Enclosure!

In 1796, the parish of Bainton with Ashton and Ufford contained three open fields and a good deal of waste and common land. People could roam freely and graze their animals on the common land. By 1799 it had all changed. This is the story of what happened.

For centuries, the people who lived in our villages tilled the land and kept a few animals in order to feed themselves. It was a way of life which had barely changed since humans began farming somewhere between 12,000 and 30,000 years ago (opinions vary). But as the 17th century turned into the 18th, change was in the air, and by the year 1800 it had culminated in:

The Enclosure of Ufford with Bainton and Ashton, 1799

During the 1600s the people of Britain had suffered. There had been Civil War (1642-51), Cromwell’s “Protectorate” (1653-58), the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the Great Plague of 1665 and the Fire of London in 1666.

In the year 1700, as the new century dawned, life was becoming settled at last. Britain in those days was a rural economy and producing enough food was the preoccupation of all but the ‘upper classes’.

But there was a new confidence in the air. New methods of farming were being developed and as the century progressed, the old methods were being seen as increasingly outdated and inefficient. Change was coming, and by the end of the century it all culminated in the open landscape that people had known for centuries being enclosed. The wide countryside that people, including the poet John Clare of Helpston, roamed freely was divided into fields and paddocks surrounded by hedges and walls. The patchwork of fields that we know so well was created, to the benefits of some and the detriment of others. No longer could you wander across the landscape; you had to keep to the newly hedged roads.

Thatched Cottage in Ashton was built in the early 1700s

Berry Cottage in Ashton was built in 1732 by William Fell. He married Mary Fletcher of Bainton in 1733

The oldest cottages in our villages were built in the early 1700s and it’s noticeable that there are almost no domestic buildings from the previous century. They may well be evidence of this new political stability.

The changes in farming practice became known as the Agricultural Revolution. New methods like the 'Norfolk Four-Field Crop Rotation' and selective breeding of farm animals promised an unprecedented increase in food production.

Rotation of crops led to higher production

The Parish before Enclosure, drawn by a student in the 1970s
The shaded areas are land which was already enclosed, known as 'ancient enclosures'. The unshaded areas are the great fields and open common land which everybody could access.

The problem was that the time honoured system of everyone owning strips of land scattered across large open fields, didn't lend itself to the new crop rotations.

The problems inherent in the traditional way of farming are illustrated here (from the Times Educational Supplement).

The picture illustrates the problems with the old methods and and the words of the Act of Parliament explain it in the legal language of the time.

In 1795 it all came to a head. The major landowners - Sir John Trollope and Early Fitzwilliam in particular - decided to petition Parliament for permission to enclose our villages. It would make farming more efficient, they said.

It's difficult to imagine what an upheaval this must have been to the people who lived here. Families who had cultivated strips of land for generations would be awarded small enclosed paddocks which they would have to hedge at their own expense. People who didn't own any strips would lose access to the common areas and become destitute. And no-one would be allowed to roam across the countryside freely any more. "Keep Out" notices would block their access. It affected John Clare badly. He will have watched our villages become enclosed and then seen it happen in Helpston a little later. He wrote:

"Enclosure, thou'rt curse upon the land,
And tasteless was the wretch who thy existence planned."

But there was no stopping progress. In 1796, Berry Cottage in Ashton was owned by Mary Fell. Her husband, William, had died just two years earlier and it seems likely that her world must have been turned upside down as commissioners were appointed under an Act of Parliament to enclose the land. She would have had to make a claim for land based on the strips she owned, and bear the cost of enclosing whatever land she was awarded. Like other villagers, she must have negotiated all the complexities because three years later in 1799, Mary was awarded the paddock opposite her cottage. You can see it in this photograph with sheep grazing the paddock she was awarded.

As 1799 drew to a close the Enclosure of Ufford with Bainton and Ashton was complete. The landscape and the people were changed forever. For youngsters like Mary and William's daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and Ben Johnson, the challenge of a new century and a new way of farming was probably exciting. For the older generation like Mary Fell, it was probably all too much. Two years later she died.

The following sections contain images of the Enclosures Act and the resulting Awards Book and Map.

If you'd like to read a little more about the background to Enclosure and its conseuquences to the local people, click here.

The first page of the Act of Parliament applying for permission to enclose the Parish.

The Enclosures Awards Map of 1799 at Northampton Records Office

The process of Enclosure was by Act of Parliament. Once passed into Law, commissioners were appointed and their first task was to walk the parish and mark out where the roads would be. Bainton Green Road and High Field Road, together with Pinfold Road (now vanished) and various footpaths, were all marked out with willow stakes, some of which took root and can been seen today as mature willow trees.

Many meetings were held, at the George in Stamford and the Blue Boar in Bainton. Everyone who held land had to make a claim. The commissioners then assessed everything and finally awarded land to each applicant.

The end result was a book and a map. The book describes the exact size and position of every road and of every plot of land. The map shows their positions graphically.

The Parish after Enclosure. This is not the Enclosure Awards Map, but is taken from the study made in the 1970s. The great fields and common land have been divided into paddocks and fields.

The Awards Book which describes the enclosed land and roads.

Part-way through the process: a notice in the Stamford Mercury calling for objections to the proposed awards.

Northampton Records Office holds the originals of the Enclosure documents, including the Act, the Map and the Book.
Here are three samples - two from the book and one from the map.

A page describing the main roads.

Descriptions of awarded land.

Plot 92, awarded to Mary Fell, opposite her cottage (marked "M.Fell") which is now Berry Cottage in Ashton.

The photographs below are close-ups of Bainton on the Enclosure Awards Map dated 1799, taken by Ian Abbott-Donnelly.
More photographs of Enclosure documents will be added soon.