enclosures

The process of ‘enclosing’ land into ‘private’ holdings goes back many centuries, and was a development from the system of open field farming. Enclosure changed agricultural practices which had operated under systems of co-operation in communally administered landholdings. Instead, agricultural holdings were created which were non-communal, and within man-made boundaries which separated one farm from another. In the 16th cent. landlords tried to enclose their land in order to keep more sheep. This process was condemned by the church and opposed by the government. By the 1630s government opposition was breaking down, and a good deal of ‘by agreement’ enclosure took place in the period c. 1630- c.1750.

From 1750 Parliament began to pass bills to allow for the enclosure of the land under certain clearly defined conditions. As a result, between 1750 and 1830 in England more than 4, 000 enclosure Acts were passed. The process continued through the 19th cent. until there were hardly any open fields remaining. Only in the Nottinghamshire village of Laxton does a common field system continue to operate to this day. Enclosure in Scotland occurred primarily in the 18th cent., in the Lowlands in the 1760s and 1770s and in the uplands at the end of the century.