The document discusses W.G. Hoskins' analysis of the impact of Parliamentary Enclosure on the English landscape from the 18th to 19th centuries, transforming open field systems into privately enclosed fields and farms, which Hoskins viewed nostalgically but was also a time of social upheaval as the landless poor lost access to common lands. The summary also presents more recent critiques that argue Hoskins overlooked the political dissent and social impacts of enclosure that impoverished many and concentrated land ownership.

1. W.G. Hoskins and the Making of
the English Landscape
Class 6. A Curse Upon the Land.
Parliamentary Enclosure
Tutor: Keith Challis
hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk

2. Recap: Last Week
(An Excess of Sheep)
• Hoskins Rural Idyll (?)
• Tudor to Georgian England
– The Landscape in 1500
– The Enclosure of the Midland Fields
– The Flowering of Rural England
– Country Houses and Parks
• 60 years on: Critique of Hoskins and a counterpoint
• Historic mapping and Map Regression
• Laxton Group project: Working with historic mapping
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3. Class Summary
Structure
• Nostalgia and the immemorial past
• A curse upon the Land: Parliamentary Enclosure
• 60 years on: Critique of Hoskins and a counterpoint
Coffee Break
• Researching Enclosure and Tithe Commutation
• Laxton Group project: Tracing Enclosure at Laxton
Hoskins’s England hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk

4. Class Summary
Learning Outcomes
• Understand the fundamental impact of
Parliamentary Enclosure on the English
Landscape
• Appreciate more recent ideas about the impact
of Enclosure
• Appreciate the sources of evidence and
research methods for exploring enclosure
• Become familiar with the physical traces of past
enclosure on the Laxton landscape.
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5. Section 1: A Curse Upon the Land:
Parliamentary Enclosure
and the Landscape

6. A Curse Upon the Land
Nostalgia and the
Immemorial Past
• “In the great majority
of parishes it was a
complete
transformation from
the immemorial
landscape of the open
fields…into the
modern chequer-
board pattern”
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7. A Curse Upon the Land
• “A villager who had played in the open
fields as a boy, or watched sheep in the
common pasture, would have lived to see
the modern landscape of his parish
completed and matured…Everything was
different: hardly a landmark of the old
parish would have remained. Perhaps
here or there the old man would have
found some evidence of the former
world…”
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8. A Curse Upon the Land
Chapter 6: Structure
• The Extent of Enclosure
• The Date of Parliamentary Enclosure
• The New Landscape
• The Fields
• Hedgerows and Trees
• Roads
• Farmhouses
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9. A Curse Upon the Land
The Extent of Enclosure
• 4.5 million acres of
Open Field enclosed by
Act of Parliament
• 3000 parishes affected
• Geographically focused
on East Yorkshire, the
Midlands and East
Anglian
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10. A Curse Upon the Land
The Date of
Parliamentary
Enclosure
• Principally 1750-1850
• Only 237 acts before
1760
• 1479 between 1760
and 1844, after which
the General Enclosure
Act led to 164 further
awards
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11. A Curse Upon the Land
The New Landscape
• Transformation of
medieval landscape
of open field, common
pasture and waste
into a closed,
regulated, private
landscape of field and
farm
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12. A Curse Upon the Land
The Fields
• Small hedged fields dominate
enclosed landscape
• Rectangular forms and straight
lines dominate
• “A regular field pattern of
straight hedges and squarish
fields of roughly the same size”
particularly when enclosing
waste and common
• A monotonous field-pattern
and continuous greensward
• Regional variations, eg. n East
Anglia conversion of heath to
arable dominated
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13. A Curse Upon the Land
Hedgerows and Trees
• Fields hedged with
quickset,
whitethorn/hawthorn with
shallow ditch and fence
• When mature hedges cut
and laid
• Ash and Elm trees planted
at irregular intervals, when
mature give impression of
woodland
• Fox coverts in Midlands
• Freestone walls in areas of
abundant building stone
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14. A Curse Upon the Land
Roads
• Wide, (20 yards plus)
straight, hedged roads
based on efficient linkage
of places rather than
ancient ways
• Wide roads reflect poor
surface conditions
• Metalled roads a
contemporary innovation,
not directly linked to
enclosure
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15. A Curse Upon the Land
Farmhouses
• Consolidation of holdings
into compact blocks led to
gradual relocation of
farms away from village
core.
• Larger farmers/graziers
pioneered move
• Elsewhere gradual
process driven by
economics and decay of
old farm buildings
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16. Section 2: Sixty Years On

17. A Curse Upon the Land
The politics of Enclosure
• Hoskins focused on the
physical transformation of
the landscape.
• The impact of enclosure
is not social but aesthetic
• A romantic yearning for
lost landscapes, typified
by Clare (p.194)
• Social critique of
enclosure absent
• Little reference to
contemporary voices of
dissent
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18. A Curse Upon the Land
John Clare 1793 – 1864)
• An English poet, the son of a
farm labourer, who came to be
known for his celebratory
representations of the English
countryside and his
lamentation of its disruption.
• A conservative romantic voice
in an age of dissent.
• “I am as far as my politics
reaches 'King and Country'—
no Innovations in Religion and
Government say I. With the old
dish that was served to my
forefathers I am content”
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19. A Curse Upon the Land
Dissent
• Enclosure was a contested
change from Gerrard
Winstanley in the 1640s on
• The earth (which was made to
be a Common Treasury of
relief for all, both Beasts and
Men) was hedged into
Inclosures by the teachers and
rulers, and the others were
made Servants and Slaves…
Take note that England is not
a Free people, till the Poor that
have no Land, have a free
allowance to dig and labour
the Commons, and so live as
Comfortably as the Landlords
that live in their Inclosures
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20. A Curse Upon the Land
Dissent
• Record of broadside ballads
and folk song
• Sermons - The crying sin of
England, of not caring for the
poor.: Wherein inclosure, viz.
such as doth unpeople townes,
and uncorn fields, is arraigned,
convicted, and condemned by
the Word of God. Being the
chief heads of two sermons,
preached at the lecture at
Lutterworth in Leicester-shire
in May last, and now published
in love to Christ, his country,
and the poor. Vicar of
Knaptoft, Leicestershire.
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21. A Curse Upon the Land
Social Impact
The main arguments against • Millions of people had
enclosure were: customary and legal access to
(i) that the common pastures lands and the basis of an
and waste lands were the independent livelihood was
mainstay of the independent snatched away from them
poor; they were overgrazed,
that was often as a result of • There was no requirement, in
overstocking by the wealthiest the parliament of the day, to
commoners who were the declare a "conflict of interest".
people agitating for enclosure • Out of 796 instances of MPs
(ii) enclosure engrossed turning up for any of the
already wealthy landowners, Oxfordshire bills, 514 were
force poor people off the land Oxfordshire MPs, most of
and into urban slums, and whom would have been
resulted in depopulation. landowners.
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22. A Curse Upon the Land
• The losers in the process of • There was also a class of
enclosure were the landless, smallholders who did have
who had no ownership rights legal rights, and hence were
over the commons, but who entitled to compensation.
gained a living from commons However, the amount of land
that were open access. These they were allocated "was often
people had few rights, so small, though in strict legal
appeared on no records, and proportion to the amount of
received nothing in their claim, that it was of little
compensation for the livelihood use and speedily sold."
they lost. Moreover, the considerable
legal, surveying, hedging and
fencing costs of enclosure
were disproportionate for
smaller holdings.
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23. A Curse Upon the Land
Coffee Break
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24. Section 3: Researching
Enclosure and Tithe
Commutation

25. Researching Enclosure
Parliamentary Enclosure
• Enclosure is the consolidation or
extending of land holdings into
larger units. 50% of English
parishes enclosed
• May be done by powerful
landowners, or mutual
agreement amongst landowners.
Often no records of such early
enclosures
• From early 18th century
enclosure by Act of Parliament,
initially separate private Acts,
after 1801 general public Acts
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26. Researching Enclosure
• Acts appoint commissioners who
divide the land after detailed
surveys. Usually survey
accompanied by a map
• Enclosure awards include written
description of roads footpaths,
drains, land allotments by owner
(including Lord of Manor), glebe
(church) land, common, ancient
enclosure, etc.
• Allotments of consolidated land,
rights, responsibilities and Tithes
(usually commuted for rent) are
given in the Award and shown on
the map
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27. Researching Enclosure
Enclosure in Nottinghamshire
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28. Researching Enclosure
The Enclosed Landscape
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29. Researching Enclosure
Enclosure Maps
Helperthorpe: Enclosed in 1805
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30. Researching Enclosure
Reconstructing
Landscape from
Enclosure
Evidence
Past landscapes reconstructed
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31. Researching Enclosure
Tithe Commutation
• Tithes were payments in kind
of a agreed proportion of
yearly profits from farming
made by parishioners for
support of the clergy
• After the dissolution of the
monasteries much church land
and many tithes passed into
lay hands
• Often money payments were
substituted for in kind
payments and with enclosure
this became the norm
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32. Researching Enclosure
• In 1836 the Government passed
the Tithe Commutation Act,
appointing 3 commissioners to
work out the substitution of a
variable corn rent in place of tithes
throughout England
• Agreements (apportionments)
drawn up between tithe owners
and land owners included a map
but these vary greatly in quality
and accuracy. The best ones
were approved by the
Commissioners
• Areas where enclosure or other
agreement had previously brought
about the commutation of tithes
have no apportionments or map
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33. Researching Enclosure
Tithe Maps
• Landowners names
• Occupiers names
• Plot No. referring to plan
• Name and description
of Land and Premises
• State of cultivation
• Area
• Amount of rent charge
apportioned
Alverthorpe: Tithe Map 1845
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34. Researching Enclosure
Enclosure Records at the
National Archives
• Much nationally important
material
• Good explanatory
materials and guides
• Access to Archives
Search
• A consolidated on-line
search engine for UK-
wide archives
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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35. Researching Enclosure
The Nottinghamshire
Archives
• County House
Castle Meadow Road
Nottingham
NG2 1AG
http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/learning/history/archives/
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36. Researching Enclosure
Manuscripts and Special
Collections at UoN
• The University of
Nottingham
King's Meadow Campus
Lenton Lane
Nottingham
• Extensive collection of
East Midlands material,
especially for Laxton
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections
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37. Section 4: Tracing Enclosure
at Laxton

38. Enclosure at Laxton
Identifying Early
Enclosure
• Evidence of enclosure
either from waste or
of Open Field based
on map and field
name evidence.
• Much land in the east
of the parish appears
to have been
enclosed from wood
or waste.
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39. Enclosure at Laxton
The New Farms of the
1729
• Four new Farms created
by the Pierrepont Estate
as part of a
reorganisation of the
Parish in the early 18th
century that say some
enclose and clearance of
woodland
• Each comprised both
open field strips and an
enclosed “infield”
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40. Enclosure at Laxton
The Enclosure of the East
Field
• The Manvers’ Estate
substantially reorganised
the open fields,
amalgamating strips and
enclosing some areas in
the early 19th century.
• The remaining strips in
the East Field were
enclosed in 1903
1835
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41. Enclosure at Laxton
The Enclosure of the
East Field
• Enclosure and
amalgamation to
larger strips allowed
agricultural
improvement and the
use of modern farm
equipment
c1900
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42. Self Assessment
Learning Outcomes
• Understand the broad changes to the
English Landscape brought about by
Parliamentary Enclosure
• Recognise some of the social affects of
enclosure
• Am familiar with some of the documents
produced by Enclosure and where to
access them
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43. Further Study
Suggested Reading
• A short history of Enclosure in Britain by Simon
Fairlie (link from website)
• Hoskins Chapter 7 for next week.
Self Study Themes
• Explore the maps of Laxton on the website, to
what extent can you identify changes in land use
through field patterns?
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