The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common FieldsSlater, Gilbert
History
The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common Fields
Slater, Gilbert
Agriculture -- England; Inclosures; Peasants -- England; Village communities -- Great Britain
Seebohm points out that the ancient characteristic agriculture of
Westphalia, East Friesland, Oldenburg, North Hanover, Holland, Belgium,
Denmark, Brunswick, Saxony and East Prussia, a vast area comprising
all districts from which the Anglo-Saxon conquerors of Britain are
believed by any historians to have come, is that known among German
scholars as “Einfeldwirthschaft,” the “one field system.” Crops,
usually of rye and buckwheat, are continually grown year after year,
in the strips in the open fields, the fertility being maintained by
marling and the application of peat manure.[91]
[91] “The English Village Community,” p. 372.
It is therefore natural to attribute the whole year or every year lands
of Norfolk, and the infields of Scotland, alike, to the influence of
Saxon, Anglian or Danish conquest and settlement. If it is asked why
the same agricultural feature was not more widely produced, the obvious
answer is that when people of different races are mixed together in the
occupation of the same villages, it is by no means certain that the
agricultural customs which will afterwards prevail will be those of
the conquerors, or of the race which is in the majority. The customs
of the first occupiers had been modified by the environment, and had
to some extent modified the environment, till something like harmony
was created. After a conquest by another race, if any of the conquered
race remain, the _easiest_ course is to continue the existing mode of
husbandry. It is more likely that the customs of the conquered race
should remain as the basis of the future practice, though altered to
some extent in form and more in spirit, than that the previous customs
of the conquerors, which they had followed in other circumstances on a
different soil and amidst other surroundings, should be imposed on the
conquered people.
The following are the Acts for places outside Norfolk which specify the
existence of Whole Year lands, Every Year lands, or Infields.
1740, c. 19. Gunnerton, _Northumberland_. This Act is to enclose 1300
acres of Ingrounds, and 1000 acres of Outgrounds.
1752, c. 27. Enclosing Wytham on the Hill, Infield, _Lincolnshire_.
1761, c. 32. Enclosing Norham Infields. Norham was nominally in
_Durham_, but it is on the Scottish border.
1807, c. 18. Herringswell, _Suffolk_. “Divers old inclosed meadow and
pasture grounds, and old inclosed whole year or every year arable
lands, open or common fields, half year or shack lands, common meadows,
heaths, warrens, fens, commons, and waste grounds.”
1811, c. ccxix. Great Waddingfield c. Chilton and Great Coniard,
_Suffolk_, “divers open fields called Whole Year lands and Half Year
lands.”
1813, c. 29. Icklingham, _Suffolk_. “Open and Common fields, Infields
or Every Year lands, Common Meadows, Heaths, Commons and Wastes.”
1819, c. 18. Yelling, _Huntingdon_, “Whole year lands.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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