Mark,
Ive looked up Boon in 'the Local Historians Encyclopedia' by John
Richardson.
Under entry C45 he states the following:
Boon. Serivce in kind or labour given by a tenant to his lord, hence
Boonwork which was a day's work at specific times such as harvest or ploughing
I also seem to remember quite afew years back being told that on large
estates where work was often seasonal, the tenants of an estate would
sometimes be made to do a certain amount of work to pay their dues instead of
monetary rent which would be hard to come across. Perhaps in this case the
cottages and land were set aside so the tenants could spent their time where
the work was needed rather than travel to and from their homes?
Hope this is of some use.
Sara
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