The degree of control that the yeomen had over their land increased with the years. When he arrived at having a freehold enclosed farm of arable and grass he became a yeoman in the modern sense of the term.

By the franchise act of 1430 he voted to send the knight of the hire to Parliament. His freehold was also assessed at a certain sum on which was based his payments to the state in time of need, and though the yeoman might well have preferred to escape assessment, yet it had the advantage that assessment was proof that he had control over his freehold land as a recognised fact.

It was this control over the land they cultivated that produced those qualities of love of the soil, good farming, fearless independence and hospitality, for which yeomen were famous. Because no-one had the right to deprive them of their land, they were freemen in the best sense of the word.

The average yeoman was interested in the questions of tenure of his land and was only interested in rising up the social scale if it might contribute to the increase of his means of production. A great deal of evidence exists to show that skill in farming was a matter of pride to the yeoman.

A first class example of this was Henry Best, yeoman of Elmswell, through the Farming Book, written in 1641. His idea of being a trustee for the land he owned was carried out with a devotion to detail that could not be bettered.

He supervised everything, he ploughed himself when need be, and his observations on his beasts, sheep, horses and crops and farm maintenance were from his own knowledge and not merely reports of his cowmen, shepherd or reeve.

He was an expert thatcher and his shearing feasts were a yearly entertainment at which not only his own men but half the village shared his hospitality.

His farming lore, his homeliness, to respect for the work and craftsmanship of his men, his own capacity to do every job on the farm stamp him as an ideal yeoman of his time.

There were many more yeomen like Best all over the country and between 1650 and 1700 new crops and methods and new ideas were spreading amongst yeomen.

Feeding of cattle on turnips in the winter was being tried, better cattle and sheep were being selected for fattening, corn was being sown in rows instead of broadcast, marling was used again, manures of all kinds were being tried and the compost heap and liquid manure were being used with success.

It was the privilege of the yeoman to sift the wheat from the chaff of the many books on agriculture which appeared between 1520 and 1670.

Much of the advice given in these books was often false in its conclusions, extravagant enough to arouse suspicion in the minds of practical men, and sometimes ridiculous. Here and there useful methods were suggested, and the yeomen who were interested fastened on these and tried them out by experiment.

The yeomen farmers alone had sufficient money, security of tenure and opportunity on their inclosed farms to put new ideas to the test and pass the results on to their neighbours.

A farming process would not be adopted merely because it was new, proof of its efficiency was needed.

Many writers tell us of the good food to be found in most yeomen's houses. Most of this came from the farm and they baked their own bread and brewed their own ale.

'It has always been that at a yeoman's table you might have as good entertainment as at the best gentleman's, not for variety of messes, but for solid sufficiency and hearty welcome. '

No yeoman worth his salt ever let down a neighbour in an emergency. The land must be worked, and if the owner could not do it, a good neighbour did it for him without thought of reward, for no-one knew when his own bad time might overtake him.

EXAMPLES OF GOOD HUSBANDRY FROM THE FARMING BOOK OF HENRY BEST OF ELMSWELL, 1642

Beasts

'We alwayes use to putte our young Calves into the foreyard on dayes, and then into the Calfe-house again on nights, for 2 or 3 dayes before wee putte them forth to grasse, and this is to make them gentle and learne to keepe within their bownds.'

Thatching

'It is a greate oversight in many thatchers, that when they are to lye on a whole thatch, they make it thicke att the very eize (eaves) then they doe make it thinne upwards; whereas on the contrary, they shoulde give it a good thicke coat up towards the toppe and lye on noe more att the eize but just to turn raine, and by this means will it shoote of wette better by farre.'

Sale of wool

'We usually sell our wooll at hoame, unless it be, by chance, that we carry some to Beverley on Midsummer-day. Those that buy it, carry it into the west towards Leeds, Halifax and Wakefield. They bring pack-horses and carry it away in great packs. These woollmen come and goe continuously from clippinge time till Michaelmas.'