THE ENCLOSURE ACTS
Bernard O'Connor 2000
After the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the 18th century
there was a period of peace and economic growth. The technological improvements
of the Industrial Revolution had created enormous job opportunities in the
industrial towns. There was a rise in population, notably in the industrial
towns and cities which led to increased demand for food. Few town houses had
gardens for growing crops or keeping animals. People also did not have the
time. As a result there was a huge market for farmers to supply.
This partly explained
the many developments during the Agricultural Revolution. Landowners,
agriculturalists and farmers wanted to increase yields. How did they get to
know about the new ideas to improve farming like Jethro Tull’s Seed Drill,
using a steam engine to pull a plough, operate a pump, a grain elevator and threshing machine? They were able to
read the details published in an increasing number of agricultural magazines
and journals. Other revolutionary ideas included the Duke of Norfolk’s idea of
cross breeding animals to increase meat, milk and wool yields and “Turnip”
Townsends four-course crop rotation method. This involved making use of all the
land in the parish that could be farmed. The old three-field system involved
changing the use of the fields from wheat to oats or vegetables each year,
leaving one large field out of cultivation. This rested the soil so that
nutrients were allowed to build up. These were added by letting cattle, sheep
and goats graze on it and their droppings helped improve the soil when it was
cropped the following year.
These were open
fields, There were few fences, hedges or walls separating property. The ridges
and furrows that dominated medieval farms were found on the ridge top and on
the clay vale. However, tenants who did not look after their plots were not
popular when weeds spread onto adjoining plots. The problem of stray animals
grazing someone else’s crops caused problems too.
One development that
would benefit farmers in this area was the deep plough. This was a large,
cast-iron plough share that could be used to break up the iron pan. This pan
was a layer of iron-rich sand found only a few feet below the surface of sandy
soils. Rainwater dissolved the iron in the sand and it crystallised along the
water table. The pan reduced drainage of the soil and a deep plough could break
it up.
In order to take
advantage of these developments there had to be a revolution in farming. Instead
of having three large fields divided into numerous long strips which were
rented out by the Lord of the Manor, some reorganisation was needed. An Act of Parliament was needed to bring
about these changes. As many of the local landowners were also members of
parliament it was not too difficult to get a law passed. Everton and Tetworth were considered as two
townships when the 1802 Inclosure Act was passed and have since been considered
two separate civil parishes. (Local and Peers Act 42 Geo. III, cap. 44;
Carlisle, Topog. Dict. 1808, Lewis, Topog. Dict. 1849’; VCH Beds, ii. p.226)
“When the Act for settling and describing the divisions of counties
declared that the isolated part of the parish of Everton, situated between
Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire and belonging to Huntingdonshire, was annexed
to Huntingdonshire it created no new position.”
(VCH, Hunts. p. 370)
Commissioners were
brought in to map the whole parish and record on it who owned or rented every
strip of land, every piece of woodland, every pond. The village common was included as well as the woods. Until this
period everyone in the parish could graze animals on the common, could gather
nuts, fruit and firewood from the woods and the poorest people could build a
hut in which they lived without paying rent.
The local Enclosure Acts allowed the major landowners in the area to
reorganise their widely separated landholdings. This produced larger estates
for the likes of Samuel Whitbread, the Lord of Potton Manor, the Burgoyne
family of Sutton, the Peel family of Sandy, the Astells of Woodbury Hall and
the Pyms of Hazells Hall.
The commissioners
were often “entertained” at the manor house at the lord’s expense. Once the
mapping had been done each member of the parish was allocated plots of land.
The more important you were the more plots you received. The Lord of the manor
got the first choice, then the local yeomen, vicar and so on down the social
order. As most people did not own land they were allocated plots which they
could rent. Human nature being what it
is the Lord of the manor chose the most fertile, best drained land closest to
his house. By the time the ordinary villagers had their choice there was not
much left. It was often the poorest soil, land liable to flood and plots furthest
away. As one of the requirement of the
Act was the new plots to be enclosed, hedges were planted, fences constructed
and stone walls built. The poorer members of the village could not afford this
and ended up selling their plot to the adjacent landowner. Along with losing
the common and grazing rights, they also were not allowed to trespass in the
woods. Man traps were introduced as deterrents. Hanging and even deportation
for sheep stealing was common!
Landowners could now
introduce the new technology, many of which required less labour. As a result
many agricultural labourers were laid off.
They lost not only their regular source of employment but also their
accommodation. Being an estate village many of the houses were built by the
landowners and rented out to their tenants. They were tied cottages. If you
were given the sack you were evicted from your cottage. So began an
out-migration of rural poor. There were jobs available in the factories and
workshops of industrial towns and cities as well as domestic work for the
growing number of middle class families.
Much of the sandy wasteland of Everton, Sandy and Gamlingay Heath was
brought under cultivation. Trees were cut down and roots dug out. The iron pan
was broken up which improved drainage on
the heathlands and allowed the expansion of market gardening. The introduction
of mass-produced drainage pipes in the second quarter of the 19th century
enabled the lowering of the water table on the clay lands. Steam-driven pumps,
new agricultural machinery, Jethro Tull’s seed drill and improved crop and
animal breeds all helped increase food production. Improved transport with the
development of the steam engine also allowed goods to reach the markets more
quickly and cheaply. As a result farmers’ profits were increasing. They could
afford to experiment with the new manures that were being marketed across the
country.
There were
experiments to increase the fertility of the soil. These included the spreading
of animal manure, seaweed, lime, shells, rags, soot, blood, fish bones and
crushed animal bones onto the soil. By the 1860s it led to the exploitation of
the local fossil bed. See Everton’s coprolite industry. Before that there was
an unending demand for animal manure. When the railway came in 1851 the new
steam trains carried truckloads of Bedfordshire vegetables to the London
markets and returned each day laden with horse manure. Carriers made good
business carrying cartloads of manure from station yards to the surrounding
farms.