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
Further, Arthur Young (“Agriculture of Suffolk,” appendix, p. 217)
tells us that the parish of Burnham, near Euston, in Suffolk, contained
in 1764--
Infield arable, inclosed 381 acres,
Outfield arable 2626 ″
Meadow and Pasture 559 ″
Heath or Sheep-walk 1735 ″
────
Total 5302
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And William Marshall (“General View of the Agriculture of the Central
Highlands of Scotland,” 1794, p. 38) remarks: “The every year lands as
they are called, of _Gloucester_, may be said to be clean compared with
those of Breadalbane.” Now, William Marshall knew the agriculture of
Gloucestershire well; and he was an extremely accurate observer, and
more interested in the local variations of common field cultivation
than other agricultural writers of his time; his authority may
therefore be considered good enough to establish the existence of lands
known as every year lands in Gloucestershire.
It is also to be noticed that Acts of Enclosure for Gloucester and
Oxford frequently specify, not “open and common fields” but “an open
and common field,” perhaps of between two and three thousand acres;
and further, as we have previously noted, the Board of Agriculture
reporter for Oxfordshire says: “In divers uninclosed parishes the same
rotation prevails over the whole of the open fields; but in others,
the more homeward or bettermost land is oftener cropped, or sometimes
cropped every year.” Of Gloucestershire, William Marshall says: “In the
neighbourhood of Gloucester are some extensive Common fields which have
been cropped, year after year, during a century, or perhaps centuries,
without the intervening of a whole year’s fallow. Hence they are called
Every Year’s land. Cheltenham, Deerhurst, and some few other townships,
have also their Every Year’s lands.” On these lands no regular
succession of crops is observed, except that “a brown and a white
crop--pulse and corn--are cultivated in alternacy” (“Rural Economy of
Gloucestershire,” Vol. I., p. 65).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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