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
“Section 9 of the Commons Act, 1876, enables the Inclosure
Commissioners (whose place is now taken by the Board of Agriculture)
to give information and direction ‘upon application’ in order to bring
about ‘the regulation of Commons’; and for this purpose Lammas lands
are included as Commons, as they also came under the Inclosure Acts.
“By section 3 a Provisional Order made by the Board for ‘regulation’
may provide for the ‘adjustment of rights,’ and section 4 shows how
much can be done upon such an adjustment.”
This opinion was given in March, 1897. The very significant passage
which pointed out that since the cottagers held their cottages from the
farmers, they could not effectively claim any rights which the farmers
did not choose to grant them, threw cold water on the agitation.
Elmstone Hardwicke is apparently another case in which something would
be gained and nothing lost by an Act of Enclosure.
EWELME (OXFORDSHIRE).
Rather more than half this parish, near Wallingford, is legally in the
condition of open common fields, and there is besides a very extensive
“cow-common” on which is a golf course. The neighbouring parishes of
Bensington[9] and Berwick Salome had until 1852 common fields which
were in part intermixed with those of Ewelme, and there were commons
commonable to all three parishes. In 1852 an Act was passed which was
carried into effect in 1863 for the enclosure of Bensington and Berwick
Salome, and the parts of Ewelme which were intermixed with these.
Ewelme is owned by a number of small proprietors who chiefly farm their
own land. These made a voluntary division,[10] but they still enjoy
certain rights of common and of shooting over one another’s land. No
labourers enjoy rights of common.
[9] The Vicar of Bensington has the custody of a remarkable eighteenth
century map of the three intermixed parishes.
[10] Exchanges of land in common fields so as to enable proprietors to
consolidate their properties are authorised by 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 30.
There are two significant facts about this parish.
In the first place, one particular farm enjoys a special right of
pasturing sheep on the cow-common, not shared by other farms. This
is significant when taken into consideration with the facts for
Cambridgeshire and elsewhere related below.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account