The South East from 1000 AD by C. B. Phillips J. H. Smith

Author:C. B. Phillips, J. H. Smith [C. B. Phillips, J. H. Smith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, General
ISBN: 9781317871699
Google: 0FcSBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-07-22T01:23:54+00:00

Agricultural Change

The period from the Restoration to the accession of Victoria was one of great significance for the rural economy of the South East. Marked regional differences in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries now gave way to more market-orientated, capitalized economies, with more standardized production and demands for cost-effectiveness and efficiency by the 1830s. The stimulus of urban markets and the proximity of the Continent induced a more intensive agriculture than in many other regions. Specialisms proliferated: hops and fruit, nursery and vegetable production, cow keeping or calf and lamb rearing. And equally finely tuned to market demands were the production of cereals, especially wheat and barley; the fattening of imported cattle, and the rearing and fattening of sheep.

Many interconnecting strands run through changes in south-eastern agriculture at this time. New techniques were allied to changes in agrarian structure, and with these twin forces the remaining marginal lands were tackled. It must always be remembered, however, that the 'improvement' of such land normally entailed the introduction of privatized commercial production into what had previously been a communal resource. Thus the enclosure and reclamation of the commons - whether large as at Ashdown, or smaller at Tooting or Epsom - entailed the replacement of often ancient rights of common usage by severalty farming. Such change was not always peaceful. Fences might be destroyed; illegal enclosure took place on Dorking Common in 1661; and attempts to privatize Ashdown resulted in the regulating of the forest and a commoners' protection society by the beginning of the nineteenth century (Cornwall 1953; Sy RO, OS roll, Midsummer 1661, n. 210).

Several types of environment were still marginal, and all were vigorously tackled. The long coastline, for example, still sheltered large areas of saltmarsh. Along the Sheppey coast land was leased in large blocks with appurtenant saltmarsh such as that belonging to the manor of Higham, owned by St John's College, Cambridge. The demesne was leased with 'commonings' in the saltmarsh for tenants and under-tenants, and by 1737 for each commoning a tenant might graze either five sheep or one horse or mare; or one cow or two 'twelve monthing' bullocks. For every offence against commoners' regulations 12d was payable, of which half went to the 'looker' and the other half was to be 'distributed amongst the poorest sort of people to whom the common doth belong equally according to their necessity'. However, there is evidence of the reclamation of the salt meads for arable land. A 1663 terrier mentions a 'peece of land in two severalls (now plowed) formerly course rushy land', and 'one piece of rushy ground lately broken up and called Barron Hillmarsh containing 12 acres. . . abutting on Highham Common'. A complex mixture of open field strips, severalty enclosures and marshland characterized the area. Although markstones had long been used, a 1762 surveyor was still unable to find many strips at Higham; but on the other hand at Lillichurch Farm on the estate, subdivision of large severalty fields was in progress, and

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