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
Similarly Leland: “Manchester to Morle I passid by enclosid Grounde
partely pasturable, partely fruteful of corn” (Vol. V., fol. 83). “The
Ground bytwixt Morle and Preston enclosid for Pasture and Cornes....
Likewyse is the soile bytwixt Preston and Garstan; but alway the moste
parte of Enclosures be for Pasturages” (fol. 84).
Cumberland and Westmoreland were later enclosed than Lancashire; and
some few remnants of open arable field were dealt with by Acts. At
Bolton, in Westmoreland, “certain open or common fields called Broad
Ing Bartle and Star Ing” of 22 acres, at Soulby 90 acres of open field,
and at Barton 130 acres, were enclosed by Acts mainly passed for the
sake of enclosing waste; and at Kirkby, in Kendal, “a common open
field” of 105 acres was enclosed. There were five Acts in Cumberland
enclosing open fields; but only two say precisely how much. At
Torpenton, 20 acres of field and 700 acres of waste was enclosed; at
Greystoke, 240 acres of field and 3260 acres of waste.
But the enclosure of open-field arable was proceeding very steadily
through the eighteenth century; and a clear account of the process is
furnished us by two keen observers.
Eden gives an account of the condition of the arable land in seven
Cumberland parishes, written either in December, 1794, or January, 1795.
“_Gilcrux._ About 400 acres of common field have been enclosed within
the last fifty years” (“State of the Poor,” Vol. II., p. 76).
“_Hesket._ No more than 200 acres have been enclosed within the last
fifty years. A large part appears to have had its hedges planted a
little before that period” (_Ibid._, p. 81).
“_Ainstable._ Area 5,120 acres of which 3,480 are common.[106] About
400 acres have been enclosed in the common fields within the last fifty
years.... The average rent of land is about 18_s._ per acre; but it
is observable that here and in most parts of Cumberland, an extensive
common right[107] is attached to most arable land” (p. 46).
[106] _I.e._, common pasture or waste.
[107] _I.e._, over the neighbouring common pasture.
“_Croglin._ The average rent of open fields is 9_s._ 6_d._ the acre,
of inclosures, 15_s._ or 16_s._ About 100 acres of common-field land
have been enclosed within the last fifty years; but a great part of the
arable land still remains in narrow, crooked _dales_, or _ranes_, as
they are called” (p. 67).
“_Castle Carrock._ The greatest part of this parish remains in _dales_,
or _doles_ as they are called; which are strips of cultivated land
belonging to different proprietors, separated from each other by ridges
of grass land; about 100 acres may have been enclosed in the last fifty
years” (p. 65).
“_Cumrew._ The land is cultivated in the old Cumberland manner; the
grass ridges in the fields are from twenty to thirty feet wide; and
some of them are 1000 feet in length. Grazing cattle often injure the
crops” (p. 68).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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