Parliamentary Enclosure in England: An Introduction to Its Causes, Incidence, and Impact, 1750-1850The enclosure of common land into smaller privately owned units of land by parliamentary intervention transformed the traditional open-field system of farming which gave even the poorest a share in the common land. Despite its long-term benefits, its methods and immediate consequences were controversial, dispossessing the rural poor from their land. This text analyzes the extent and impact of parliamentary enclosure regionally, examining the processes by which land was reorganized, cultivation extended into former waste lands and old practices transformed. It stresses the degree of local variation and the mixture of motives and effects which make the subject complex. The book also weighs up the evidence for the effect of enclosure on the poor, looking afresh at old conclusions and providing new insights. |
Contents
The meaning of enclosure | 7 |
3 | 33 |
The Process of Parliamentary Enclosure | 55 |
Copyright | |
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acreage acres affected Agricultural History Review allotments Annals of Agriculture areas Arthur Young Award Barton-upon-Humber Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Cambridge Univ Cambridgeshire cent Chapman Commissioners common rights commons and waste commutation compensation considerable cottagers counties cows crops cultivation drainage Economic History employment Enclosure Acts England example expanding expenses farming favour fences fields and commons figure freeholders fuel GRABURN grazing Guilden Morden heavily enclosed holdings Ibid important improvement increase industrial instances involved Kingston Deverill labour landlords landowners large number later eighteenth century Lincolnshire Lincs livestock Longleat lord major manor meet Michael Turner Midlands Napoleonic Wars Northamptonshire old enclosures open fields open-field arable Otmoor parish Parliament parliamentary enclosure pasture perhaps period poor post-enclosure private Act production proportion proprietors public costs rents ring-fencing rise roads sheep small farmers small occupiers small owners soil surveyor Swing riots tenants tion tithe-owner tithes towns Turner village Warwickshire waste land