Once a year, at about Christmas, the tenants of each manor met, the steward presiding; the elected officials submitted their accounts, and resigned their offices, and their successors were re-elected. The most important of these were two “viewers of the fields and tellers of the cattle,” commonly known simply as the “viewers.” There was also a “hayward,” and two “chimney peepers” (described in the Court-rolls as “inspectors of chimnies”). The inspectors of chimneys do not appear in the rolls of the eighteenth century; instead are the more important officials the “constabul” (_sic_) and “tythingman,” who ceased to be appointed presumably after the establishment of the county police and the commutation of the tithes.
The duty of the “chimney peepers” was, as their name implies, to see that chimneys were kept properly swept so as not to endanger a neighbour’s thatched roof. The hayward was in charge of the pound; he was entitled to charge 4_d._ a head for all stray beasts impounded if they belonged to the manor, and 8_d._ a head for outsiders.
The “viewers” had more varied duties. In the first place they had to appoint one villager as “Lacy’s Bridge man.” “Lacy’s Bridge” is a structure of loose stones at a place where the stream, which for the most part bounds Stratton meadow, crosses it; and the duty of the bridge man is to keep it in sufficient repair to enable sheep to cross. The viewers used to appoint the cottagers in turn, going down one side of the road to the end of the village and up the other side.
Next the viewers provided the manor bull. They bought the bull, they charged a fee for his services, and made all necessary regulations. The breed favoured varied from year to year, and the viewers were never known to please everybody with their choice.
Then the viewers appointed the common shepherd, in whose charge were the sheep of the whole manor almost all through the year. And in general they had to enforce all the decisions of the court with regard to the times when sheep or cows should be allowed in the meadow, when the sheep should come into the “hatching ground,” how and where horses should be tethered, and particularly to see that each tenant sowed his clover properly. And when the hay in the meadow was ripe, they marked out to each tenant the plots which fell to his share that year. It was usual to re-elect one of the viewers, so that though there was an annual election, each viewer held office for two years, being for the first year the junior viewer, for the second the senior.