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
Boxworth had 900 acres of common field. “The whole of this parish,”
says Vancouver, “lies within a ring fence and containing 2,100 acres,
is the property of one gentlemen.” Vancouver’s acres, as we have seen,
are large ones; the actual area is 2,526 acres. Enclosure was effected
before the date of tithe commutation, and as might be supposed under
the circumstances, without an Act.
Downham had, according to Vancouver, 680 acres of common field; the
tithe map indicates 450 acres still remaining.
To Ely he assigns 2,100 acres of common field. This had all gone at the
time of tithe commutation.
Of 345 acres assigned to Littleport, a remnant of forty acres survived
to be recorded in the tithe map.
The common field land of Lolworth suffered no diminution; for while
Vancouver gives it 650 acres, the tithe map indicates 800 acres. They
were enclosed at the time of the Crimean war by common agreement of the
owners, without an Act. This was the last surviving common field parish
in the vicinity.
In Soham enclosure was nearly as slow. Vancouver assigns it 1,200 acres
of common field; the tithe map 1,100 acres.
Madingley, Vancouver says, had 1,030 acres of common field. These were
all enclosed before the date of tithe commutation.
For Over the Board of Agriculture has no tithe documents; but we may
add that Horseheath had about 750 acres of common field, out of a total
of 1,850 acres, according to the tithe map.
Of the fifteen parishes stated by Vancouver to have been enclosed
before 1793, only two were enclosed by Act of Parliament.
The extent of the information obtained from the Acts, the tithe
documents, and Vancouver’s report is as follows:--
Of the 152 agricultural parishes of Cambridgeshire, we know the date of
enclosure of 118, enclosed by Acts of Parliament. These are given in
Appendix B.
Of thirteen, viz., Arrington, Childerley, Chippingham, Hatley St.
George, Leverington, Newton in the Isle of Ely, Outwell, Tadlow, Tid
St. Giles, Upwell-cum-Welney, and Wisbeach St. Mary, we know that they
were enclosed without Acts before 1793. The date 1790 is given for
Chippingham, and a small remnant of common field survived till 1851 in
Newton.
Four parishes were enclosed, not by Acts, between 1793 and the date of
tithe commutation--Babraham, Boxworth, Ely and Madingley.
Five parishes which were not entirely enclosed even at the date of
tithe commutation have not been enclosed by Act since. These are
Lolworth, which then had only about one-fifth of its area enclosed;
Horseheath, which was about half enclosed; Soham, which had about 1,100
acres of common field and 456 acres of common, out of a total area of
nearly 13,000 acres; and Downham and Littleport, which had respectively
450 and forty acres of common field remaining.
Of one parish, Over, we only know that it was open in 1793.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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