SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



With the 1 8th century the period of Parliamentary inclosures is reached, and for the latter part 

 of the century invaluable information can be obtained from Arthur Young. The inclosures on the 

 hill facing Conisbrough excited his admiration, the waste land round Beverley his scorn.'' Cleveland 

 he extolled, ' the inclosures adding prodigiously to the view. In front appears a most picturesque hill, 

 intersected with green hedges, and cultivated to the very top. One of the most pleasing objects in 

 the world.' '* Both from a picturesque and a pastoral point of view he found the Tees valley 

 unsurpassed. The extensive moorlands that stretched on both sides of the river had formerly ' used 

 not to yield a ferthing an acre,' '^ but by skilful management 7^. i)d. was now raised. Greenfield in 

 the parish of Arncliffe, an area of 2,080 acres, was so increasing in value by inclosure and improvement 

 that it would soon yield j^ 1,200 a year instead of the former rental of ^^60. He extolled highly 

 the energy of Mr. Scroope of Danby, who, by inclosing moorland in the Wensleydale district, had 

 not only added to the cultivated land of England, but made 170 per cent, on his outlay.'' Cases of 

 this kind, where no common rights were exploited, where the energy and enterprise of the landlord 

 gave the impetus, and his capital was risked to effect the improvement, are by no means uncommon 

 in Yorkshire. 



But an inclosure of an entirely different kind took place in the vale of Pickering. Canon 

 Taylor has familiarized everyone with the economic story of the parish. In the time of Edward the 

 Confessor the inclosures were less than 400 acres, about 700 acres were tilled in open field, about 

 20,000 acres remained moorland pasture. When the Domesday Survey was made the tillage had 

 increased to 1,200 acres, there were twenty villeins having six ploughs among them, the population 

 reached lOO, little more than one man to a square mile. To-day the parish contains 31,271 acres 

 and has 4,454 inhabitants, and all the land is inclosed. But towards the end of the 1 8th century a 

 complete upheaval of the whole parish took place. Writing in 1788 Marshall says : 'In my own 

 remembrance, more than half the Vale of Pickering lay open ; now scarcely an open field or an 

 undivided common remains.' " The history of its inclosure is given at length by Marshall, and is at 

 once so extraordinary and presents such a vivid picture of the happy-go-lucky ways of early inclosing 

 Acts that it furnishes the classic example of inclosure literature. The interest lies in the fact that one 

 small town should furnish typical examples of each of the various methods of inclosure. In 1773'* 

 a bill was passed which enabled a three-fourths majority of the occupiers of common arable lands with 

 the consent of the owner and tithe owner to adopt any scheme of husbandry that might tend to 

 increase the productive power of the land. Hunmanby in the East Riding '^ is the only town in 

 England that took advantage of the Act. The fact that Isaac Leatham, a progressive agriculturist, 

 lived there was probably the reason of this activity. 



Writing in 1794, he gives a startling picture of the results of not inclosing. Hunmanby 

 consisted chiefly of open fields and commons. The arable land was exhausted by injudicious culture, 

 until it yielded hardly sufficient corn to supply the horses employed in cultivating the soil : ' poverty 

 was an inmate of every dwelling.''*" 



An excellent account of the state of a small Yorkshire town before its common fields were 

 inclosed in 1 80 1 is given by an anonymous writer who in 1843 obtained the details from one of the 

 oldest inhabitants.*^ The statistics compiled by Dr. Slater of the inclosure by Act of Parliament of 

 land consisting either partly or wholly of arable common fields emphasizes the fact that the funda- 

 mental difference between the Ridings had not disappeared as time progressed. The period covered 

 extends from 1729 to 1901. During those years 40* I of the area of the entire East Riding was 

 dealt with by bills inclosing common fields ; in the West Riding innumerable bills were passed but 

 only if6 of the area was affected ; while in the North Riding an entirely insignificant portion, 6"3, 

 was concerned. Broadly speaking, down to the third decade of the 1 8th century in the East Riding 

 only three-fifths of the land had been inclosed, while in the West Riding nine-tenths was already in 

 private ownership, and in the North Riding nineteen-twentieths.^^ The East Riding stands fifth, 

 the West Riding twentieth, the North Riding twenty-fifth in a list of the thirty-eight counties of 

 England arranged in a descending scale according to acreage inclosed by Parliament. 



In 1769 Daniel Defoe summed up the lack of arable land in the West Riding in a telling 

 phrase : ' as for corn they scarce sow enough to feed their poultry.' *' Little more than half a century 



'' A. Young, Northern Tour, i, 147. '* Ibid, ii, 94. 



"Ibid. 189. 'Mbid. 196. 



" W. Marshall, Rural Economy ofTorksMre, i, 49-57. 

 '* Stat. 13 Geo. Ill, cap. 81. 

 '' G. Slater, op. cit. 88-90. 



'" I. lutithsLia, General View of the Agriculture of the East Riding of Yorkshire, 39-52. Hunmanby and 

 Fordon were inclosed by Act of Parliament in 1800. 



*' E. W. B. An Account of Hornsea in Holdemess (1843), 52-64. 

 ^ G. Slater, op. cit. 141, 144, 145. 

 " D. Defoe, op. cit. iii (i), 145. 



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