SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



The scientific farmers of the i8th century pleaded against the common 

 fields. In 1795 the twenty-one years' lease of inclosed land was held up by a 

 Herts, farmer as preferable to tenancy in the common fields " ; he pointed to 

 the case of Ashwell, where the farmers sowed clover on the common "^ field 

 and fenced it off until wheat-sowing time, thus obtaining inclosure in 

 effect. He maintained that inclosures of the waste and common did not 

 decrease the population in Hertfordshire, as they were made for tillage, and 

 said that the commons and waste still open °^ were mostly sheep-down skirting 

 Cambridgeshire.^'' This was not a wide enough estimate. Inclosures 

 proceeded slowly in the first half of the 1 8th century. Acts were passed for 

 Barnet and Chipping Barnet in 1728 and 1731.°^ In the second half it 

 was quicker throughout the county. Between 1766 and 1776 Acts were 

 passed for Elstree, ^' Hexton, Walsworth (Hitchin), Lilley, Offley and 

 Ickleford "; for almost twenty years there were no further Acts, but after 1 795 

 they followed one another rapidly. To connect this with the Corn Law of 

 1 79 1 is hardly fanciful. Kelshall, which was already partly inclosed, Norton, 

 King's Walden, Tring, Weston, Kensworth, Cheshunt and the parishes of 

 St. John's and All Saints in Hertford obtained Acts before 1801. The total 

 area inclosed since 1766 was 20,524 acres. 



Between 1802 and 1820 Inclosure Acts were passed for Hinxworth, 

 Cottered, Tring, Offley, Barley, Bushey, Codicote, Welwyn, Knebworth, 

 Pirton, Wymondley, IppoUitts, Braughing, Westmill, Great Hormead and 

 Bishop's Stortford.*^ In 1826-30 Anstey and in 1830 Standon and Reed 

 were inclosed,^' making a total of 8,464 acres inclosed between 1802 and 

 1845.™ 



For the twenty-five years after the general Hertfordshire Inclosure Act 

 of 1845 inclosures proceeded pretty steadily. Awards were made for Little 

 Gaddesden," Therfield,^^ Walkern, Bengeo, Sacombe, Stapleford, Great and 

 Little Munden, Buckland, Stevenage," Ware and Bengeo,'* Watford Field, 

 Hoddesdon, Widford, Aston, Benington, Little Hadham, Ashwell, Little 

 Hormead, Layston,'* Northchurch,'^ Datchworth, Knebworth, Throcking, 

 Albury, Aspenden and Wyddial, an extent of over 1 1,000 acres. Hitchin was 

 inclosed in 1877 ^"^ 1886." There is still a good deal of uninclosed land in 

 the county, and in the cases of Bygrave, Wallington and Clothall the entire 

 parishes remain uninclosed and the open-field system can there be seen. The 

 Importance of these inclosures can hardly be overestimated. Because they 

 were for tillage, they did not injure the labourer as some of the 1 5th-century 

 inclosures had done. They represented the farthest limits to which tillage 

 could be extended under the stimulus of war prices, an extension which peace 

 could not support. 



Between the 17th and the end of the i8th century there was a change 

 in the size of the Hertfordshire holdings. In 1618 there were tenements in 

 Tewin, of which five were of 100 acres and upwards, five of 50 acres and 



" D. Walker, Gen. Fiew of Jgric. of Herts. «2 ibid. es ibid. «« Ibid. 



85 Priv. Act, 2 Geo. II, cap. 19. ee lyd. 16 Geo. Ill, cap. 28. 



«'■ Slater, Engl. Peasantry and End. of Common Fields, 280-1. ^^ ibid. ; V.C.H. Herts, ii, 180, 281. 



«5 Slater, loc. cit. ; Com. Pleas Recov. R. Mich. 3 Will. IV, m. z ; 10 Geo. IV, m. 23. 



'0 Slater, loc. cit. n V.C.H. Herts, ii, 208. 



''2 Com. Pleas Recov. R. East. 12 Vict. m. 2. ''^ Slater, loc. cit. ''* Blue Bk. Incl. Awards, 63. 



" Slater, loc. cit. '6 V.C.H. Herts, ii, 285. " Blue Bk. Incl. Awards, 64. 



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