Term in Tithe Apportionments

[walkerpete]

While looking at an ancestors land occupancies in the Derbyshire village of Tideswell I have encountered a term which I cannot find defined in m,y reference books or Google.

It appears to read Mesnestripes or Mesne stripes.

I wonder if anyone can confirm the meaning please?

[jim1]

Found this:
n. profits which have accrued while there was a dispute over land ownership. If it is determined the party using the land did not have legal ownership, the true owner can sue for some or all of the profits made in the interim by the illegal tenant, which are thus called "mesne profits."

[walkerpete]

Thanks for this.
It ties in with what I had found. It would appear that Joseph occupied this plot but that there was some issue with who above him owned or had title. The use of stripes suggests there is/was some sub division of the plot to me.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Often land round villages was allocated in long strips, rather than as chunks or regular fields. I suppose that may have been to even out the access and quality - If one household had all the best land, really close at hand, and another household had been allocated inferior land, and as distant from the village centre as possible, that'd have certainly been unfair. So each having a narrow strip was fairer.

[medpat]

Anyone who wants to know more about how the strip system works can see how it works at Laxton.

http://www.laxtonvisitorcentre.org.uk/

Laxton Nottinghamshire still uses the strip system.

[chris_49]

It seems to have been quite common. Look on Bing Maps (OS, 25000 scale) to see the strip fields still in place west of Holt, Denbighshire  - at Commionwood (significant name?). I walked the right of way there a few years back and they were still in place.

Is it a coincidence that an acre (4840 square yards) is the area of a rectangle of land bordered by a chain (22 yds) and a furlong (220 yds)?

[walkerpete]

Thanks to all for  the useful comments on the strip system. I will look into this with interest.

Pete