Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land could be either through a formal or informal process. The process could normally be accomplished in three ways. First there was the creation of "closes", taken out of larger common fields by their owners. Secondly, there was enclosure by proprietors, owners who acted together, usually small farmers or squires, leading to the enclosure of whole parishes. Finally there were enclosures by Acts of Parliament.
The primary reason for enclosure was to improve the efficiency of agriculture. However, there were other motives too, one example being that the value of the land enclosed would be substantially increased. There were social consequences to the policy, with many protests at the removal of rights from the common people. Enclosure riots are seen by historians as 'the pre-eminent form' of social protest from the 1530s to 1640s.
History
After William I invaded and conquered England in 1066, he distributed the land amongst 180 barons, who held the land as tenants, establishing a feudal system. However he promised the English people that he would keep the laws of Edward the Confessor. Thus commoners were still able to exercise their ancient customary rights. The original contract bound the people who occupied the land to provide some form of service. This evolved into a financial agreement that avoided or replaced the service.
Following the introduction of the feudal system, there was an increase in the economic growth and urban expansion of the country. In the 13th century successful Lords did very well financially, however the peasants faced with ever increasing costs did not, and their landholding dwindled. But after outbreaks of the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century there was a major decline in population and crop yields.The decline in population left surviving farm workers in great demand. Landowners had to face the choice of raising wages to compete for workers or letting their lands go unused. Wages for labourers rose and translated into inflation across the economy. The ensuing difficulties in hiring labour has been seen as causing the abandonment of land and the demise of the feudal system, although some historians have suggested that the effects of the Black Death may have only sped up the process.
From as early as the 12th century agricultural land had been enclosed. However, the history of enclosure in England is different from region to region. Parts of south-east England (notably sections of Essex and Kent) retained the pre-Roman Celtic field system of farming in small enclosed fields. Similarly in much of west and north-west England, fields were either never open, or were enclosed early. The primary area of field management, known as the "open field system ", was in the lowland areas of England in a broad band from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire diagonally across England to the south, taking in parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, large areas of the Midlands, and most of south central England.
Definitions
Enclosure
Was the removal of common rights that people held over farm lands and parish commons. It was the reallocation of scattered strips of land into large new fields that were enclosed either by hedges, walls or fences. The newly created enclosed fields were reserved for the sole use of individual owners or their tenants. Villagers Lord of the manor Freeholders or yeomanry. Proprietors of large and small properties Copyholders. Tenant farmers Cottagers/cottar Squatters Farm servants living in their employers' house
Methods of enclosure
There were essentially two broad categories of enclosure, these were 'formal' or 'informal' agreements. Formal enclosure was achieved either through act of parliament from 1836 onwards, or by a written agreement signed by all parties involved. The written record would probably also include a map.
With informal agreements there was either minimal or no written record other than occasionally a map of the agreement. The most straightforward informal enclosure was through 'unity of possession'. Under this, if an individual managed to acquire all the disparate strips of land in an area and consolidate them in one whole piece, for example a manor, then any communal rights would cease to exist as there was no one to exercise them.