Glebe can include strips in the open field system or grouped together into a compact plot of land. Tithes were in early times the main means of support for the parish clergy but glebe land was either granted by any lord of the manor of the church's parish (sometimes the manor would have boundaries coterminous with the parish but in most instances it would be smaller), or accumulated from other donations of particular pieces of land. Occasionally all or part of the glebe was , "devoted" or "assigned" to a priory or college. In the case where the whole glebe was given to impropriators they would become the lay rector(s) (plural where the land is now subdivided), in which case the general law of tithes would resume on that land, and in England and Wales chancel repair liability would now apply to the lay rectors just as it had to the rector.