Last time I asked how the traditional look of the English lowland countryside came about. Anyone who has flown over Europe and looked out of the plane window may have been able to recognize that they are over the UK from the typical, pretty, ‘patchwork quilt’ arrangement of the fields below which is very different from the larger fields or strip fields of elsewhere, like in France just 20 miles away from the Kent coast. This traditional look of ‘England’s green and pleasant land’ (as William Blake put it, later set to music in ‘Jerusalem’ by Hubert Parry - no relation!) is a result of a mixture of arrangement. To the west (along the Welsh border) and east (from the West Country in the south up through the Weald or Sussex, Hampshire, Kent and Surrey up through Essex and East Anglia, this is ancient countryside and looks much as it did through prehistoric, Roman and the early medieval periods with small, irregular fields, scattered farms and winding lanes. Between the two is a massive swathe of land stretching from the south coast all the way up to Northumberland and beyond made up of neat, rational fields and nuclear villages – the classic English picture-postcard countryside. This is a comparatively modern invention and not ancient at all. It came about in part as a result of a revolution in land ownership known as the Enclosure movement about 200 years ago. Prior to this there were large, shared fields and commons and small allotments close to peasant cottages, all farmed in return for services to their feudal lord of the manor. This all changed and that landscape was largely swept away by the Enclosure Acts because a more sensible system was needed and England needed to become more efficient to fight the Napoleonic Wars and feed the increasing numbers of non-agricultural populations in the growing cities. From the early seventeenth century more than 5 400 Parliamentary Enclosure Acts were passed, most between 1750 and 1850. These achieved the wholesale privatization of millions of acres of the British countryside, tidying up the ownership of the land, massively improving the country’s agricultural efficiency, and reforming how the fields - as well as highways and drainage - were set out. They also had the effect of forcing the very poorest off the land, accelerating the growth and industrialization of the cities – this swathe along the length of England petty much includes all the cities of England’s Industrial Revolution. The Enclosure Acts established an entirely new layout of rural Britain land, now in private ownership. Because they didn’t own the land in common with anyone else, the owners of these new, regular shaped fields suddenly found that it was a good investment to install field drainage, dig ditches, clear and generally improve their fields, and they were required to delineate their holdings. 200 000 miles of hedgerows were planted and thousands of miles of new drystone walls were laid – and the landscape and pattern of rural landownership we all know came about. Images of an Enclosure Act and Plan are shown below. We occasionally have cause to refer back to these documents in the course of our work – The National Archived in Kew London and many country records offices have them available for inspection.
Last time we considered who might own a highway and I have just described how the Enclosure Acts set some of these out. For next time, please think about how many types of highway are there and what the differences are in terms of the rights enjoyed over them.
This article is written by Ashley Parry Jones, Director – Planning, WSP. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of WSP or SoLR or its members. The information provided does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice and instead is offered for general purposes only. It does not constitute the most up to date legal information. Any links and references provided are for the readers’ convenience only and do not constitute a recommendation of those sources.
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