Local and Landscape History

The Ecology of Enclosure
The Effect of Enclosure on Society, Farming and the Environment in south Cambridgeshire, 1798-1850.
Shirley Wittering

South Cambridgeshire has some of the richest arable land in England and has been cultivated for millennia. The nucleated villages of this region lying within their open fields were originally designed to use the land to its maximum, but by the turn of the nineteenth century the inflationary effects of bad harvests, wars, industrialisation and massive population growth had resulted in an enormous increase in the demand for food. The introduction of new crops and new methods of cultivation resulted in the more enlightened landowners demanding enclosure. But this desire to plough every available piece of land resulted in the destruction of many valuable and distinctive habitats that had existed for centuries, particularly the heaths and moors of the area.
This study breaks new ground in comparing the effect of Parliamentary Enclosure in south Cambridgeshire, during the first half of the nineteenth century, with the findings of the enthusiastic ‘Botanisers’ from Cambridge and the surrounding area.  This innovative approach by the author is based on original research and highlights not only the effect of enclosure on the land but also on the people whose link with the land was broken resulting in the waged nine-to-five attitude to work we are now familiar with.  The author has spent many years studying the local and environmental history of the area and this ground breaking study uses primary sources, not previously combined, to piece together a picture of greed and destruction against the background of new technology and new landscapes.

South Cambridgeshire has some of the richest arable land in England and has been cultivated for millennia. The nucleated villages of this region lying within their open fields were originally designed to use the land to its maximum, but by the turn of the nineteenth century the inflationary effects of bad harvests, wars, industrialisation and massive population growth had resulted in an enormous increase in the demand for food. The introduction of new crops and new methods of cultivation resulted in the more enlightened landowners demanding enclosure. But this desire to plough every available piece of land resulted in the destruction of many valuable and distinctive habitats that had existed for centuries, particularly the heaths and moors of the area.
This study breaks new ground in comparing the effect of Parliamentary Enclosure in south Cambridgeshire, during the first half of the nineteenth century, with the findings of the enthusiastic ‘Botanisers’ from Cambridge and the surrounding area.  This innovative approach by the author is based on original research and highlights not only the effect of enclosure on the land but also on the people whose link with the land was broken resulting in the waged nine-to-five attitude to work we are now familiar with.  The author has spent many years studying the local and environmental history of the area and this ground breaking study uses primary sources, not previously combined, to piece together a picture of greed and destruction against the background of new technology and new landscapes.

When the gentry are missing, the middling sort become responsible for parish affairs, and by default become the chief inhabitants.' 1 Having looked at the type of land within which the people of south Cambridgeshire were living, and the resources available for exploitation, we can now turn our attention towards the social character of the parishes before enclosure, the dates of which stretch from 1799 to 1845.

Whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow on a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together.