Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (5.1984/1987)

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173

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OX-SHOEING ON ENGLISH DEMESNES,
1200-1500

By
John Langdon

The question of ox-shoeing, while only a
minor item in the study of medieval English
agriculture, is unusually interesting from the
point of view of the diffusion of technical
innovation. The shoeing of horses, of
course, was an accepted and uncontroversial
practice on medieval farms and one that
showed little change in the period from the
beginning of the thirteenth century to the

end of the fifteenth that we are now examin-
ing. On the other hand, the shoeing of oxen
was a much more sporadic practice, reflect-
ing perhaps the uncertainty of the part of
farmers of whether to do it or not. It is this
unsettled state of affairs, with its sensitivity
to changing conditions and fashion, which
provides the main focus of attention.
Oxen were very valuable to English farm-