 In Cheshire as elsewhere in England, clearance of land for agriculture was interrupted by the Black Death of 1348–51, when a substantial proportion of agricultural workers died.Small-scale enclosure of land for use as private arable fields or cattle pasture started in around the 15th century and escalated during the Tudor era, although town fields, remnants of the open-field system, remained until the late 18th or early 19th century.Towards the end of the 14th century, some arable land was converted into pasture.