge and furrow is an archaeological pattern of ridges (Medieval Latin: ''sliones'') and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open-field system. It is also known as rig (or rigg) and fu ...
pattern surviving under the current pasture.
The first written record of Hungerfield as a place comes from a survey by the Oxford Canal Company in 1829. The company commissioned the survey to show land ownership for the company's canal shortening programme.
{{authority control
Villages in Warwickshire