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Parliamentary enclosure and changes in landownership in an upland environment : Westmorland c.1770-1860.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/10/2006
<mark>Journal</mark>Agricultural History Review
Issue number2
Volume54
Number of pages17
Pages (from-to)240-256
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

The impact of parliamentary enclosure on landownership, especially on small proprietors, has been considered mainly in the context of lowland open-field arable communities. However, it also affected extensive areas of upland common pasture in northern England. This article examines parliamentary enclosure in Westmorland where the context of enclosure and the structure of rural society were markedly different from southern England, particularly in the prevalence of customary tenures with rights effectively equivalent to freehold. A study of sales of allotments in enclosure awards, and changes in landownership between awards and subsequent Land Tax returns, shows that there was considerable continuity of occupation by smaller proprietors despite enclosure. Parliamentary enclosure in Westmorland does not appear to have caused the large scale disappearance of small owners or their transformation into landless wage labourers. Small owner-occupied farms remained a characteristic feature of this area into the later nineteenth century.

Bibliographic note

RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : History