Whyte, Ian D. (2006) Parliamentary enclosure and changes in landownership in an upland environment : Westmorland c.1770-1860. Agricultural History Review, 54 (2). pp. 240-256. ISSN 0002-1490
Full text not available from this repository.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.