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<br>However, often following some engrossment and an exchange or purchase of strips in the open fields that resulted in one person or a small group of farmers owning most of the land in the parish, enclosure by general agreement of the owners would take place. Sometimes the process was a piecemeal one over a long period. New fields were laid out with hedges and walls following the old curving ridges and furrows formed by many years of strip farming as seen, for instance, in the Peak District. The many ploughmen were then replaced by a few shepherds. The rights of the commoners to the previous uses of these lands were extinguished by this process which extended also to a proportion of the common itself, its area being slowly diminished over time.<br>Enclosure was actively promoted in the midland counties of England in the sixteenth century and was fiercely resisted. In areas where there was only a small amount of common or waste great depopulation resulted and the effects were marked in Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. Continued enclosure of the open fields in these areas in the seventeenth century probably brought great gains in productivity but it completely disrupted old style communal husbandry and brought great hardship to many.<br>In some regions, the West Country, in Kent, in Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk, and in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire, which had much larger areas of woodland and moorland, the enclosure arrangements, which had often been carried out in pre-Tudor times, had less marked effects.<br>If the records of these agreements survive they are usually found in estate papers, though some, as with other agreements about land which resulted from collusive law suits, where the parties were acting in concert merely to get the matter on record, are found in the records of the Court of Chancery. This is particularly so in the seventeenth century when the whole process gathered speed. Some enclosures were then also arranged by parish officials in the vestry or in the manor court. | <br>However, often following some engrossment and an exchange or purchase of strips in the open fields that resulted in one person or a small group of farmers owning most of the land in the parish, enclosure by general agreement of the owners would take place. Sometimes the process was a piecemeal one over a long period. New fields were laid out with hedges and walls following the old curving ridges and furrows formed by many years of strip farming as seen, for instance, in the Peak District. The many ploughmen were then replaced by a few shepherds. The rights of the commoners to the previous uses of these lands were extinguished by this process which extended also to a proportion of the common itself, its area being slowly diminished over time.<br>Enclosure was actively promoted in the midland counties of England in the sixteenth century and was fiercely resisted. In areas where there was only a small amount of common or waste great depopulation resulted and the effects were marked in Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. Continued enclosure of the open fields in these areas in the seventeenth century probably brought great gains in productivity but it completely disrupted old style communal husbandry and brought great hardship to many.<br>In some regions, the West Country, in Kent, in Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk, and in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire, which had much larger areas of woodland and moorland, the enclosure arrangements, which had often been carried out in pre-Tudor times, had less marked effects.<br>If the records of these agreements survive they are usually found in estate papers, though some, as with other agreements about land which resulted from collusive law suits, where the parties were acting in concert merely to get the matter on record, are found in the records of the Court of Chancery. This is particularly so in the seventeenth century when the whole process gathered speed. Some enclosures were then also arranged by parish officials in the vestry or in the manor court. | ||
=== Parliamentary enclosure === | === Parliamentary enclosure === | ||
When the agreement of all those involved could not be obtained, enclosure was, from 1604 onwards, sometimes brought about by private Act of Parliament and the minority was overruled. The first such Act was in 1604 but in the late eighteenth century and particlarly during the Napoleonic Wars, when corn prices were high, they became frequent. In 1836 a General Inclosure Act was passed which eased the procedures if two-thirds of the possessors of open field rights, in number and value, were agreed, but an individual Act was still required if a common was to be enclosed. Many Acts, indeed, related only to commons and wastes. The spelling 'inclosure' is often used for the legal process and 'enclosure' for the physical one. Another Act in 1845 set up Inclosure Commissioners to supervise future arrangements, but these Acts, except in Wales, were by then becoming less frequent. The last was in 1914. | When the agreement of all those involved could not be obtained, enclosure was, from 1604 onwards, sometimes brought about by private Act of Parliament and the minority was overruled. The first such Act was in 1604 but in the late eighteenth century and particlarly during the Napoleonic Wars, when corn prices were high, they became frequent. In 1836 a General Inclosure Act was passed which eased the procedures if two-thirds of the possessors of open field rights, in number and value, were agreed, but an individual Act was still required if a common was to be enclosed. Many Acts, indeed, related only to commons and wastes. The spelling 'inclosure' is often used for the legal process and 'enclosure' for the physical one. Another Act in 1845 set up Inclosure Commissioners to supervise future arrangements, but these Acts, except in Wales, were by then becoming less frequent. The last was in 1914. | ||
The later enclosures, with all the detailed work required, might take several years to complete. Their mark on the landscape is the characteristic square or rectangular field. | The later enclosures, with all the detailed work required, might take several years to complete. Their mark on the landscape is the characteristic square or rectangular field. | ||
The record of the allotment of land called the 'award', with the names of owners and tenants, together with a detailed map, is either in the county record ofice or in The National Archives. All are listed in W.E. Tate's A''Domesday of English Enclosure Acts'' (University of Reading, 1978) and | The record of the allotment of land called the 'award', with the names of owners and tenants, together with a detailed map, is either in the county record ofice or in The National Archives. All are listed in W.E. Tate's A ''Domesday of English Enclosure Acts and Awards'' (Reading: University of Reading, 1978) [FHL 942 R2] and John Chapman's ''A guide to Parliamentary Enclosures in Wales'' (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992) [FHL 942.9 R2]. | ||
One of the most controversial aspects of this subject is the way in which enclosure affected the small farmer, cottager and squatter. The liberal social historians J.L. and L.B. Hammond in ''The Village Labourer'' (1911) said that it was fatal to these three classes but the great growth in population between 1540 and 1640 (when it all but doubled) undoubtedly also helped to create the mobile labour force dependent on wages, which is usually blamed upon it. Where common survive, smallholdings have not necessarily flourished, but you may still see cattle graze an unenclosed heath, watched perhaps by their owner from the glassy shelter of a telephone kiosk. | One of the most controversial aspects of this subject is the way in which enclosure affected the small farmer, cottager and squatter. The liberal social historians J.L. and L.B. Hammond in ''The Village Labourer'' (London: Longmans Green, 1911) [FHL 942 H2] said that it was fatal to these three classes but the great growth in population between 1540 and 1640 (when it all but doubled) undoubtedly also helped to create the mobile labour force dependent on wages, which is usually blamed upon it. Where common survive, smallholdings have not necessarily flourished, but you may still see cattle graze an unenclosed heath, watched perhaps by their owner from the glassy shelter of a telephone kiosk. | ||
= Hearth Tax 1662-89 = | = Hearth Tax 1662-89 = | ||