This list of all articles in the backnumbers of the Agricultural History Review provides links to individual .pdf files of the articles, and may be searched using the EDIT FIND command from your browser menus
Volume 1 (1953)
Editorial
p.1
Sir J. Scott Watson Some
Traditional
Farming
Beliefs in the light of Modern Science 4
Notes and Comments p.8
M. W. Beresford The Poll Tax and
Census of Sheep,
1549 p.9
Joan Thirsk The Isle of Axholme before Vermuyden p.16
W. E. Minchington Agricultural
Returns and the
Government during the Napoleonic Wars p.29
John Rowe A Cornish Farmer in
Ontario, 1830-71
p.44
G. E. Fussell List of Books and Articles on Agricultural History, 1952-3
p.48
The British Agricultural History Society p.52
Volume 2 (1954)
The British Agricultural History Society page 2
W. G. Hoskins Regional Farming in England p.3
H. P. R. Finberg An Early Reference
to the Welsh
Cattle Trade p.12
M. W. Beresford The Poll Tax and
Census of Sheep,
1549 (cont.)p. 15
H. C. Darby Some Early Ideas on the
Agricultural
Regions of England p.30
W. H. Chaloner Bibliography of Recent Work on Enclosure, the Open
Fields, and related topics p.48
Notes and Comments pp.14, 53
03.1 (1955)
The British Agricultural History Society page 2
R. H. Hilton The Content and Sources
of English
Agrarian History before
1500 3
Notes and Comments pp.19, 25
T. D. Davidson The Untilled Field
p.20
Eric Kerridge A Reconsideration of
Some Former
Husbandry Practices p.26
Joan Thirsk List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History issued since
September 1953 p.41
03.2 (1955)
Joan Thirsk The Content and Sources
of English
Agrarian History after
1500 page 66
S. R. Eyre The Curving Plough-strip
and its
Historical Implications p.80
G. E. Fussell Crop Nutrition in Tudor and Early Stuart England
p.95
J. D. Gould Mr Beresford and the Lost Villages: a Comment
p.107
J. H. SmithThe Cattle Trade of
Aberdeenshire in
the Nineteenth Century
p.114
Joan Thirsk Work in Progress
p.119
Volume 4 part 1 (1956)
H. P. R. Finberg An Agrarian History
of England
page 2
J. T. Coppock The Statistical
Assessment of
British Agriculture p. 4
H. A. Beecham A Review of Balks as
Strip
Boundaries in the Open
Fields p.22
A. C. Todd An Answer to Poverty in
Sussex, 1830-45
p.45
Joan Thirsk List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History issued since
September 1954 52
Volume 4 part 2 (1956)
J. T. Coppock The Statistical
Assessment of
British Agriculture (cont.)
page 66
Margaret Davies Rhosili Open Field and Related South Wales Field
Patterns p.80
Cyril Tyler The Development of Feeding Standards for Livestock p.97
G. E. Mingay Estate Management in Eighteenth-Century Kent p.108
Joan Thirsk Work in Progress p.114
Letters to the Editor p.121
Volume 5 part 1 (1957)
J. W. Franks Pollen
Analysis: a
technique for investigating early agrarian history page 2
K.J. Allison The Sheep-Corn
Husbandry of Norfolk in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries p.12
Malcolm Gray The
Consolidation of the
Crofting
System p.31
W. H. Chaloner The Agricultural Activities of John Wilkinson;
Ironmaster p.48
Joan Thirsk List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History issued since
September 1955 p.52
05.2 (1957)
Axel Steensberg Some recent Danish
Experiments in
Neolithic Agriculture
page 66
F. G. Payne The British Plough: Some
Stages in its
Development p.74
Elspeth M. Veale The Rabbit in England p.85
L. F. Salzman Some Notes on
Shepherds' Staves
p.91
Joan Thirsk Work in Progress p.95
06.1 (1958)
R A Donkin, Cistercian sheep-farming and wool-sales in the thirteenth century, pp 2-8
Dorothy Sylvester, The common fields of the coastlands of Gwent, pp 9-26
George Houston, Labour relations in Scottish agriculture before 1870, pp 27-41
Joan Thirsk, List of books and articles on agrarian history issued since September 1956, pp 42-51
06.2 (1958)
Shimon Applebaum, Agriculture in Roman Britain, pp 66-86
Alan Simpson, The East Anglian foldcourse: some queries, pp 87-96
Alan Harris, The lost village and the landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds, pp 97-100
Joan Thirsk, Work in progress, pp 101-110
Letters to the Editor, pp 111-113
07.1 (1959)
M L Ryder, The animal remains found at Kirkstall Abbey, pp 1-5
H Cecil Pawson, Some agricultural history salvaged, pp 6-13
H C Prince, The tithe surveys of the mid-nineteenth century, pp 14-26
Thomas Davidson, Plough rituals in England and Scotland, pp 27-37
Joan Thirsk, List of books and articles on agrarian history
issued
since September 1957, pp 38-47
Volume 7 part 2 (1959)
J. O'Loan Livestock in the
Brehon Laws
p.65
Reginald Lennard Statistics
of Sheep in Medieval England p.75
Dennis R. Mills Enclosure in
Kesteven p.82
H. G. Hunt Agricultural Rent
in
South-East
England, 1788-1825 p.98
Duncan Mitchell Social
Mobility in Nineteenth-Century Devon
p.108
Joan Thirsk Work in Progress p.110
08.1 (1960)
Robert B. K. Stevenson Notes
on Early
Agriculture in Scotland page 1
E. L. Jones Eighteenth-Century Changes in Hampshire Chalkland Farming p.5
J. A. Mollett The Wheat Act of 1932 p.20
H. Cecil Pawson Plan of an Agricultural Society and Experimental Farm in Northumberland p.36
Joan Thirsk List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History
issued
since September 1958 p.38
08.2 (1960)
A. S. Thomas Chalk, Heather, and Man page 57
G. R. J. Jones The Pattern of Settlement on the Welsh Border p.66
Gordon Donaldson Sources for Scottish Agrarian History before the Eighteenth Century p. 82
H. M. Clark Selion Size and Soil Type p.91
Reginald Lennard The Long and Short Hundred in Agrarian Statistics p.99
W. Harwood Long Regional
Farming in
Seventeenth-Century Yorkshire
p.103
Volume 9 part 1 (1961)
J. T. Coppock
Agricultural Changes in the
Chilterns, 1875-1900
p.1
T. W. Fletcher Lancashire
Livestock Farming
during the Great
Depression p.17
June A. Sheppard East
Yorkshire's Agricultural
Labour Force in the
mid-Nineteenth Century p.43
Joan Thirsk List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History
issued
since September 1959 p.55
Volume 9 part 2 (1961)
M. A. Havinden Agricultural Progress in Open-field Oxfordshire page 73
E. R. R. Green On Open Town-fields p.84
Jeffrey Radley Holly as a
Winter Feed p.89
George Houston Agricultural
Statistics in
Scotland before 1866 p.93
R. A. Butlin Some Terms used
in Agrarian
History: a Glossary p.98
M. L. Ryder Livestock
Remains from Four
Medieval Sites in Yorkshire
p.105
Letter to the Editor p.111
Work in Progress p.112
Volume 10 part 1 (1962)
J. Z. Titow Some Differences
between Manors and
their Effects on the
Condition of the Peasant in the Thirteenth Century page1
E. Hopkins The Re-leasing of the Ellesmere Estates, 1637-1642 p.14
C. W. Chalklin The Rural Economy of a Kentish Wealden Parish,1650-1750 p.29
Joan Thirsk List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History issued since September 1960 p.46
10.2 (1962)
David M. Wilson Anglo-Saxon
Rural Economy: a
Survey of the
Archaeological Evidence and a Suggestion page 65
M. R. Postgate The Field
Systems of Breckland
p.80
E. L. Jones The Changing Basis of
English
Agricultural Prosperity, 1853
- 73 p.102
Volume 11 part 1 (1963)
S. Applebaum The Pattern of
Settlement in Roman
Britain page 1
W. Harwood Long The Development of
Mechanization
in English Farming p.15
Edith H. Whetham Livestock Prices in Britain, 1851-93 p.27
List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History issued since
September
1961 p.36
11.2 (1963)
Alexander Fenton Skene of
Hallyard's Manuscript
Of Husbandrie page 65
D. B. Grigg The Land Tax
Returns p.82
S. A. Johnson Enclosure and
Changing
Agricultural Landscapes in
Lindsey p.95
Joan Thirsk Work in Progress p.103
Letters to the Editor p.112
12.1 (1964)
M. L. Ryder The History of Sheep
Breeds in Britain
page 1
M. W. Beresford Dispersed and Grouped
Settlement
in Medieval Cornwall
p.13
W. G. Hoskins Harvest Fluctuations and English Economic
History,1480-1619 p.28
Joan Thirsk List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History issued since
September 1962 p.47
12.2 (1964)
M. L. Ryder The History of Sheep
Breeds in Britain
(ctd) page 65
Reginald Lennard Agrarian History: some Vistas and Pitfalls
p.83
R. A. Butlin Northumberland Field
Systems p.99
E. M. Yates Map of Over Haddon and
Meadowplace, c.
1528 p.121
E. H. Whetham Land Tenure and the Commercialization of Agriculture
p.125
13.1 (1965)
E. A. Cox and B. R. Dittmer The Tithe
Files of the
Mid-Nineteenth
Century page 1
D. C. D. Pocock Some Former
Hop-growing Centres
p.17
C. R. Tubbs The Development of the Smallholding and Cottage
Stock-keeping Economy of the New Forest p.23
A. E. B. Owen A Thirteenth-century
Agreement on
Water for Livestock in
the Lindsey Marsh p.40
Francis W. Steer Further Notes on
Shepherds' Staves47
Joan Thirsk List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History issued since
September 1963 p.50
13.2 (1965)
T.C. Smout and Alexander Fenton Scottish Agriculture before the Improvers--an Exploration p.73
J. Geraint Jenkins Technological Improvement and Social Change in South Cardiganshire p.94
Brian Loughborough An Account of a Yorkshire Enclosure--Staxton 1803 p.l06
Alan Everitt Work in Progress p.116
Letter to the Editor p.125
14.1 (1966)
Alan R. H. Baker Field Systems in the Vale of Holmesdale page 1
L. A. Clarkson The Leather Crafts in Tudor and Stuart England p.25
T. W. Beastall A South Yorkshire Estate in the Late Nineteenth Century p.40
P. T. Wheeler Landownership and the Crofting System in Sutherland since 1800 p.45
H. A. Beecham List of Books and Articles on Agrarian History issued since September 1964 p.57
Letter to the Editor p.24
14.2 (1966)
Rosamond Jane Faith, Peasant families and inheritance customs in medieval England, pp 77-95
J M Martin, Landownership and the land tax returns, pp 96-103
R W Sturgess, The agricultural revolution on the English clays, pp 104-121
Brian J R Blench, Seaweed
and its use in Jersey
agriculture, pp
122-128
15.1 (1967)
J M Martin, The parliamentary enclosure movement and rural society in Warwickshire, pp 19-39
D J Siddle, The rural economy of medieval Holderness, pp 40-45
H A Beecham, List of books and articles on agrarian history
issued
since September 1965, pp 46-53
15.2 (1967)
E J T Collins and E L Jones,
Sectoral advance
in English
agriculture, 1850-1880, pp 65-81
R W Sturgess, The agricultural revolution on the English clays: a rejoinder, pp 82-87
Julian Bartys, English and Scottish farmers in Poland in the first half of the nineteenth century, pp 88-102
G Whittington, Towards a terminology for strip lynchets, pp 103-107
Ian Beckwith, The remodelling of a common-field system, pp 108-112
Alan Everitt, Work in progress, pp 113-126
16.1 (1968)
Colin Thomas, Thirteenth-century farm economies in North Wales, pp 1-14
W G Hoskins, Harvest fluctuations and English economic history, 1620-1759, pp 15-31
P Searby, Great Dodford and the later history of the Chartist land scheme, pp 32-45
E H Whetham, Sectoral advance in English agriculture, 1850-80: a summary, pp 46-48
John Rowe, An early West-Country sheep farmer in Australia, pp 49-53
H A Beecham, List of books and articles on agrarian history
issued
since September 1966, pp 54-59
16.2 (1968)
Ernest A Pocock, The first fields in an Oxfordshire parish, pp 85-100
B K Roberts, A study of medieval colonization in the Forest of Arden, Warwickshire, pp 101-113
J P D Dunbabin, The incidence and organization of agricultural trades unionism in the 1870s, pp 114-141
James R Coull, Crofters' common grazings in Scotland, pp 142-154
M L Ryder, Sheep and the clearances in the Scottish Highlands: a biologist's view, pp 155-158
Lucia Pearson, A note on the
history of
black-eared White Cattle, pp
159-160
17.1 (1969)
David Roden, Demesne farming in the Chiltern Hills, pp 9-23
James Yelling, The combination and rotation of crops in east Worcestershire, 1540-1660, pp 24-43
A D M Phillips, Underdraining and the English claylands: a review, pp 44-55
H A Beecham, List of books and articles on agrarian history, pp 56-63
17.2 (1969)
Jean Birrell Peasant Craftsmen in the Medieval Forest p.91
David G. Hey A Dual Economy in South Yorkshire p.108
Alan R. H. Baker Some Terminological Problems in Studies of British Field Systems p.136
R. A. Butlin Recent Developments in Studies of the Terminology of Agrarian Landscapes p.141
W. H. Chaloner A Note on the Origins of the 'Broiler' Industry p.161
18.1
(1970)
John Hatcher Non-Manorialism
in Medieval
Cornwall page 1
E. J. Evans Tithing Customs
and Disputes : the
Evidence of Glebe
Terriers, 1698-1850 p.17
Richard Perren The Landlord
and Agricultural
Transformation,
1870-1900 p.36
Leslie G. Matthews
Harvesting by the Gauls: the
Forerunner of the
Combine Harvester p.52
Olive Robinson The London
Companies and Tenant
Right in
Nineteenth-Century Ireland p.54
John Sheail List of Books and Articles on Agrarian
Historyissued since June 1968 p.6 4
18.2 (1970)
John Kew, The disposal of crown lands and the Devon land market, 1536-58, pp 93-105
R A French, The three-field system in sixteenth-century Lithuania, pp 106-125
Dennis Baker, The marketing of corn in the first half of the eighteenth century: north-east Kent, pp. 126-150
Tom Donnelly, Arthur Clephane, Edinburgh merchant and seedsman, 1706-30, pp 151-160
David Hey, Work in progress, pp 161-172
19.1 (1971)
Andrew Fleming, Bronze Age agriculture on the marginal lands of north-east Yorkshire, pp 1-24
Ian Gentles, The management of the crown lands, 1649-60, pp 25-41
Michael Williams, The enclosure and reclamation of the Mendip Hills, 1770-1870, pp 65-81
David Hey, List of books and articles on agrarian history issued since June 1969, pp 82-87
L A Clarkson, Agriculture
and the development
of the Australian
economy during the nineteenth century: review article, pp
88-96
19.2 (1971)
P F Brandon, Demesne arable farming in coastal Sussex during the later middle ages, pp 113-134
C J Harrison, Grain price analysis and harvest qualities, 1465-1634, pp 135-155
D J Rowe, The Culleys, Northumberland farmers, 1767-1813, pp 156-174
John Sheail, Changes in the
supply of wild
rabbits, 1790-1910, pp
175-177
20.1 (1972)
John Patten, Village and town: an occupational study, pp 1-16
J P Boxall, The Sussex breed of cattle in the nineteenth century, pp 17-29
C R Twidale, 'Lands' or relict strip fields in South Australia, pp 46-60
David H Kennett, Wheat and malt prices in Cambridge in the late eighteenth century, pp 61-63
David Hey, List of books and articles on agrarian history
issued
since June 1970, pp 64-75
20.2 (1972)
Ian Blanchard, The miner and the agricultural community in late medieval England, pp 93-106
E L Jones, The bird pests of British agriculture in recent centuries, pp 107-125
B A Holderness, 'Open' and 'close' parishes in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, pp 126-139
Stuart Elliott, The open-field system of an urban community: Stamford in the nineteenth century, pp 155-169
G E Fussell, The genesis of the British Agricultural History Society, pp 169, 182.
P D A Harvey, Agricultural
treatises and
manorial accounting in
medieval England: review article, pp 170-182.
J A Yelling, Changes in crop production in east Worcestershire 1540-1867, pp 18-34
Michael E Turner, The cost of parliamentary enclosure in Buckinghamshire, pp 35-46
Alan R H Baker, A relatively neglected field form: the headland ridge, pp 47-50
David Hey, List of books and articles on agrarian history
issued
since June 1971, pp 57-65
21.2 (1973)
G F R Spenceley, The origins
of the English
pillow lace industry, pp
81-93
Wendy Davies, Unciae: land measurement in the Liber Landavensis, pp 111-121
C S L Davies, Peasant revolt in France and England: a comparison, pp 122-134
Eric John, The Agrarian
History of England and
Wales Volume I, pp
135-139
22.1 (1974)
R J Colyer, Some Welsh
breeds of cattle in the
nineteenth century,
pp 1-17
John H Harvey, The stocks held by early nurseries, pp 18-35
Edith H Whetham, The Agriculture Act 1920 and its repeal - the 'Great Betrayal', pp 36-49
Claus Bjorn, The study of the agrarian history of Denmark: a brief introduction to the literature, pp 50-53
John Hatcher, Myths, miners and agricultural communities, pp 54-61
Ian Blanchard, Rejoinder: Stannator fabulosus, pp 62-74
David Hey, Annual list and brief review of articles on
agrarian
history, pp 75-81
22.2 (1974)
Eric Richards, 'Leviathan of
wealth': West
Midland agriculture,
1800-50, pp 97-117
June A Sheppard, Metrological analysis of regular village plans in Yorkshire, pp 118-135
L A Clarkson, The English bark trade, 1660-1830, pp 136-152
David Taylor, The English dairy industry, 1860-1930: the need for a reassessment, pp 153-159
A R Mitchell, Sir Richard Weston and the spread of clover cultivation, pp 160-161
David Hey, Work in progress, pp 162-177
Sarah Carter, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history
issued
since June 1972, pp 178-185
23.1 (1975)
J A Perkins, Tenure, tenant
right and
agricultural progress in
Lindsey, 1780-1850, pp 1-22
F Beavington, The development of market gardening in Bedfordshire 1799-1939, pp 23-47
Janet Blackman, The cattle trade and agrarian change on the eve of the railway age, pp 48-62
Stuart Macdonald, The progress of the early threshing machine, pp 63-77
David Hey, Annual list and brief review of articles on
agrarian
history, pp 84-88
23.2 (1975)
E J T Collins, Dietary
change and cereal
consumption in Britain in
the nineteenth century, pp 97-115
R W Unwin, A nineteenth-century estate sale: Wetherby 1824, pp 116-138
Cormac OGrada, The investment behaviour of Irish landlords 1850-75: some preliminary findings, pp 139-155
Robert S Dilley, The customary acre: an indeterminate measure, pp 173-176
Sarah Carter, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history
1974,
pp 177-186
24.1 (1976)
John Chapman, Parliamentary
enclosure in the
uplands: the case of
the North York Moors, pp 1-17
Juliet Clutton-Brock, George Garrard's livestock models, pp 18-29
Kenneth Hutton, The distribution of wheelhouses in Britain, pp 30-35
Richard Grove, Coprolite mining in Cambridgeshire, pp 36-43
Eric Kerridge, Review article: British field systems, pp 48-50
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on
agrarian
history, pp 51-62
24.2 (1976)
B A Holderness, Credit in
English rural society
before the
nineteenth century, with special reference to the period 1650-1720,
pp
97-109
John Sheail, Land improvement and reclamation: the experiences of the First World War in England and Wales, pp 110-125
J A Perkins, The prosperity of farming on the Lindsey uplands, 1813-37, pp 126-143
R W England, The Cluster potato: John Howard's achievement in scientific farming, pp 144-148
Alan Everitt, Review article: fields, farms, and families: agrarian history in Kent, pp 149-152
Sarah Carter, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history 1975, pp 153-159
Michael Martin, Letter to the editor, p 160
25.1 (1977)
JOHN HIGGS 'Twenty-five Years On' page 1
WILLIAM N. PARKER From the Colonies: a Tempered Tribute p.6
J. H. BETTEY The Development of Water Meadows in Dorset during the Seventeenth Century p.37
RAINE MORGANAnnual List and Brief R.eview of Articles oil Agrarian History, 1975 p.44
25.2 (1977)
Michael Turner, Enclosure commissioners and Buckinghamshire parliamentary enclosure, pp 120-129
Sarah Carter, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history,
1976,
pp 130-140
26.1 (1978)
Robert A Dodgshon, Land
improvement in Scottish
farming: marl and
lime in Roxburghshire and Berwickshire in the eighteenth century,
pp
1-14
J R Fisher, The Farmers' Alliance: an agricultural protest movement of the 1880s, pp 15-25
N E Fox, The spread of the threshing machine in central southern England, pp 26-28
Stuart Macdonald, Further progress with the early threshing machine: a rejoinder, pp 29-32
Shimon Applebaum, White and the Rustici, pp 33-36
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on agrarian history, 1976, pp 37-46
David Cannadine, The landowner as millionaire: part IV, p 47
26.2 (1978)
SUE FARRANT John Ellman of
Glynde in Sussex
page 77
R. A. WASSON The
Third Earl Spencer and
Agriculture, 1818-1845
p.89
PAMELA HORN The
Dorset Dairy System
p.100
JOHN CHAPMAN Some
Problems in the
Interpretation of Enclosure
Awards p.108
DAVID HEY Work in Progress p.115
SARAH CARTER List of
Books and Pamphlets on Agrarian
History
1977 p.127
27.1 (1979)
Ian D Whyte, Written leases and their impact on Scottish agriculture in the seventeenth century, pp 1-9
Andrew Jones, Land measurement in England, 1150-1350, pp 10-18
W J Carlyle, The changing distribution of breeds of sheep in Scotland, 1795-1965, pp 19-29
Stuart Macdonald, The diffusion of knowledge among Northumberland farmers, 1780-1815, pp 30-39
Richard Perren, The landlord and the agricultural transformation, 1870-1900: a rejoinder, pp 43-46
Edith H Whetham, The trade in pedigree livestock, 1850-1910, pp 47-50
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on
agrarian
history, 1977, pp 51-58
27.2 (1979)
Roger Kain, Tithe as an index of pre-industrial agricultural production, pp 73-81
C J Harrison, Elizabethan village surveys: a comment, pp 82-90
P R Edwards, The horse trade of the Midlands in the seventeenth century, pp 90-100
J M Martin, Members of Parliament and enclosure: a reconsideration, pp 101-109
P E Dewey, Government provision of farm labour in England and Wales, 1914-18, pp 110-121
Michael Zell, Accounts of a sheep and corn farm, 1558-60, pp 122-128
Sarah Carter, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history, 1978, pp 129-134
28.1 (1980)
WRAY VAMPLEW A Grain of Truth: The Nineteenth-Century Corn Averages p.1
CAROLINA LANE The
Development of Pastures and
Meadows during the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries p.18
B E S TRUEMAN
Corporate Estate
Management: Guy's Hospital
Agricultural Estates, 1726-1815 p.31
JENNIFER TANN Co-operative Corn Milling: Self-help During the Grain Crises of the Napoleonic Wars p.45
RAINE MORGAN Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian History, 1978 p.58
28.2 (1980)
JOHN BROAD Alternate
Husbandry and Permanent
Pasture in the
Midlands, 1650-1800 p.77
A R WILKES Adjustments in
Arable Farming after
the Napoleonic Wars
p.90
DOUGLAS MOSS The Economic
Development of a
Middlesex Village p.104
SALIM RASHID The Scarcity of
1800: A
Contemporary Account p.115
F H W GREEN Field Under-Drainage Before and After 1940 p.120
SARAH CARTER List of Books
and Pamphlets on Agrarian History
1979
p.124
29.1 (1981)
J N HARE The Demesne Lessees
of
Fifteenth-Century Wiltshire p.1
B M S CAMPBELL The Regional
Uniqueness of English
Field Systems? Some
Evidence from Eastern Norfolk p.16
PAULINE FROST Yeomen and Metalsmiths:
Livestock in
the Dual Economy in
South Staffordshire 1560-1720 p.29
SHIMON APPLEBAUM The Essex Achievement p.42
RAINE MORGAN Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian
History, 1979 p.45
29.2 (1981)
W A ARMSTRONG The Influence
of Demographic
Factors on the Position
of the Agricultural Labourer in England and Wales, c1750-1914
p.71
CHRISTOPHER CLAY Lifeleasehold in the Western Counties of England 1650-1750 p.83
MARTIN SPRAY Holly as a
Fodder in England
p.97
G E FUSSELL The Origin of
Farming p.111
PATRICK CHORLEY Early
Evidence of Sainfoin
Cultivation Around Paris
p.118
ALISTAIR MUTCH The
Mechanization of the Harvest
in South-West
Lancashire, 1850-1914 p.125
SARAH CARTER List of Books and Pamphlets on Agrarian History 1980 p.133
30.1 (1982)
PAMELA HORN An
Eighteenth-Century Land Agent:
The Career of
Nathaniel Kent (!737-1810) p.1
BRIAN SHORT 'The Art and
Craft of Chicken
Cramming': Poultry in the
Weald of Sussex 1850-1950 p.17
JOHN LANGDON The Economics
of Horses and Oxen
in Medieval England
p.31
ALLAN G BOGUE Farming in the
North American
Grasslands: A Survey of
Publications, 1947-80 p.49
RAINE MORGAN Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian History, 1980 p.69
30.2 (1982)
M C CLEARY The Plough and
the Cross: Peasant
Unions in South-Western
France p.127
G E FUSSELL The Tariff
Commission Report
p.137
MARGARET C SMYTH List of Books and Pamphlets on
Agrarian
History 1981 p.143
RAINE MORGAN Supplement to the Bibliography of Theses on
British
Agrarian History: Omissions and Additions for 1979, 1980 p.150
31.1 (1983)
A W JONES Glamorgan Custom
and Tenant Right
p.1
J R FISHER Landowners and
English Tenant Right,
1845-1852 p.15
ALISTAIR MUTCH Farmers'
Organizations and
Agricultural Depression in
Lancashire, 1890-1900 p.26
COLIN A LEWIS Irish horse
breeding and the
Irish Draught Horse,
1917-1978 p.37
RAINE MORGAN Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on
Agrarian
History, 1981 p.50
31.2 (1983)
Stuart Macdonald, Agricultural improvement and the neglected labourer, pp 81-90
Mary Harvey, Planned field systems in eastern Yorkshire: some thoughts on their origin, pp 91-103
John Broad, Cattle plague in eighteenth-century England, pp 104-115
Nicholas Goddard, The development and influence of agricultural periodicals and newspapers, 1780-1880, pp 116-131
Fred Bateman, Research developments in American agricultural history since 1960: the northern farm economy, pp 132-148
Alan R H Baker, Discourses on British field systems, pp 149-155
Alan Everitt, Past and present in the Victorian countryside, pp 156-169
Margaret C Smyth, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian
history
1982, pp 170-175
32.1 (1984)
Paul Muskett, The East Anglian agrarian riots of 1822, pp 1-13
M L Ryder, Medieval sheep and wool types, pp 14-28
Barbara English, Patterns of estate management in east Yorkshire, c 1840-c 1880, pp 29-48
R B Weir, Distilling and agriculture 1870-1939, pp 49-62
Adrian H Cowell, An approach to the agrarian history of upland country: ecology and habitat, pp 63-74
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on agrarian history, 1982, pp 75-85
Work in progress, pp 86-93
32.2 (1984)
J V Beckett, The peasant in England: a case of terminological confusion?, pp 113-123
H E Hallam, The climate of eastern England 1250-1350, pp 124-132
Michael Reed, Enclosure in north Buckinghamshire, 1500-1750, pp 133-144
C M Ann Baker, The origin of South Devon cattle, pp 145-158
I D and K A Whyte, Continuity and change in a seventeenth-century Scottish farming community, pp 159-169
Peter Ripley, Village and town: occupations and wealth in the hinterland of Gloucester, 1660-1700, pp 170-178
J M Martin, Village traders and the emergence of a proletariat in south Warwickshire, 1750-1851, pp 179-188
H M E Holt, Assistant commissioners and local agents: their role in tithe commutation, 1836-1854, pp 189-200
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on
agrarian
history, 1983, pp 201-205
33.1 (1985)
A R Bridbury, Thirteenth-century prices and the money supply, pp 1-21
Mavis Mate, Medieval agrarian practices: the determining factors? pp 22-31
Alan Nash, The size of open field strips: a reinterpretation, pp 32-40
J M Martin, The social and economic origins of the Vale of Evesham market gardening industry, pp 41-50
J K Bowers, British agricultural policy since the Second World War, pp 66-76
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on
agrarian
history, 1983 pp 77-88
33.2 (1985)
W Thwaites, Dearth and the marketing of agricultural produce: Oxfordshire c. 1750-1800, pp 119-131
John E Archer, A Fiendish Outrage'? A Study of Animal Maiming in East Anglia: 1830-1870 pp.147-57
P K Hall, Harvest fluctuations in an industrializing economy: Japan, 1887-1912, pp 158-172
T Rooth, Trade agreements and the evolution of British agricultural policy in the 1930s, pp 173-190
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on
agrarian
history 1984, pp 191-197
34.1 (1986)
JOHN SHEAIL Nature
Conservation and the
Agricultural Historian p.1
DAVID POSTLES The Perception
of Profit before
the Leasing of
Demesnes p.12
CHRISTINE HALLAS The Social
and Economic Impact
of a Rural Railway:
the Wensleydale Line p.29
HILARY P M WINCHESTER
Agricultural Change and
Population Movements
in France 1892-1929 p.60
M ROBINSON The Extent of
Farm Underdrainage in
England and Wales,
prior to 1939 p.79
RAINE MORGAN Supplement to the Bibliography of Theses on
British
Agrarian History: Omissions and Additions 1981-83 p.86
RAINE MORGAN Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on
Agrarian
History, 1984 p.94
34.2 (1986)
ANGUS J L WINCHESTER The Distribution
and
Significance of'Bordland' in
Medieval Britain p.129
T A ROWELL Sedge in Cambridgeshire: its Use, Production and Value p.140
JOHN R WALTON Pedigree and the National Cattle Herd, circa 1750--1950 p.149
A J MARRISON The TariffCommission, Agricultural Protection and Food Taxes, 1903-13 p.171
J N VORTER Tenant Right:
Devonshire and the
1880 Ground Game Act
p.188
V J MORRIS and D J ORTON List of Books and Pamphlets on Agrarian
History 1985 p.198
MICHAEL HAVINDEN Obituary: Sir John Higgs, KCVO, FSA (1923-86)
p.204
35.1 (1987)
Simon A C Penn, Female
wage-earners in late
fourteenth-century
England, pp 1-14
G G S Bowie, New sheep for old - changes in sheep farming in Hampshire, 1792-1879, pp 15-24
John Chapman, The extent and nature of parliamentary enclosure, pp 25-35
David Taylor, Growth and structural change in the English dairy industry, c1860-1930, pp 47-64
E A Wrigley, Early modern agriculture: a new harvest gathered in, pp 65-71
Rachel Hellier and Barbara Hutton, A model farm at Scarthingwell near York in 1793 and 1986, pp 72-75
James T Lemon, Agriculture and society in early America, pp 76-94
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on
agrarian
history, 1985, pp 95-107
35.2 (1987)
N J Mayhew, Money and prices
in England from
Henry II to Edward III,
pp 121-132
Madeleine Gray, Crown property and the land market in south-east Wales in the sixteenth century, pp 133-150
G G S Bowie, Watermeadows in Wessex: a re-evaluation for the period 1640-1850, pp 151-158
Phillip Dodd, The agricultural statistics for 1854: an assessment of their value, pp 159-170
C M A Baker and C Manwell, The Breton breed of cattle in Britain: extinction versus fitness, pp 171-178
David Grigg, Farm size in England and Wales, from early Victorian times to the present, pp 179-190
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history 1986, pp 191-194
Michael Havinden, Postgraduate research in agricultural
history in
British institutions of higher education: a survey, pp 195-198
36.1 (1988)
Mark Bailey, The rabbit and
the medieval East
Anglian economy, pp
1-20
Abstract
The rabbit was a rare beast in medieval England, and much sought after
for both its meat
and its fur. This investigation plots the early history of commercial
rabbiting in East Anglia,
and its transition from a low output concern to a growth industry in
the later Middle Ages.
The development of the rabbit-warren into a highly lucrative source of
income is explained in
terms of the changing economic and social conditions after ~he Black
Death, and the more
intensive management of warrens by landlords. The occupational
spin-offs from rabbiting,
and the social implications of poaching in a region where resistance to
the feudal order was
endemic, are also explored. Final consideration is given to the
economic impact of the rabbit
on areas of poor soil, and its ability to compensate for their inherent
disadvantages in grain
production.
Christopher Dyer, Changes in
diet in the late
middle ages: the case
of harvest workers, pp 21-38
Abstract
The custom of feeding workers during the autumn on various manors in
eastern and southern
England provides an opportunity to quantify changes in diet over two
centuries. In the
thirteentla century harvest workers were given much bread and some
cheese, with relatively
small quantities of ale, fish and meat. Two centuries later the
importance of bread had much
diminished, and a high proportion of the diet consisted of meat and
ale. Barley and rye bread
was rcplaccd by whcat, bacon by beef, and cidcr by ale. These workers
ate bcttcr than most
wagc-carncrs and pcasants, but the trends in caring patterns were
general. The chronology of
the changcs, which wcrc spread over much of the fourtccnth century, and
the gcncral
relationship bctwccn diet, production, the market and demography, have,
implications for our
interpretations of the late medieval period.
John Martin, Sheep and
enclosure in
sixteenth-century
Northamptonshire, pp 39-54
Abstract
It is commonly accepted that there was a slackening o f the enclosure
movement, i f n o t outright
reconversion to arable, in England in the latter half o f the sixteenth
century. This is usually
ascribed to lower wool prices making shecp-grazing less attractive.
There are difficulties with
this pcrspective linking prices and enclosure activity directly. The
example of Northampton-
shire, a county in the forefront o f enclosure, suggests that there was
no trend away from
sheep-farming. Two surveys o f sheep numbers on enclosed pasture,
conducted in 1547 and 1564,
indicate that sheep-grazing spread throughout the county, and that
grazing was concentrated on
deserted village sites. Whilc there was some reduction in the size of
large flocks, this was more
than balanced by the proliferation o f smaller flocks - overall sheep
numbers increased in this
pcriod. By the end o f the century, sheep flocks were grazing on
enclosed pasture in half of
thc parishes in Northamptonshirc.
Paul Glennie, Continuity and
change in
Hertfordshire agriculture
1550-1700: I - Patterns of agricultural production, pp 55-76
Abstract
Thc rural economics of thc London area have long bccn sccn as having
responded particularly
vigorously to thc commcrcial opportunitics crcated by thc rapid growth
of London in the
carly-modcrn pcriod. This paper, the first of two, presents the rcsults
of an analysis of
archdcaconry court probate invcntorics of farmcrs from the county of
Hertfordshire. Topics
covcrcd includc the rclativc importancc of various ccrcal crops and of
different typcs of
livcstock, thc innovation of ncw foddcr crops, thc importance of
particular types of farm
cntcrprisc, and pattcrns of gcographical spccialization. Thc rcsults
arc used to discuss the
chronology and gcography of dcvelopments in agricultural production,
and to compare these
with thc accounts of agrarian historians. It is concludcd that thcsc
accounts do not adcquatcly
describe thc chronology and geography of production changcs. This has
implications for
cxplanations of the causcs of agricultural change bascd on infcrcnccs
from trcnds in grain and
livestock priccs.
Bruce M S Campbell, Towards
an agricultural
geography of medieval
England, pp 87-98
Abstract
Horses, Oxen a,d Technological hmovation is shown to makc a major
substantivc and methodologi-
cal contribution to the agrarian history of medieval England. Langdon's
findings, derived in
part from a national sample of manorial accounts, lend further support
to the view that a
morc spccializcd and intcgratcd pattcrn of food production and supply
began to evolve during
thc thirtccnth century. Horsc haulage, although costly, incrcascd thc
spccd and rangc of markct
transactions; whilst horsc traction allowcd thc cmcrgcncc of morc
intcnsivc forms of arable
husbandry and grcatcr specialization in livcstock production. To
illustratc thc last point rcsults
arc prcscntcd from a national survcy of demesne livcstock. These
developments arc cxprcssed
in the form of grcatly incrcascd spatial diffcrcntiation and can be
rclatcd to the cffcct up'on
eeonolnic rent of the contemporary growth of sevcral major urban
markets.
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on
agrarian
history, 1986, pp 99-110
36.2 (1988)
M Patricia Hogan, Clays, culturae
and
the cultivator's
wisdom: management efficiency at fourteenth-century Wistow,
pp
117-131
Abstract
This is a study of the decision-making process pertaining to the
forty-eight demesne furlongs at Wistow,
Hunts. Economically, the manor has been regarded as typical of the
almost seventy properties comprising
Ramsey Abbey. A useful sequence of account rolls for the 1380s-1390s, a
detailed list of the furlongs in a
manorial inquest of I252, and a pre-enclosure estate map of I617
furnish the chief documentation. Quite
exceptionally, the compoti indicate sowing patterns parcel by parcel.
Hence, the author has been able to
trace decision-making with respect to the seeding, rotation,
sub-division, and resting of the individual
furlongs, and the yields which these choices did and did not
facilitate. The analysis brings greater precision,
detail, and integration to the topic of cropping strategy.
R H Britnell, The Pastons
and their Norfolk,
pp 132-144
Abstract
The Paston Letters have two distinctive features as sources of
agricultural history. On the one hand they
illustrate exceptionally well some organizational features of estate
management on a smallish estate, notably
the absence of closely structured specialization amongst estate
officers and the personal involvement of
members of the family in minor,matters. At the same time the letters
demonstrate the problems of estate
management in one of England s most commercialized regions during the
1460s and 1470s, and they
suggest that the 1460s in particular were a period of agrarian
depression in Norfolk. The combined effect
of these observations is to show how even as a rentier family the
Pastons were intimately involved in the
commercial dilemmas and social conflicts arising from crisis management.
Paul Glennie, Continuity and
change in
Hertfordshire agriculture,
1550-1700: II - Trends in crop yields and their determinants,
pp
145-161
Abstract
This paper argues the need for a greater understaiMil~g of the size,
weight and carcass composition of
cattle and sheep in early modern Scotland. These questions are then
addressed through a consideration of
modern 'unimproved' breeds, archaeological evidence regarding bone
measurements, eighteenth-century
household accounts, and contemporary agricultural commentaries. On the
basis of these four sources,
working estimates of the carcass-weight and composition of
pre-improvement cattle and sheep are proposed
and their usefulness illustrated through a calculation of the
nutritional contribution, and cost relative to
oatmeal, of meat in the diet of masters and students at St Leonards
College, St Andrews, in I67i.
A J S Gibson, The size and
weight of cattle and
sheep in early
modern Scotland, pp 162-171
Abstract
This paper argues the need for a greater understaiMil~g of the size,
weight and carcass composition of
cattle and sheep in early modern Scotland. These questions are then
addressed through a consideration of
modern 'unimproved' breeds, archaeological evidence regarding bone
measurements, eighteenth-century
household accounts, and contemporary agricultural commentaries. On the
basis of these four sources,
working estimates of the carcass-weight and composition of
pre-improvement cattle and sheep are proposed
and their usefulness illustrated through a calculation of the
nutritional contribution, and cost relative to
oatmeal, of meat in the diet of masters and students at St Leonards
College, St Andrews, in I671.
Stewart Richards, The
South-Eastern
Agricultural College and public
support for technical education, 1894-1914, pp 172-187
Abstract
During the agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century
several Acts of Parliament, and the
fortuitous 'whiskey money', laid the foundations for a new policy
towards technical education. The South-
Eastern Agricultural College 0894) was an example of this policy in
action, for it represented an attempt
to bridge the traditional chasm between practical and theoretical
agriculture by means of public funding.
Its staffquickly produced textbooks and research publications which
smmnarized and promoted agricultural
science, and the London University BSc in agriculture (I9O2) created a
precedent by demanding the same
standards as other natural science subjects. The new
institution~ustified its support by placing a high
proportion of its students in responsible posts in the agricultural
inaustry and in teaching, and its reputation
helped to establish the principle that only on the basis of state
support could there be an effective national
s~,stem of agricultural education and research.
Thomas D Isern, Gopher
tales: a study in
western Canadian pest
control, pp 188-198
Abstract
The flickertail gopher was considered one of western Canada's worst
agricultural pests. Its ravages were
particularly severe when agricultural circumstances provided it with
favourable conditions - during the early
stages o f settlement, or during periods of drought and field
abandonment. Local and provincial governments
mountedprograms - including bounties, contests, and poison distribution
- to combat the pest. The populace
respondedwith enthusiasm, trappi,lg, shooting, clubbing, snaring, and
poisoning the gophers. Governmental
officials and private citizens considered the pest control programs
proper and effective; they also welcomed the
economic relief conveyed through bounties.
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on
agrarian
history 1987, pp 199-204
37.1 (1989)
D L Farmer, Two Wiltshire
manors and their
markets, pp 1-11
Abstract
The accounts o f the Glastonbury Abbey manors of Longbridge Deverill
and Monkton Deverill provide
unusually detailed information of the places where, and the persons
with whom, the manors traded. Most
of their grain went to markets within ten miles, though more distant
markets were used more in years
when grain fetched higher prices. Livestock was purchased at fairs
further away than most of the grain
markets. The majority of wool buyers came from towns within about
twenty miles of the manors.
Lengthy journeys were sometimes necessary to fetch items like
millstones. Much of the manors' trading
was informal, and with their own tenants.
Andrew Watkins, Cattle
grazing in the Forest of
Arden in the later
middle ages, pp 12-25
Abstract
This paper studies the influence and scale of pastoral farming in the
economy of the Forest of Arden in
the Later Middle Ages. It seeks to determine the numbers and types of
animals kept and demonstrate how
the profits of pastoral farming benefited a number of social groups in
the region. Many demesnes were
retained by their resident lords to graze cattle to feed their
households while the fattening of beef animals
for the market afforded scope for social and economic advancement by
peasant families. This emphasis on
animal husbandry encouraged the cultivation of hay and fodder crops in
turn helping to bolster the arable
economy in the area.
Norman Hidden, Jethro Tull,
I, II, and III,
pp 26-35
Abstract
Although Jethro Tull has been recognized as an important innovatory
figure in agricultural methods in
the eighteenth century, little has been written concerning his origins
and social background; and much of
that is either vague or inexact. From genealogical and other research,
new information is provided
concerning the family background of Jethro Tull. In particular the
three Jethro Tulls who overlapped in
time and place (especially with regard to Prosperous Farm) are
distinguished. Some revision is suggested
in the date of Tull's commencement at Prosperous Farm and of his
journey to the continental vineyards.
This and other additional background information throws light both on
Tull's personality and behaviour
and on his need to innovate in order to convert Prosperous from
sheepdown to arable.
Andrew K Copus, Changing
markets and the
development of sheep breeds
in southern England, 1750-1900,
pp 36-51
Abstract
The development of sheep breeds in Southern England between I750 and
1900 was a response by ordinary
farmers to changes in the relative price levels of cereals, mutton,
wool and tallow. Between c. I750 and
z79o the high price of tallow led to the 'improvement' of the old
horned breeds, to produce a carcass in
which tallow production was maximized. After I790 tallow prices fell
and the introduction of Southdown
rams enabled farmers in the Downlands to modify their flocks in
response to the demand for good quality
wool and effective folding. After I815, when quality mutton and lamb
prices were relatively high, the
breeds were perfected as meat producers. Similar changes took place in
mixed-farming districts. After
I87o, falling prices and dwindling profits resulted in limited changes
in breeds, except on higher downland
farms," where upland sheep from Northern England and Wales were
introduced.
Leah Leneman, Land
settlement in Scotland after
World War I, pp
52-64
Abstract
After World War I the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act gave the Board of
Agriculture for Scotland powers
to break up farms into smallholdings. The hopes of landless men in the
Highlands and Islands were raised
by promises both before and after the war, but for financial and other
reasons the rate of progress in
settling them was much slower than anticipated, and a number of men
took illegal possession of farms.
Public sympathy for ex-servicemen was so great that more money was
poured into land settlement and
strenuous efforts made to speed things up. The programme went a long
way toward satisfying Highland
land hunger and was considered, overall, to have been a success.
However, as the failure rate was highest
by far amongst the holders settled just after the war, those who came
later benefited more than the ex-
service.men for whom the legislation had been intended.
Mark Cleary, French agrarian
history after 1750
- a review and
bibliography, pp 65-74
Raine Morgan, Supplement to the bibliography of theses on
British
agrarian history: omissions and additions 1984-6, pp 89-97
37.2 (1989)
Della Hooke, Pre-Conquest
woodland: its
distribution and usage, pp
113-129
Abstract
This study demonstrates the extent of the regeneration of woodland
after the Roman period, and employs
place-name evidence to identify the territorial linkages between
midland woodlands and more southerly
estates, which were based upon their significance as pastures.
Woodland's importance as a resource was
indicated by its deliberate management for timber, fuel, and coppice
from the seventh century, in addition
to pasturage for pigs and horses. The evidence of Anglo-Saxon charters
is cited to reinforce doubts as to
the quality o f the 1)omesday record of woodland and its use, and the
study cites place-name and other
evidence to demonstrate that huuting and the use of woods as game
reserves were more important before
the eleventh century than has previously been recognized.
David Postles, Cleaning the
medieval arable,
pp 130-143
Abstract
Discussion of the productivity of the medieval arable has necessarily
concentrated on the margin and limits
of technology. The suggestion, recently advanced, that one of the
principal determinants of low arable
productivity was the poor cleaning of the arable, requires further
empirical research. Especially is this
necessary, since recent research into arable productivity has
emphasized more intensive use of, inter alia,
labour resources, which resulted in higher output. Such conscious
increases of the costs of production may
have applied equally in the case of cleaning the arable, both through
labour-intensive weeding and the
potential use of the rebinatio (additional fallow-stirring). An attempt
is made hcrc to survey how far such
labour inputs were employed.
Charles W J Withers, William
Cullen's
agricultural lectures and
writings and the development of agricultural science in
eighteenth-century Scotland, pp 144-156
Abstract
It is now becoming recognized that the Scottish agricultural improvers
had carlicr antecedents than many
of their English and Welsh counterparts. In this articlc, the work of
William Cullen is analyzcd to
demonstrate the significance o f his agricultural lectures at Edinburgh
and Glasgow in the 1740s and I750s,
and to suggest the strength o f links between the Scottish scientific
community and agricultural improvcmcnt.
Linked intellectually with figures such as Maxwell and Kames, Cullen
conducted practical experimcents on
family farms and represented a striking examples that blend
of
practice and scientific abstraction which
helped transform eightecenth-century Scottish farming through practical
education.
Peter M Solar, Harvest
fluctuations in
pre-Famine Ireland: Evidence
from Belfast and Waterford newspapers, pp 157-165
Abstract
The monthly agricultural reports published in the Waterford Mirror
(I819-42) and Belfast's Northern Whig
(1824-42) are described, then used to derive qualitative indicators of
harvest outcomes in pre-farnine
Ireland. Contemporary descriptions of the wheat, oats, barley,
potatoes, flax, and hay harvests were scaled
in order to analyze their covariations. The wheat, potato and hay crops
tended to show similar fluctuations
in the two regions; outcomes of the barley and oats harvests were not
systematically related. Among crops
within the same region covariation was much less pronounced than across
regions, except for the inverse
relationship between the wheat and hay crops in the south-east and for
a tendency for the oats and potato
crops to move together in the north-east and inversely in the
south-east. The results suggest that mixed
farming should have helped to stabilize farm incomes; that the potato
may have been better suited to the
south-east than the north-east; and that it may have been less
unreliable than has often been argued.
Desmond A Gillmor, The
political factor in
agricultural history:
trends in Irish agriculture, 1922-85, pp 166-179
Abstract
Agriculture in Ireland has had an unusual sequence of political
contexts in the twentieth century in that it
was at first under the single government of the United Kingdom, from
partition of the island in 1922 it
came under two separate sovereign states, and accession of both to the
European Community in I973
brought it again within a common policy framework. The effects of the
changing political and economic
circumstances together with other influcnces arc investigated in this
paper through analyses of the trends
in farm enterprises and agricultural production in Northcrn Ircland and
the Rcpublic of Ireland. Thc farm
enterprises studied comprise tillagc, cows, beef cattlc, shccp, pigs
and poultry. Trcnds in thc structure and
volume of agricultural production are considcrcd, and more briefly
thosc in inputs and incomes. The
trends combined indicate clearly a sequence in which divcrgcncc
occurred between the agriculturcs of the
two territories, and this was succeeded by tendencies towards
convcrgcncc.
Joseph Harrison, The
agrarian history of Spain,
1800-1960, pp
180-187
Bruce M S Campbell, Laying foundations: The Agrarian History of England and Wales 1042-1350, pp 188-192
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history 1988, pp 193-197
Peter Dewey, Conference report: spring conference 1989, pp
198-199
38.1 (1990)
Jules N Pretty, Sustainable
agriculture in the
middle ages: the
English manor, pp 1-19
Abstract
Manorial estates survived many centuries of change and appear to have
been highly sustainable agricultural
systems. Yet this sustainability was not achieved because of high
agricultural productivity - indeed it appears that
farmers were trading off low productivity against the more highly
valued goals of stability, sustainability and
equitability. These were promoted by the integrated nature of farming,
the great diversity of produce, induding
wild resources, the diversity of livelihood strategies, the guaranteed
source of labour, and the high degree of
cooperation.
K P Witney, The woodland
economy of Kent,
1066-1348, pp 20-39
Abstract
This article traces the development of the woodland economy of Kent
from the later Anglo-Saxon period
until the Black Death. It describes how in the woodlands close to the
coast, the navigable Rother, or London,
the mounting demand for fuel, at home and cross-channel, so enhanced
the value of coppice that it came to
displace the much less profitable use of the woods for pannage and
cattle pasture; while at the same time
diverting colonization into the central core of The Weald, where heavy
loads were almost undisposable.
Although the Black Death caused a serious slump in the wood market the
effects are still observable in the
distribution of the woodland today.
Mark Bailey, Sand into gold:
the evolution of
the foldcourse system
in west Suffolk, 1200-1600, pp 40-57
Abstract
This study charts the evolution of field-systems in north-west Suffolk
during the later Middle Ages, a period
often overlooked by historians of the subject. The whole area comprised
extensive open felds in the thirteenth
century, but thereafter two distinct and divergent field systems
emerged from this common ancestor. On the
light soils of Breckland, KJ Allison's classic foldcourse system had
evolved by I600 from a more fragmented
and flexible medieval predecessor. On the loamier soils, an informal
medieval foldcourse system disappeared
with the gradual spread of piecemeal enclosures. Such differences are
explained in terms of the changing
structure of landholding, the influence of lordship, and environmental
factors. The evidence suggests that
commonfield systems could undergo important - but hitherto unsuspected
- institutional changes in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: changes which were germane to the
seventeenth-century improvements in
agrarian productivity recently advocated by some historians.
Malcolm Thick, Garden seeds
in England before
the late eighteenth
century: I - Seed growing, pp 58-71
Abstract
The innovation and diffusion of commercial garden seed production in
England forms the core of this paper,
the first of two on garden seeds. Following some remarks on seed
production in the three centuries before
I6oo the nature, process and adoption of the innovation in agriculture
that seed production represented is
examined. It is concluded that Dutch immigrants in the sixteenth
century and their descendants played a vital
role in the initial introduction and subsequent spread of garden seed
growing in England. The long continuity
of production in some areas was determined by local soils and climates,
as well as favourable social and
institutional circumstances. Contemporary estimates of prices and costs
show that garden seed growing was
sometimes highly profitable, although uncertainty of yield and foreign
competition could bring about losses.
Using evidence from probate inventories, the way in which seed
production was assimilated into farming at
Sandwich is reviewed, and the paper also covers garden seed imports in
the period.
G E Mingay, The diary of
James Warne, 1758,
pp 72-78
Abstract
James Warne farmed near Wool, between Dorchester and Wareham in Dorset.
His was evidently a medium-
sized farm, combining dairying with some arable, and Warne kept a diary
which has survived for only the
one year, 1758. The unusual detail of the diary throws a good deal of
light on his farming activities, including
visits to local markets and his frequent concern that the best use
should be made of his wagons and teams.
Most interesting, perhaps, are the casual manner in which he hired his
farmworkers and the problems he
experienced in disciplining them. Warne's periodical lending and
borrowing of money also provides
confirmation of the importance of the local network for private
financial transactions which was available to
the rural community before the full development of the banking system.
John R Walton, On estimating
the extent of
parliamentary enclosure,
pp 79-82
Abstract
Chapman argues that the acreages presented in the summaries of
enclosure acts and awards are often inaccurate.
True acreages may be estimated by summing the apportionment acreages
for each award. This procedure,
applied to a xo per cent sample o f English and Welsh awards, yields a
total parliamentary enclosure acreage
which appears to indicate that Turner's estimate, based on summaries,
is too small. However, this conclusion
is reached without reference to the margins of error associated with
sample statistics. In a data-set exhibiting a
high degree of variation such margins of error will be substantial.
Hypothetical estimates, based on acreage
data sampled from the Tate 'Domesday', indicate that Turner's figure
probably lies within conventionally-
acceptable confidence limits for Chapman's sample. A tolerably accurate
estimate of the acreage enclosed by
parliamentary act is only likely to be available when Chapman's
procedure has been extended to the remaining
9o per cent o f enclosure awards.
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on agrarian history, 1988, pp 83-94
J A Chartres, Conference report: winter conference, 1989,
'Food
supply and towns', pp 95-96
38.2 (1990)
Malcolm Thick, Garden seeds
in England before
the late eighteenth
century: II - The trade in seeds to 1760, pp 105-116
Abstract
Steady expansion in the garden seed trade throughout the period was
caused by a similar increase in commercial
and private gardening. In the sixteenth century, seed retailing failed
to provide both the quantity and quality
of garden seeds demanded. Specialist seedshops gradually developed in
London in the seventeenth century
and two shops are examined in some detail. Seed selling between the
late seventeenth century and I76o is
discussed against a background of the rapid development of consumer
goods and services at the time. The
role of fashion and taste in shaping demand for garden seeds and their
advertisement via the press, catalogues,
books, pamphlets, and flysheets is described. The conclusion is drawn
that garden seed retailing had a
significant influence on the development of gardening and agriculture
at this time.
G G S Bowie, Northern wolds
and Wessex
downlands: contrasts in sheep
husbandry and farming practice, 1770-1850, pp 117-126
Abstract
Two separate and distinct farming systems developed on the chalk wolds
o f Lincolnshire and east Yorkshire,
and the downlands o f South Wiltshire, East Dorset, Berkshire and
Hampshire during the French Revolutionary
Wars period and in the years immediately afterwards. This is rather
surprising in view o f the broad similarity
o f the 'sheep and corn' systems practised in the two areas before
about 1770, the relatively minor differences
in geology and climate, and the general availability o f information
about innovatory farming practices at the
time. The characteristics o f a high-input system o f farming which
developed on the northern wolds, and a
low-input one which evolved on the Wessex downlands, are defined. The
link between the high-input system
and High Farming is described, as is the efficiency o f the low-input
system in giving farmers an acceptable
income with rather less capital outlay and running costs.
Urban Emanuelsson and Jens
Moeller, Flooding in
Scania: a
method to overcome the deficiency of nutrients in agriculture in the
nineteenth century, pp 127-148
Abstract
This article discusses ecological features during the nineteenth
century in the southernmost part of Sweden
(Scania). In the beginning of the nineteenth century the old system
where hay-producing meadows created
natural manure, gradually disappeared as arable land was extended. As
artificial fertilizers were not introduced
until the end of the century, this created, theoretically, an
impossible situation. The paper discusses several
ways of overcoming this fertilizer problem, but sees the flooding of
meadows as the only technique which
had a positive effect on all major elements. The flooding technique is
described and its introduction in Scania
is mapped. The use of watermeadows increased production fundamentally,
but nevertheless, most systems
were abandoned at the beginning of our century when artificial
fertilizers became available on a large scale.
The paper shows that between i85o and I89o there was a gap between the
need and production of natural
manure, and at this time the production of hay on the watermeadows was
of utmost importance. The article
concludes with a suggestion that watermeadows should be introduced in
modern agriculture. This would be
of double advantage: it could both act as a sink for phosphorus and
nitrogen, and reduce the need for artificial
fertilizers.
Joanna Bourke, Dairywomen
and affectionate
wives: women in the Irish
dairy industry, 1890-1914, pp 149-164
Abstract
Milking and butter-making were important to the rural Irish economy. In
the nineteenth century, dairy work
was dominated by women. By World War One, it was dominated by men. The
establishment of creameries
and male-only agricultural colleges, in addition to legislation
limiting female hours of employment, encouraged
the substitution of male labour for female labour. Schemes to educate
rural women in the new dairying
technologies had minimal effect. Although the value of dairy production
in Ireland increased, female status in
the industry declined as managerial control came to be vested in men.
The removal of women from the dairy
was justified by reference to the need of increasing female investment
of time in housework.
Cormac O'Grada, Irish
agricultural
history: recent
research, pp 165-173
Dan Byford, Work in progress, pp 174-179
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history, 1989, pp 180-184
Mark Overton, The critical century? The Agrarian History of England and Wales, 1750-1850, pp 185-189
J A Chartres, Obituary: Dr George Fussell, pp 190-191
David Hey, Conference report: spring conference 1990, pp
192-193
39.1 (1991)
Christine Hallas, Supply
responsiveness in
dairy farming: some
regional considerations, pp 1-16
Abstract
The structural changes taking place in dairying during the nineteenth
century arc examined in the context o f
the supply responsiveness o f farmers. The paper both responds to a
call for this issue to be researched in
specific localities and seeks to place the debatc in a wider context by
taking a long chronological view. This
study suggests that milk as opposed to checse or butter production was
embarked upon not as a straightforward
response to market forces but as a rcsult of the coalesccncc of many
factors. It is noted that the specific factors
may vary over time as might thc level o f their influcncc over the
farmers' dccision taking. The conclusion is
that while there werc somc laggardly farmers, thcrc was, taking all
factors into consideration, a fairly prompt
response. The research reveals the divcrsity o f practicc in the
locality and cautions against generalization on
the subject.
Michael Wintle, Modest
growth and capital drain
in an advanced
economy: the case of Dutch agriculture in the nineteenth century,
pp
17-29
Abstract
First a survey is provided of the main characteristics of Dutch
agriculture in the nineteenth century, covering
geographical and soil conditions, regional differences, price
developments, and the periodicity of economic
growth in agriculture. Agriculture's contribution to the economy as a
whole is examined, as well as
government policy, and the onset and reactions to the major crisis of
the late 187os and 188os. Attention then
concentrates on Zeeland, a rich agricultural province which suffered
relative stagnation in the nineteenth
century. Cyclical fluctuations in the percentage of owner-occupancy
amongst farmers are identified; their
effect was such that the constantly changing ownership of the land
channelled agricultural profits out of the
province and sometimes even out of the country.
Graham Cox, Philip Lowe, and
Michael Winter,
The origins and early
development of the National Farmers' Union, pp 30-47
Abstract
The early history of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) has hitherto
been comparatively neglected. The
associations of agricultural interest which preceded it and the
circumstances of its formation in I9O8 are
outlined. Whereas agricultural interests had often been divided and
weak, the union, particularly under Colin
Campbell's leadership, established both its credibility and a sound
organizational structure. The period of the
Great War consolidated and extended its ability to speak
authoritatively for the needs of agriculture and the
significance of the War Agricultural Executive Committees is
considered. Emerging NFU positions on the
issue of protection and its moves towards a more positive and
constructive role in policy formulation are
examined. Circumstances at the outset of the Second World War forced a
recognition of the need for a
working partnership between farmers and the state: a development of
corporatist relations made possible by
the prior emergence of a representative farmers' organization with the
necessary organizational capability and
political acumen. This paper shows how those competences were acquired.
John Chapman, Confidence
limits and enclosure
estimates: some
comments, pp 48-51
Abstract
Walton criticizes my revision of the acreage enclosed by Parliamentary
action by purporting to show that the
margins of error of my sample are so great that Turner's much lower
figure falls within them. However, the
technique which he uses is inappropriate, since the data do not conform
to the conditions which limit its use.
Use of the bootstrap technique, which is appropriate in these
circumstances, supports my original conclusions,
as does direct comparison with Turner's individual parish figures.
John R Walton, Parliamentary
enclosure, the
bootstrap, and a red
herring or two, pp 52-54
Abstract
Chapman argues that the acreages presented in the summaries of
enclosure acts and awards are often inaccurate.
True acreages may be estimated by summing the apportionment acreages
for each award. This procedure,
applied to a xo per cent sample o f English and Welsh awards, yields a
total parliamentary enclosure acreage
which appears to indicate that Turner's estimate, based on summaries,
is too small. However, this conclusion
is reached without reference to the margins of error associated with
sample statistics. In a data-set exhibiting a
high degree of variation such margins of error will be substantial.
Hypothetical estimates, based on acreage
data sampled from the Tate 'Domesday', indicate that Turner's figure
probably lies within conventionally-
acceptable confidence limits for Chapman's sample. A tolerably accurate
estimate of the acreage enclosed by
parliamentary act is only likely to be available when Chapman's
procedure has been extended to the remaining
9o per cent o f enclosure awards.
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on agrarian history, 1989 pp 55-64
Michael Wintle, Agrarian history in the Netherlands in the modern period: a review and bibliography, pp 65-73
Richard Perren, Conference report: 'Farmers and landowners',
winter
conference 1990, pp 74-75
39.2 (1991)
Christopher K Currie, The
early history of the
carp and its economic
significance in England, pp 97-107
Abstract
The carp, by the admission of most authoritative fish farmers and
pisciculturists, is one of the most important
food fish in the world• However, their
origins are shrouded in
mythology. Even where serious attempts have
been made to trace the origins of this fish in the British Isles, the
difficulty in distinguishing myth from reality
has clouded the issue. This essay attempts to put the introduction of
the carp to the British Isles in its correct
historic perspective. Changes in the management of estates over the
period ci25o--I4O0 prompted the growth
of commercial fish keeping and this created a situation into which the
introduction of the carp was appropriate.
The early history of the species in England is traced, and attempts to
explain their rise to dominance nationally
are expounded.
M A Barg, The social
structure of manorial
freeholders: an analysis
of the hundred rolls of 1279, pp 108-115
Abstract
This study reassesses the evidence of the Hundred Rolls of 1279 to
investigate the social structure and socio-
economic identity of the freeholders, significantly revising the
classic analysis of E A Kosminsky. Careful
linkage of the personal names of freeholders within and between manors
and vills reveals four groups within
this broad category: clergy; gentry; craftsmen; and tradesmen. The
investigation suggests that more than half
the freehold land of the counties surveyed was not in the hands of
their direct cultivators: manorial freehold
was of major importance, and subtenancy and rent relationships already
widespread at the time of the
compilation of the Hundred Rolls.
John Chapman, The later
parliamentary
enclosures of South Wales, pp
116-125
Abstract
Parliamentary enclosures under the I845 General Enclosure Act formed a
substantial proportion of the total
in South Wales. They were overwhelmingly of waste, and thus contributed
to a net increase in the size of the
existing holdings, in contrast to some early English enclosures. Though
the number of allottees per enclosure
was normally relatively small, few individuals received very large
acreages, and this was reinforced by the
pattern of purchases of sale allotments, with little evidence of
large-scale buying by large landowners. Much
of the newly-enclosed land appears to have undergone little improvement
in the formal sense, but, at least in
the view of contemporaries, sheep-farming became much more profitable
when freed from the problems
associated with common usage of the waste.
R J Moore-Colyer, Horses and
equine improvement
in the economy of
modern Wales, pp 126-142
Abstract
This article attempts to review the importance of the horse to the
economy of modern Wales and in considering
the various regional types, provides some indication of the efforts
made towards equine improvement in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries both by the various agricultural
organizations and officially-sponsored
bodies. The introduction of English breeds at the expense of the
genetic improvement of local stock, the
economic uncertainty ofhorsebreeding, the unwillingness of smaller
farmers to pay realistic stud fees and an
obsession with the improvement of male at the expense of female lines,
restricted the extent of improvements
of both saddle and draught animals. By the time organizations like the
RASE, the Hunters' Improvement
Society and the Royal Commission on Horsebreeding had begun to make
some impact, the urban horse in
Wales and elsewhere was sinking into decline. The horse, nevertheless,
remained the principal power unit on
Welsh farms until the end of the Second World War.
Stephen Caunce,
Twentieth-century farm
servants: the horselads of
the East Riding of Yorkshire, pp 143-166
Abstract
By the I92Os, the East Riding of Yorkshire was the last arable county
in England where the hiring of single
youths on yearly contracts as living-in farm servants was unquestioned
and universal. Mostly by oral history
it has been possible to analyse this traditional way of life in depth,
and particularly to get the servants' own
views on it. As a very practical way of running a horse-powered farm,
it offered distinct economic advantages
to both farmer and servant as long as labour was relatively short. It
also preserved many pre-industrial
attitudes to work and management, and was integrated into the wider
life of the community. This study of
adaptation to change shows that mechanization did not require a break
with the past, and that the degraded
position of nineteenth-century servants in the south is no guide to the
way the system had run before the
labour market collapsed there.
John Chapman, The bootstrap
and Dr Walton's red
herrings, pp 167-168
Edith H Whetham, Supply
responsiveness in dairy
farming: a note, pp
169-170
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history 1990, pp 171-175
Christine Hallas, Conference report: spring conference 1991,
pp
176-177
40.1 (1992)
Bruce M S Campbell, James A
Galloway, and
Margaret Murphy, Rural
land-use in the Metropolitan hinterland, 1270-1339: the evidence of inquisitiones
post mortem, pp 1-23
Abstract
Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPMs) have been used by historians for a
variety of purposes, but their value
as a source for the study of medieval land-use has not been fully
realized. Used in large numbers they
can illustrate broad contrasts between places and regions in terms of
resource endowment and value.
This study outlines a methodology for analysing the IPMs with reference
to a group of ten counties
around London. The results point to the existence of distinctive and
specialized agrarian regimes,
responsive to a variety of influences - environmental, institutional,
and economic.
Ian Ward, Rental policy on
the estates of the
English peerage,
1649-60, pp 23-37
Abstract
This article is based on the estate papers of four English peers during
the mid-seventeenth century -
those of the Marquis of Hertford, and the Earls of Bridgwater, Dorset,
and Northumberland. It seeks
to impress the importance of the striking improvement in rental return
on these estates during the years
immediately following the English Civil Wars. It is submitted that the
key to this improvement lay
both in policies of rack-renting and also, and perhaps most
importantly, in the concentration upon
altering the nature of tenancies, from copyhold to leasehold. This
concentration coincided with certain
important developments in the English laws of property.
Michael Turner, Output and
prices in UK
agriculture, 1867-1914, and
the Great Agricultural Depression reconsidered, pp 38-51
Abstract
This article is based on the late J R Bellerby's United Kingdom
agricultural output series. It does not
use his published series, but rather it employs his unpublished
manuscript originals. The published series
was presented in undifferentiated terms whereas the manuscripts present
a full product differentiation,
as well as individual price series for those products. The article
proceeds to use this material in three
ways. It establishes the output estimates as a credible source by
comparison with other estimates; it
constructs a composite agricultural price index using that series; and
finally the index is used to illustrate
different ways to understand the transformation o f UK agriculture in
the late Victorian and Edwardian
period.
Stuart Thompstone, 'Bab'ye
Khozyaystvo':
poultry keeping and its
contribution to peasant income in pre-1914 Russia, pp 52-63
Abstract
Recent scholarship has cast doubt on the traditional view that the
Russian peasantry experienced
increasing impoverishment at the end o f the nineteenth century. The
extent to which the commune
system was a major inhibitor of agricultural progress has also been
questioned. By exploring the
expansion of poultry keeping, traditionally the preserve of female
peasants, this article suggests that in
those provinces where the pressures on peasant living standards were
most acute, poultry keeping was
a buoyant source o f on-farm income, which from the I88Os helped to
maintain and even improve
living standards at a time when peasant earnings from mainstream
agricultural activity were experiencing
downwards pressure. Despite their alleged conservatism Russian peasants
demonstrated a marked aware-
ness o f the benefits of improved poultry strains, taking advantage of
the greater availability of pedigree
birds. Railway development enabled poultry products to make a
significant contribution to Russia's
export trade.
Maurice Beresford, 'The
spade might soon
determine it': the
representation of deserted medieval villages on Ordnance Survey plans,
1849-1910, pp 64-70
Abstract
From its earliest days the Ordnance Survey had an interest in recording
the earthworks of antiquity.
For the large-scale plans the information gathered from the surveyors
in the field was supplemented by
correspondence with knowledgable local scholars. The earthworks from
medieval villages although
numerous were generally ignored except for the East Riding of Yorkshire
where, largely through the
interest of Capt.John Bayly, RE, FSA (I82I-I9O5), the first edition of
the six-inch map detailed twenty-
five sites. At the revisions of I890-I909 the interpretation of these
earthworks came into question: the
replies of local correspondents, surviving in the OS archive, show
considerable scepticism but the better-
informed invoked documentary sources, while one - in a phrase embodied
in the title of this article -
urged abitration by excavation, a course which medieval archaeology has
eventually followed.
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on agrarian history, 1990, pp 71-80
Joan Thirsk, Conference report: 'Rural society and the poor',
winter
conference 1991, pp 81-82
40.2 (1992)
David L Farmer, Millstones
for medieval manors,
pp 97-111
Abstract
Demesne mills in medieval England obtained their millstones from many
sources on the continent, in
Wales, and in England. The most prized were French stones, usually
fetched by cart from Southampton
or ferried by river from London. Transport costs were low.
Millstone prices generally doubled between the early thirteenth century
and the Black Death, and
doubled again in the later fourteenth century. With milling less
profitable, many mills in the fourteenth
century changed from French stones to the cheaper Welsh and Peak
District stones, which Thames
valley manors were able to buy in a large number of Midland towns and
villages. Some successful
south coast mills continued to buy French stones even in the fifteenth
century.
Jean Birrell, Deer and deer
farming in medieval
England, pp 112-126
Abstract
The deer in the parks, chases and forests of medieval England were
managed more actively, and with
a greater skill and care, than is perhaps generalIy realized. Their
owners derived considerable benefits
from them, not only in the opportunity to hunt, which was often
subsidiary, but in venison, a high
status meat. Though deer were often privileged, deer farming was
generally integrated into other
agricultural or woodland activities; deer parks, in particular, were
often efficiently managed units
fulfilling a number of purposes, so much so that we should perhaps be
cautious about dismissing them,
as is so often done, as no more than status symbols.
June A Sheppard, Small farms
in a Sussex Weald
parish, 1800-60, pp
127-141
Abstract
The Sussex Weald is an area where many small farms survived into the
nineteenth century, and their
fate in Chiddingly parish between I8OO and 186o is explored. They
thrived up to 1815; between I816
and I842, nearly half were lost, many of the remainder changed from
owner-occupancy to tenancy,
and a few additional ones appeared on newly-enclosed land; after 1842,
changes were few. The timing
points to the post-Napoleonic agricultural depression as the
fundamental cause of change, mediated by
a range of personal and holding characteristics that resulted in
varying ability to withstand economic
pressure. Changes were greater during this depression, than during
those of the early eighteenth and
late nineteenth centuries, because the small farmer's cash outgoings,
especially in paying his poor rates,
frequently exceeded his income.
C J D Duder, Beadoc - the
British East African
Disabled Officers'
Colony and the white frontier
in Kenya,
pp 142-150
Abstract
Beadoc was an attempt to found a co-operative settlement of disabled
British officers in the Highlands
of Kenya after the First World War. It was designed both to reward
ex-soldiers who had lost their
health in the service of the Empire, and to provide Britain with
supplies of a vital matcrial, flax, from
within the confines of the Empire. Under-capitalized, grossly
mismanaged, and located on unsuitable
land, Beadoc collapsed with the end of the 'flax boom'. Its importance
to the agricultural history of
white Kenya, is that it illustrated the futility of placing
comparatively large numbers of Europeans,
with comparatively little capital, on the land as farmers. Kenya was a
rich white man's country, which
ultimately meant that it would not be any kind of white man's country.
A T Fear The Golden Sheep of
Roman Andalusia,
pp.151-55
Abstract
The classical evidence for this 'breed' of sheep are discussed,
followed by an examination of the various
modern explanations for the its existence. It is suggested that a
genetic trait is the most probable solution
to the problem.
R W Hoyle, Some reservations
on Dr Ward on the
'Rental policy of the
English peerage, 1649-60', pp 156-159
Alun Howkins, Social history
and agricultural
history, pp 160-163
Maurice Beresford, Professor W G Hoskins - a memoir, pp 164-167
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history 1991, pp 168-172
John R Walton, Conference report: spring conference 1992, pp
173-175
41.1 (1993)
T L Richardson, The
agricultural labourers'
standard of living in
Lincolnshire, 1790-1840: social protest and public order, pp
1-19
Abstract
In trying to establish what happened to the standard of living of the
rural labouring classes in Lincolnshire
two statistical variables, the cost of living and the earnings of adult
male labourers, have been constructed
to determine the long-run trend of real wages. The analysis shows that
the cost of living was the
dynamic variable in the real wage equation and that in the short-run,
as during the French wars, volatile
price movements had a devastating effect upon the purchasing power of
wages. The level of employment
and incomes after I815, though varying between upland and clayland
areas, was a potent cause of
distress and class conflict. In analysing the shift in emphasis from
overt to covert expressions of anger,
attention is paid to the collective response of the county's ruling
order to the threat from below and
the mechanisms of control that were used to restore law and order.
Susanna Wade Martins, From
'black-face' to
'white-face' - an aspect
of the 'agricultural revolution' in Norfolk, pp 20-30
Abstract
This paper looks at the spread of new breeds of sheep across Norfolk in
the early nineteenth century,
the gradual eclipse of the native Norfolk horn breed, and the increase
in the popularity of half-breds,
using as its source the Michaelmas sales announcements in the local
newspapers, a source which allows
for the study of a wide cross section of Norfolk farms. It demonstrates
the relatively short space of
time which saw the demise of the Norfolk as a pure breed, and the
importance of the new breeds,
partly as pure bred flocks, but more significantly for providing new
blood to produce fast growing,
more meaty sheep when crossed with the native breed.
John Sheail, The
agricultural pollution of
watercourses: the
precedents set by the beet-sugar and milk industries, pp
31-43
Abstract
The inter=war years were an important period in the development of an
institutional and research
response to pollution issues. The paper focuses on the problems arising
from the newly-established beet-
sugar factories and the increasingly centralized milk-handling and
-processing industries. Through
research and development, it proved possible to accommodate the
otherwise wholly welcome developments
in rural enterprise, without incurring the risk of serious pollution to
the nearby watercourses.
Kosmas Tsokhas, British
economic warfare in the
Far East and the
Australian wool industry, pp 44-59
Abstract
Historians have claimed that the British government was able to
mobilize the economic resources of
the empire during the Second World War. Further, it has been suggested
that this helped the British
to hold the line against the Axis, and with the involvement of the
United States and the Soviet Union,
to eventually defeat Italy, Germany, and Japan. However a protracted
conflict occurred between the
Australian and British governments over the use to be made of
Australian wool. Australia considered
its wool a commercial product to be sold for a satisfactory price,
while the British saw it as a strategic
raw material to be used in economic warfare. The Australians were
united in their negotiations with
the British over what was for them an extremely important matter. For
their part the British regarded
Australian wool as just one of many issues on the policy agenda. The
British government purchased
the Australian wool clip in order to ensure its own supply, to deny
wool to Germany, and to use it in
negotiations with Japan and the United States. Their ability to do so
was limited by Australian
commercial and strategic objectives. In particular, the British wanted
to influence Japanese foreign
policy by withholding wool, whereas the Australians were concerned to
appease Japan and to earn
profits by selling wool to Japan. In the process, any illusions of
imperial unity dissipated and a
compromise based on economic and strategic interests and perceptions
resulted.
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on agrarian history, 1991, pp 71-81
R W Hoyle, Recent work in East Anglian agrarian history, autumn conference 1992, pp 82-83
E J T Collins, Rural trade and industry, winter conference
1992, pp
84-85
41.2 (1993)
W M Mathew, Marling in
British agriculture: a
case of partial
identity, pp 97-110
Abstract
Marling has usually been viewed by British historians either as a
practice of no clearly identifiable purpose,
or as an exercise designed to add body to light softs. It has also been
presented as a crude, ancient affair,
largely irrelevant to modern fanning. The suggestion here is that it
perfonned important chemical
functions, and that these - most notably the reduction of soft acidity
and the attendant liberation of plant
nutrients - gave it an important role in improved farming through to
the nineteenth century, terminal
obsolescence only setting in as supplies of cheaply transportable lime
became increasingly available.
Michael Toch, Hauling away in late medieval Bavaria: the economics of inland transport in an agrarian market, pp 111-123
Abstract
Using the mid-fourteenth-century accounts of the Bavarian monastery of
Scheyern (to the north of
Munich), the article scrutinizes the way late medieval landlords went
about the organization of transport.
Most intricate were the arrangements for the yearly recurring ventures
sent into the Southern Tyrol to
purchase, cart, and ship home the excellent vintages of Latin wine. For
most of the relay route, hired
can'iers were employed, but one stage was turned over to tenants owing
the monastery carting services.
Other transport needs nearer home made for less complicated
arrangements, using a mix of hired labour,
permanent servants, and the monastery's own rolling stock and beasts.
No attempts were made to improve
the technological level of transport, relying instead on a very
flexible organization of monetary and labour
resources attuned to local circumstances.
Abstract
Evidence of settlement contraction in the form of earthworks marking
abandoned house sites is to be
found throughout England, yet the tinting and causes of village
shrinkage have received only limited
attention from historians. This article explores the extent of
settlement contraction in the East Riding of
Yorkshire between the mid-seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries.
Nationally this was a period when
population stagnation coincided with urban expansion suggesting
widespread rural depopulation. Using
detailed documentary material relating to individual setdements, the
possible causes of contraction are
explored, and a link between landownership patterns and contraction is
established.
Graham Rogers, Custom and common right: waste land enclosure and social change in west Lancashire, pp 137-154
Abstract
The focus of this study is waste land enclosure in south-west
Lancashire and particularly its impact on
the social structure of one village, Croston. It takes the view that
northern rural communities, especially
in the pre-industrial period, have largely escaped the attention of
historians. It borrows from the wider
context of a shift of emphasis in enclosure history towards the
significance of waste and common in the
enclosure process as a whole. Further, this article takes the view
that, until recently, we have underestimated
the presence and tenacity of a mainly subsistence stratum in rural
communities, the strength of their
attachment to rights of commoning, and the depth of popular opposition
everywhere to the erosion of
those rights through the enclosure process. Villagers in west
Lancashire did not possess an immunity from
that process. Their experience deserves as much attention as
communities in the traditional rural heartlands
of the midlands and southern counties. This is a small contribution
towards correcting the balance.
Simon Moore, The real 'Great Betrayal': Britain and the Canadian cattle crisis of 1922, pp 155-168
Abstract
Agriculture emerged from the First World War facing the problems of a
drastically expanded and largely
urban electorate, the decline of the traditional landowning class, with
a greater political dependence on
the inexperienced National Farmers Union. Meanwhile, the closer working
relations with Government,
embodied in the price and wage guarantees of the I92O Agriculture Act,
implied that a new era of
agrarian policy had arrived. The repeal of those guarantees in I92I,
now remembered as the 'Great
Betrayal' - a classic symbol of State neglect - attracted little
opposition from the NFU or parliamentarians.
The contested removal of the ban on Canadian cattle imports reveals
more about agriculture's political
weakness. The crisis demonstrated a firnl Government commitment to
urban priorities and exposed
differences among agriculturists. In its intensity, scale and
consequences, the Canadian cattle crisis was in
political ternas a more serious 'Great Betrayal' than the Agriculture
Act's repeal.
Abstract
Tithes represented a tenth of the natural increase of the produce of
the soft paid by farmers to support
the established church in the parishes of England and Wales.
Traditionally, tithes were paid in kind,
although in many parishes, some or all of them could be paid in money.
The I826 Tithe Commutation
Act commuted all tithes in kind and customary money payments and
substituted a fluctuating money
payment known as a tithe rent-charge, which was to adjusted each year
on the basis of the seven-year
average price of wheat, barley, and oats. Since there is no direct
method of measuring agricultural
production before 1866, this value of rent-charge has the potential to
be a useful measurement of
agricultural output. The paper investigates the advantages, potentials,
and problems associated with this
source of data, using tithe material from Dorset as a case study.
I Ward, The humble response of the hired lackey - a reply to Hoyle, pp 176-178
R W Hoyle, Further comments on Dr Ward and the 'Rental policy of the English peerage, 1649-60', pp 179-180
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history 1992, pp 181-185
Dan Byford, Conference report, spring conference 1993, pp
186-187
42.1 (1994)
M A Atkin, Land use and
management in the
upland demesne of the De
Lacy estate of Blackburnshire c 1300, pp
1-19
Abstract
This paper attempts to reconstruct the patterns of seasonal land
management in the granges, forest vaccaries
and central 'pools' of the earl of Lincoln's Ightenhill demesnes in
upland Lancashire. Two of the estate's
Michaelmas accounts survive, dating to a period now seen as a watershed
between the prosperous 'High
Farming' period of the thirteenth century and the 'Crisis years' of the
first quarter of the next. This
relatively remote estate was geared to a cash economy, and the products
were such as could well be
produced under local conditions of climate, terrain and transport.
Susanna Wade Martins and Tom Williamson, Floated water-meadows in Norfolk: a misplaced innovation, pp 20-37
Abstract
While the unportance of irrigated meadows in Wessex and the West
Country has long been appreciated,
their development outside this area has received little attention. This
article shows that water-meadows
were almost unknown in eastern England before the late eighteenth
century. A nmnber of extensive
systems were then established, mainly by men associated with improving
aristocratic landlords like Thomas
William Coke. Most of these systems were, however, abandoned at a
relatively early date. The reasons
why the technique of floating was adopted in this late and limited way
outside its western heartland are
discussed, together with some of the implications this has for our
understanding of the spread of innovations
during the period of the 'Agricultural Revolution'
Abstract
In this article, the unpublished manuscript 'Elements of Agriculture'
by the earth scientist James Hutton
(I726-1797) is analysed to review both its content and its contextual
significance in relation to contemporary
knowledge on agricultural science in eighteenth-century Scotland.
Examination of Hutton's agricultural
manuscript shows him to have linked his geological and individual
fanning interests with matters of
Scotland's husbandry. His work was part also of that improvement
culture within eighteenth-century
Scotland which sought to understand agricultural practice through
science and to transform the agrarian
economy through subjecting it, like the science on which it was based,
to the test of 'rational principles'.
The idea of continuing fertility and repair is seen to be essential to
his geological Theory of the Earth and
his a priori reasoning in the 'Elements of Agriculture'.
Abstract
This essay is essentially a 'polemic' concerned to look critically at
who literally worked the land of Britain
in the nineteenth century. Looking at England, Scotland, Ireland and
Wales it argues that small family
producers -- that is peasants -- make up a far larger part of the
agricultural workforce than has previously
been ar~maed. This is true both of their work on their own holdings and
of their work as migrants.
Similarly it is argued that farm servants form a much more important
part of the total British agricultural
labour force than most work would suggest. Taken together throughout
Britain these two groups are
actually larger than the supposedly 'normal' landless farm labourer.
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on agrarian history, 1992, pp 63-73
Peter Edwards, Work in progress, pp 74-80
John R Walton, Conference report: 'Agriculture and the landscape', winter conference 1993, p 81
Richard Perren, Obituary: Lord Murray of Newhaven, KCB
(1903-1993),
p 82
42.2 (1994)
Jan Titow, Lost rents,
vacant holdings and the
contraction of
peasant cultivation after the Black Death, pp 97-114
Abstract
In the post-Black Death Winchester account roils the information on
lost rents and vacant holdings is
unusually detailed. This enables us to see how the recorded totals were
computed; the results are striking.
Careful analysis of the information provided makes it clear that the
recorded totals are not what they are
said to be. In fact, they represent the balance between the lost rents
sensu stricto and any income which
was obtained from the vacant holdings in other ways. Furthermore, this
paper argues that the money
obtained from vacant holdings came from the peasants who, therefore,
nmst have exploited them in some
profitable way and, thus, such holdings cannot be automatically equated
with unused land. Apart from
telling its own story, the Winchester evidence may have a lesson for
other estates as well: it provides a
warning that reliance on the recorded totals alone could be greatly
misleading, for the ostensible situation
with regard to lost rents and vacant holdings on such estates could be
as far removed from the actual
reality as it is for the Winchester estates.
M J Huggins, Thoroughbred breeding in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire in the nineteenth century, pp 115-125
Abstract
The article provides a case study of the operation of the thoroughbred
horse breeding industry in the
North and East Ridings of Yorkshire during the nineteenth century as a
first step towards its analysis at
a national level. It analyses the changing theoretical underpinning of
thoroughbred breeding practice and
shows its relationship to changes in demand from the racing cormnunity.
During the century the breeding
industry changed from the predominantly part-time activity of famlers,
racehorse trainers, innkeepers and
gentry to an activity increasingly donfinated by larger stud farms and
stud companies. Breeding could be
carried on through the keeping of both stallions and brood mares, and
changes and continuities are both
identified in temas of the key places where stallions were based, of
breeding costs in relation to stallions,
mares, yearlings and foals, of general stud organization, of the roles
of stud-grooms and stable grooms,
and of the selling of stock through private treaty and auction means.
Although conclusions are tentative,
it would appear that only a minority of studs made a profit; although
many others believed they had but
failed to take sufficient account of depreciation in their accounting
procedures.
John Stewart, The political economy of agrarian education: England in the late nineteenth century, pp 126-139
Abstract
Debates over the provision of education to the children of the
agricultural labouring class in the late
nineteenth century display concerns not only about education itself,
but also about such matters as labour
supply, and cultural and political change. Farmers in the eastern
countries in particular were, for example,
determined to resist any educational or labour measures which nfight
interrupt the supply of child labour
at times of peak demand, such as harvest. Education was also seen by
such farmers as an example of
'outside' interference in agricultural affairs. A measure such as the
I873 Agricultural Children Act therefore
proqides a useful focus for debates and concerns over agrarian change.
H D Clout, Rural revival in Marne, 1914-1930, pp 140-155
Abstract
In 1918 Reims stood in ruins and was surrounded by devastated
countryside. The impact of destruction
in Marne département may be classified into four
zones, of which
the 'red zone' was the most seriously
damaged. In wartime military forces and voluntary organizations, such
as the Quakers, worked to restore
farmland, repair buildings, and provide temporary shelters. Their
example was enmlated by the state's
special Sewices in the early years of peace. By 1921-22 this emergency
phase was overtaken by the
recovery phase in which attention was devoted to providing permanent
accommodation for returnees.
Cooperative reconstruction societies played an important role in this
activity. Villages and farmsteads were
repaired or completely rebuilt in more modem and hygienic fashion, but
the opportunity for radical
remodelling of the countryside was not seized. Damaged vineyards on the
Montagaae de Reims were
restored Rural landownership patterns were recreated in the pre-war
fashion; very little plot consolidation
occurred. Sections of the 'red zone' were too seriously devastated to
be brought back into cultivation,
despite protests from local farmers. Such areas were allocated for
military training. In many respects, rural
revival in Marne involved re-inventing the structures of the past
rather than fashioning a new future in
the countryside.
Malcolm Thick, Comment: Sir Hugh Plat and the chemistry of marling, pp 156-157
Michael Turner, Review article: common property and property in common, pp 158-162
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history 1993, pp 163-167
Raine Morgan, Supplement to the bibliography of theses on British agrarian history: 1987-92, pp 168-185
John Broad, Conference report: spring conference 1994, pp
186-187
43.1 (1995)
Barry Harrison, Field
systems and demesne
farming on the Wiltshire
estates of Saint Swithun's Priory, Winchester, 1248-1340, pp
1-16
Abstract
Manorial compoti are used to describe the demesne agriculture of
Winchester Cathedral Priory on its
chalkland manors in Wihshire between I248 and I340. The demesnes are
found to have been operated
largely within the two-field systems of the viUs even where, at first
sight, the use of independent furlongs
seems to be suggested. The disadvantages of this system were partly
offset by the priory's near monopoly
of pasture, hay and timber resources, as well as by the absence of
sub-manors and freeholds. Nevertheless,
productivity is found to be low - although no lower than on other
demesnes in the same district - but
some evidence of intensification through the use of legumes and
relatively high stocking ratios has been
found for certain cereals on a few manors where market sale rather than
monastic supply was the main
object of arable farming
Abstract
Based on three long sets of farm accounts, this article examines the
records of hire of 130 male and female
servants to evaluate changes in contractual arrangements and in rates
and methods of payment, and to
consider commercial integration of hired labour and, by extension,
financial agreements between employer
and employee by assessing the nature and cost of items acquired by
workers and set against their wages.
The survey revealed distinct changes over time in the ways in which
workers were hired and paid,
apparent in the growing distinctions in the conditions offered to
individual workers and, significantly, to
male and female workers, suggesting that employers sought to maximize
returns on labour through the
imposition of increasingly money-defined and time-specific terms and
conditions of service. Examination
of items set against wages not only informed an inventory of material
possession and purchase but also
stressed the degree to which paid work was used to fund independent
economic activity; while the
transfer of debt and obligations between individuals highlighted both
the role of employers and the
perception of the family as an economic unit in enabling and
underwriting a variety of commercial and
financial transactions.
Abstract
Writings on enclosure after I7OO often concentrate largely on the
parliamentary movement, and any
discussion of non-parliamentary aspects tends to ignore the distinction
between the different processes
involved. Amounts and types of land are rarely specified with any
precision. An extensive survey of
Hampshire casts some light on the progress of enclosure by formal
agreement, one specific type of nonparliamentary
enclosure. It is shown that this type of enclosure occurred more
frequently and covered
more land than previously thought, forming a testing ground for
techniques employed by parliamentary
act. Estimates are given, from the statistics collected, for the
acreage involved, and the types of land are
shown. The temporal and spatial distribution of formal agreement
enclosure is analysed, and a comparison
with the extent of parliamentary enclosure is made. Finally, the
importance of piecemeal enclosure in
Hampshire is highlighted
Richard Moore-Colyer, Aspects of horse breeding and the supply of horses in Victorian Britain, pp 47-60
Abstract
The draft power and hauling capacity of the horse remained of
fundamental importance to the economy
and defence of Victorian Britain. This article seeks to examine various
aspects of the supply of horses in
the Victorian era. It shows, moreover, that lack of attention to
selection in the female line resulted in
both a quantitative and qualitative shortages in the supply of some
categories of horses, while overseas
exports substantially depleted stocks of breeding animals for
agriculture, trade and the Army. Shortage of
supply and inefficient purchasing arrangements threatened the
continuity of army remounts, and various
official agencies, prompted by German successes in the Franco-Prussian
War of I870-1, reviewed the
situation. The reports of the House of Lords committee of 1873 and
subsequently of the R.oyal Commission
on Horse Breeding of 1888 were little more than platitudinous and
refused to recommend government
involvement in equine improvement, despite the efforts of continental
counterparts in this direction.
However, the establishment of the Remount Department as a special
branch of the Army in 1887 brought
about qualitative improvements in military horses, as did the various
stallion improvement schemes and
premium arrangements put into motion by the Royal Agricultural Society,
the Hunters Improvement
Society and other official bodies. These were aimed at the generality
of horses and laid the basis for
twentieth-century licensing arrangements. By the beginning of that
century, however, Britain was a net
importer of horses and was to remain so for the next three decades.
Richard Anthony, Farm servant vs agricultural labourer, 1870-1914: a commentary on Howkins, pp 61-64
Alun Howkins, Farm servant vs agricultural labourer, 1870-1914: a reply to Richard Anthony, pp 65-66
John Langdon, Review article: city and countryside in medieval England, pp 67-72
Raine Morgan, Annual list and brief review of articles on agrarian history, 1993, pp 73-89
John R Walton, Conference report: 'Social relationships in the
countryside', winter conference 1994, p 90
43.2 (1995)
J A Chartres, Market
integration and
agricultural output in
seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and early nineteenth-century England,
pp
117-138
Abstract
Discussions of English agricultural change in the long eighteenth
century imply significant changes in
levels of market integration, and the capacity of farmers to respond
clearly to the price signals available
in the market. The present speculative paper reviews the empirical
evidence for growing market integration
over this long period, and raises questions over the ways in which the
mercantile and transport changes
that underpinned it may have facilitated farmers' reaUocation of
resources to more productive ends. It
attempts to link English price evidence, relatively poor by comparison
with that of its European neighbours
for much of the period, to changing market opportunities, to which it
attributes much of the significant
growth of farm output before the period of major technical innovation
after 1820.
Abstract
This article examines the procedures under the settlement laws which
produced the eighteenth-century
settlement documents now in parish archives. The article uses the
evidence of procedure in the application
of the settlement laws to argue that parish officers applied these laws
in order to regulate and monitor
immigration to their parish. So, this article argues against the
hypothesis that the settlement laws were
applied just to the unemployed and those in need of poor relief.
Indeed, it presents evidence that, before
1795, parish officers applied the settlement laws to many men just
because they were living in a parish
which was not their parish of settlement.
E H Hunt and S J Pam, Essex agriculture in the 'Golden Age', 1850-73, pp 160-177
Abstract
By investigation of agriculture in one county, Essex, this paper
reviews broader debate on farm incomes,
investment, medmds, and output during the so-called 'golden age'. In
several respects, particularly the
extent of investment and 'high farming', the Essex experience offers
scant support for traditional interpretations.
Landlords' and farmers' response to price changes receives particular
attention. It is argued that
Essex farming was characterized by continuity in methods and output:
milk and meat production in 1873
were scarcely less subservient to corn than they had been in 185o. But
there were good reasons why this
was so.
John Sheail, Elements of sustainable agriculture: the UK experience, 1840-1940, pp 178-192
Abstract
As an illustration of the value of an historical context in appraising
contemporary issues in rural managernent,
the paper cites evidence of a concern for sustainable farming during
the period I84O-I94O, as
revealed in the 'expert' guidance offered on the general topics of high
farnfing, the gassing down of
land, specialization, and land utilization. For the most part, the
challenge was not so much to find general
panaceas, but rather to pursue those fornls of husbandry most suited to
the mosaic of local conditions
encountered in each part of the countryside.
Linda Crust, William Paddison: marsh farmer and survivor of the agricultural depression, 1873-96, pp 193-204
Abstract
William Paddison was born in Lincolnshire in 1839 and farmed in the
marsh area throughout the
agricultural depression at the end of the nineteenth century. He rose
from small beginnings to a holding
of I00 acres and rode out the depression to emerge in a prosperous
state. This paper evaluates the reasons
for his success in difficult times and comments on the peasant as a
survivor and on Paddison's handling
of labour. Primary sources used are Paddison's own diaries and business
papers. Paddison seemed to be
the right man in therfight place at the right time doing the right
things but, at the time, he did not know
this and his success was not evident until the depression was over.
Thirsk has regretted that the annals of
such men as Paddison are generally unrecorded: this paper starts to
redress the lack of extant evidence of
the business methods of medium-sized farmers.
V J Morris and D J Orton, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history, 1994, pp 205-209
J A Chartres, Conference report: spring conference 1995, pp 210-211
44.1 (1996)
MARK OVERTON Re-establishing
the English
Agricultural Revolution p.1
Abstract
This paper makes a case for re-establishing the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries as a crucial
period of agricultural advance in England worthy of the description
'agricultural revolution'. It therefore
counters the stream o f claims made since the I96OS that developments
in earlier centuries were o f more
significance. The two key indicators of progress are taken to be,
first, an unprecedented increase in
agricultural output brought about by an equally unprecedented increase
in land productivity, and, second,
an unprecedented increase in labour productivity which was a necessary
corollary to industrialization.
New evidence is presented to demonstrate that these changes were mainly
a feature o f the period from
i75o , and, although the seventeenth century was not devoid o f
developments in agricultural technology,
it was not until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth that these
and other developments came to
fruition in an 'agricultural revolution'.
M E TURNER J V BECKETT and B AFTON
Taking Stock:
Farmers, Farm Records,
and Agricultural Output in England, 1700-1850 p.21
Abstract
The authors take up Patrick O'Brien's challenge of twenty years ago to
introduce into agricultural history
some hard data on production and output. They present the findings of a
pilot project of the availability
of farm records for the period 1700-1835. The introduction restates the
challenge, after which the paper
falls into three main parts and a conclusion. Part one is a brief
sunmaary of the current progress in assessing
specific aspects of farm production, output, and productivity over the
long eighteenth century; part two
sunmaarizes the survival rate of English 6ann records from I700-I835;
and part three is a sensitivity analysis
of the value of these records. The conclusion reformulates the
challenge into a realistic wider project to
open up the hidden data of English agricultural production.
DAVID EASTWOOD Communities, Protest
and Police in
early
Nineteenth-Century Oxfordshire: The Enclosure of Otmoor Reconsidered
p.35
Abstract
This paper revisits the violent and protested riots which followed the
enclosure of Otmoor in Oxfordshire.
The redistribution of property rights attended upon enclosure united
local conmmnities in protest,
fostering social solidarities which transcended class divisions. In
order to contain the disturbances magistrates
were forced to experiment with new methods of policing. The article
suggests that, where enclosure
intruded new notions of property rights into conmmnities where
traditional entitlements were extensive
and widely valued, new patterns of economic allocation would require
new police powers to make
them work.
ALAN R H BAKER Farm Schools in Nineteenth-Century France and the Case
of La Charmoise, 1847-1865 p.47
Abstract
After reviewing briefly the development of agricultural education in
France as a whole during the
nineteenth century, this paper examines in detail the history of one
farm school (La Charmoise) which
operated in the Sologne, near the Loire valley town of Blois, in the
mid-nineteenth century. The creation
of the school is shown to have owed much both to the general context of
government encouragement
of agricultural education and to the specific enthusiasm of its
founder, Edouard Malingi6, who was
strongly committed both to a scientifically and economically rational
agriculture and to an active,
benevolent Christianity. Examination of the functioning of the school
is followed by an assessment of its
impact. While the school was widely perceived by contemporaries as
being both very useful and successful,
consideration of the recruitment and retention of pupils, of staffing,
and of the school's financial position
indicates that the school had both weaknesses of which contemporaries
appear to have been unaware and
problems which they were reluctant to acknowledge. The farm school
functioned for only eighteen years
and its impact was probably not as great as contemporaries thought. It
was, nonetheless, one noteworthy
component of Malingi6's wide-ranging activities as an agricultural
improver, which became famous
internationally because of his production of a new, fixed breed of
sheep, the Charmoise, based in part
upon imported pure New Kent rams.
PAUL BRASSLEY Silage in
Britain, 1880-1990:
The Delayed Adoption
of an Innovation p.63
Abstract
Silage is now the most common way for grass to be conserved as winter
fodder. It has become so only
within the last twenty years, but this is the culmination of a process
which has been going on since about
1880 in Britain. The technique was introduced into this country from
continental Europe in the early
1880s, and generated much interest in the wet summers of that decade,
to the point where official reports
were written upon it and detailed statistics collected which make it
possible to assess the extent of its
penetration into general fainting practice. Thereafter interest
dwindled for twenty years, to be revived
during and after the First World War, and especially during the Second
World War. From the I94Os
onwards it is possible to make estimates of national production, which
demonstrate gradual adoption until
the I970s, when the rate of adoption increased dramatically. The
technical and economic changes which
produced these wanings and w,xxings of interest in silage are
discussed, and the conclusions which can be
drawn from this case study for the adoption of innovations in
agriculture are considered. The most
important point to emerge
RAINE MORGAN Annual List of Articles on Agrarian History, 1994 p.88
44.2 (1996)
BRUCE M S CAMPBELL, KENNETH
C BARTLEY and JOHN
P POWER The
Demesne-Farming Systems of Post-Black Death England: A Classification
p.131
Abstract
What was the character of English demesne-farming systems in the half
century or so after the Black
Death and how does this compare with their character before? Data from
three major samples of accounts
(representing Norfolk, a ten-county area around London, and the country
as a whole) are analysed in an
attempt to answer this question. To clarify developments demesnes are
classified into seven basic types,
replicating the methodology used to develop an equivalent typology for
the earlier period. The same
methodology is also used to test the relative merits of regionally-
versus nationally-derived classifications,
with the latter being shown to possess significant advantages over the
former. Each of the resultant seven
national farming types is both mapped and described and the paper
concludes with a consideration of
what their configuration reveals about the changing agricultural
geography of England in this post-plague
era of population decline and economic contraction.
NICHOLAS GODDARD A Contrast
in Style: An
Appreciation of Two
Victorian Agricultural Journalists p.180
Abstract
Henry Corbet (1820-1878) and John Chalmers Morton (1821-1888) were two
of the leading agricultural
journalists of early and mid-Victorian England. They held influential
positions as, respectively, editors of
the Mark Lane Express and the Agricultural Gazette, and both men
participated in a diverse range of
additional agricultural activities. While they shared some common
objectives and beliefs, their writing
and agricultural stances exhibited a marked contrast in style and of
values. This article examines the
viewpoints that they presented to their readers and reviews some of the
issues which dominated their
careers and positions within the Victorian agricultural community.
BETHANIE AFTON The Great
Agricultural
Depression on the English
Chalklands: The Hampshire Experience p.191
Abstract
This paper considers the response o f those fainting one of the more
vulnerable ecosystems, the English
chalklands, to the dramatic fall in prices during the Great
Agricultural Depression of the late nineteenth
century. It particularly looks at the Hampshire Downs where the regime
which had evolved over the
previous decades provides an example of mixed farming at its best. By
fully realizing the potential of the
system, farmers successfully shifted production to target a number of
protected, high-value, marketing
niches. At the same time, the integrity of the land was maintained
through sustainable, husbandlike
cultivation. While this system has been all but ignored by modem
historians, it was amongst the most
intensive of all English mixed farming regimes.
DALE R LIGHTFOOT The Nature,
History and
Distribution of Lithic
Mulch Agriculture: An Ancient Technique of Dryland Agriculture
p.206
Abstract
The mulching of agricultural fields and gardens with stones, pebbles,
cinder and similar lithic materials is
a variant agricultural strategy that has been used to evade drought and
increase crop yield for more than
a thousand years in the Old and New Worlds. Lithic mulch agriculture
(LMA) is uniquely suited to the
constraints of dryland environments, yet its use has remained confined
both spatially and temporally.
Prehistoric and contemporary LMA cases are synthesized and treated as a
taxonomically discrete form of
agriculture. This serves to alert scholars to the possibility of LMA at
other historic sites.
V J MORRIS List of Books and Pamphlets on Agrarian History, 1995 p.223
45.1 (1997)
Phillipp R Schofield Dearth,
Debt and the Local
Land Market in a
Late Thirteenth-Century Village Community p.1
Abstract
The main focus o f this paper is the response o f the peasantry to
harvest failure in the Suffolk manor o f
Hinderclay in the late thirteenth century. Using manorial court rolls
and ministers' account rolls, as well
as the 1283 lay subsidy assessment, annual fluctuations i n the
transfer o f land are compared w i t h local,
regional , and national grain price movements. The working assumption
that land transfers increased as
grain prices rose and that this reflected a rush to the market by
sellers, desperate to exchange land for
cash and goods, has been tested by searching the court rolls for
possible ' m o t i v e ' . As a result, the crisis
sales have been set within the context o f the withdrawal o f credit in
years o f bad harvest; in particular,
the possibility that excessive taxation in the I29Os caused creditors
to withdraw their loans and invest in
land is mooted. Withdrawal of credit from poorer villagers, especially
in the last decade o f the thirteenth
century, meant that an added effect o f taxation was to remove the
support o f credit at a time when it
may have been most needed.
Andrew Watkins Landowners
and their Estates in
the Forest of Arden
in the Fifteenth Century p.18
Abstract
This paper studies the evolution of the seignorial economy in forest of
Arden during the fifteenth century.
This was a wood pasture area, whose resident landlords were mainly
lesser peers, gentry, and smaller
religious houses. In contrast to other areas in the later Middle Ages,
where direct demesne exploitation
by the lord was abandoned in favour of the leasing out, the Arden
demesnes and their management were
adapted to the particular circumstances of the fifteenth century to
create home farms, while other manors
were involved in conmaercial cereal cultivation, livestock raising, and
generating cash from the woodland
and industrial resources of the estate.
Roger Wells Mr William
Cobbett, Captain Swing,
and King William IV
p.34
Abstract
This article attributes a powerful role to political factors in the
Captain Swing Revolt during the autumn
of 1830. If that rising took place in a context generated by the
prolonged post-war agricultural depression,
the continental revolutions over the summer were well-known throughout
Kent and Sussex not least
owing to William Cobbett's journalism and his October south-eastern
lecture tour. The latter further
fuelled the spectre unleashed by the revolutions, antipathy to
WeUington's failure to address agrarian
distress, and his refusal to accept public conviction in the necessity
for constitutional change. His stance
precipitated the collapse of his ministry in November and its
replacement by Grey's Whig-dominated
Cabinet pledged to reform the Commons. Faced with rural insurrection at
the moment of his accession
to power, Home Secretary Melbourne intensified the repression of Swing.
A complex series of interlocking
events, including the conviction of a Sussex arsonist, his alleged
motivation through attending a Cobbett
lecture, and Cobbett's commentary on the revolt in his Political
Register, combined to determine the
Cabinet on a prosecution for seditious libel. But others came into that
decision-making process, among
them Tory politicians anxious to ernbarass the Whigs, Tory Sussex
magistrates who encouraged the
incendiary's claims and through lobbying William IV at Brighton
Pavilion, persuaded the king to exert
pressure on his ministers to prosecute. Given Grey's need for royal
support over reform, the Cabinet was
unable to resist. The trial facilitated a superb self-defence, support
from Cobbett's ardent admirers in rural
Sussex, and a triumphant acquittal.
Stephen Caunce Farm Servants
and the
Development of Capitalism in
English Agriculture p.49
Abstract
In a recent issue of the Review, Alun Howkins argued that the
traditional analysis of British agriculture
througli the tripartite structural model of landlord/tenant/labourer is
fatally flawed because large numbers
of small farmers and farm servants blurred the supposedly sharp
dividing lines between the categories. It
is argued here that English farm servants were in recent times
associated with highly capitalistic farming,
and that most of the individuals involved did not identify strongly
with the farmers who employed them.
Most would spend their lives as landless labourers, and they knew it.
Moreover, both the origins and
development of farm service seem to be part of the spread of capitalism
throughout the economy, rather
than the survival of peasant agriculture. Both the legal history of
servants' employment contracts and their
role as the only permanent paid labour on early modern farms support
this contention. The spread of
casual labour in the nineteenth century in the south of England has
obscured this fact, given the general
perception that the southern experience was the norm and that other
experiences were deviant. The
general perception of servant contracts as inherently oppressive arises
from the same source and is shown
to be equally wrong. To remove servants as a group from the landless
labourer class is thus unjustifiable,
and even though a correct understanding of their real nature does
destroy the stark simplicity of the old
tripartite model, it does not remove its basic strength in helping to
understand the roots of change in
agriculture.
Stephen Hussey 'The Last
Survivor of an Ancient
Race': The Changing
Face of Essex Gleaning p.61
Abstract
Past authors have identified the early twentieth century as the point
at which gleaning finally vanished
from the lives and labour of the rural working-class. This paper seeks
to re-position this decline, placing
its disappearance forward some forty or fifty years to the decades
following the Second World War.
However, gleaning did not simply continue unchanged into the twentieth
century, as the customary
practices that had once accompanied it now became obsolete. The paper
examines the reasons for the
continued use of gleanfing, its changed form, and places the decline of
its customary practice within a
wider context of changes occurring in rural popular culture at this
time.
Nessy Allen The Contribution
to Agricultural
Research of an
Australian Woman Scientist p.73
Abstract
Agricultural science was not a discipline often followed by young women
in Australia in the r93os. An
exception was Yvonne Aitken who specialized in the adaptation of
agricultural species to climate through
flowering responses. Encouraged by her mentor, Aitken stayed at the
University of Melbourne after her
graduation to work on her Master's degree. For several years thereafter
she continued with her research
on subterranean clover. Appointed to the full-time staff in the
mid-I950s, she spent the rest of her
working life at the university. Her work covered many continents and
many climates: in the early r96os
she made a systematic study of temperature and daylength in early- and
late-flowering varieties of nine
agricultural species; in the early I970s she began a breeding programme
on maize, a programme she is
still continuing nineteen years after her official retirement. Her
achievement was to help plant scientists
in selecting more rapidly varieties of a desired species with the
appropriate growing period to match a
specific climate in temperate or tropical zones.
Janet Collett Annual List of Articles on Agrarian History, 1995 p.86
45.2 (1997)
E I Newman and P D A Harvey
Did Soil
Fertility Decline in
Medieval English Farms? Evidence from Cuxham, Oxfordshire, 1320-1340
p.19
Abstract
It has been suggested that during the century before the Black Death
the fertility of the soil on English
farms was declining, leading to decreased food production and increased
mortality. We here estimate
nutrient balances for a manorial demesne, to determine whether the
nutrient status of the soil was
declining. We calculate the losses of nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium in the produce during I32O-I34O,
using information from the demesne accounts. The main inputs of
phosphorus and potassium would be
fi'om weathering of rock; these would probably have been enough to
balance the losses of potassium but
not of phosphorus. Potential inputs and non-produce losses of nitrogen
are so large that we cannot say
whether the demesne was in balance for nitrogen. The paper thus points
to phosphorus as the key element
likely to have led to falling soil fertility at this time.'
Michael Freeman Whichwood
Forest,
Oxfordshire: An
Episode in its Recent
Environmental History p.37
Abstract
Much writing on the social ecology of English forests has been cast in
isolation from their evolving natural
ecologies. Using evidence from Whichwood Forest in Oxfordshire, it is
demonstrated that social and
natural ecologies were inextricably intertwined. As a wood pasture
environment, the overall traditions of
Whichwood's management and use were by no means detached from the needs
of ecological stability.
However, over the centuries, periods of lax forest regulation acted in
combination with the increasing
demands of the COlnmoning populace to effect what was eventually to
become a spiral of deterioration
in Whichwood's natural ecology. Some measure of the deterioration is
provided in studies undertaken
by ecologists in the twentieth century when parts of the forest were
placed under scientific protection.
When these studies are coupled with the documentary record of forest
use and misuse, the picture that
emerges is one of steadily increasing ecological stress. By the late
eighteenth century, Whichwood's forest
commoners faced not only the pressures of the refomfing agrarian
interest, but also the undermining of
the very ecosystem which underpinned their livelihoods.
Richard
Moore-Colyer Land
and People in
Northamptonshire: Great
Oakley, C 1750-1850 p.149
Abstract
Through the study of a single parish this article seeks to contribute
to the continuing debate surrounding
the survival of the small owner/occupier in the nineteenth-century
countryside. Within the context of a
livestock-dominated economy, open-field tenants of Great Oakley had
access to a number of enclosed
grazing pastures, together with extensive common grazing in the forest
of Kockingham, and the relative
importance of the latter is discussed in some detail. Following
enclosure in 1784 and I829 there was some
dislocation among the cottager population, yet there remained available
numerous parcels of land for the
smaller occupiers. Whereas there was a tendency for smaller freeholds
to be purchased by large landowners
before enclosure, this was by no means a prelude to dispossession,
since many of those selling held rented
land in adjacent parishes and may have viewed s,'des as a means of
releasing capital for reinvestment. If
the smaller occupier, usually employing family labour only, contributed
only modestly to the national
economy, his significance at the local level was of some importance
both from a commercM and social
standpoint.
Jeremy Burchardt
Rural Social Relations, 1830-50: Opposition
to
Allotments for Labourers p.165
Abstract
The allotment movement played an important part in rural class
relations after I83o, but its history has
been neglected. This article explores one aspect of that history,
opposition to allotments between I83O
and 1850. Opposition to allotments amongst landowners seems to have
been largely confined to those
who felt an ideological commitment to political economy. These
landowners feared, on what it is
argued were mistaken grounds, that allotments would prove economically
damaging, and in particular
that they would increase population. Opposition amongst farmers was
common, although by no means,
as some historians have supposed, universal. Farmers opposed allotments
for a variety of reasons,
principally out of a desire to keep labourers in as dependent an
economic position as possible and to
maintain a sharp status distinction between themselves and labourers.
Labourers, surprisingly, also often
opposed allotments at least on their initial introduction. This
opposition is best explained as an indication
of the depth of suspicion existing between labourers and their social
superiors at this time. The article
concludes by arguing that the existence of opposition to allotments in
this period does not afford
grounds for doubting their social benefits, but that the divergence of
opinion between farmers and
landowners over allotments contributed to a serious deterioration in
the relationship between the two
classes in this period.
Ednmnd C
Penning-Rowsell
Who 'Betrayed'
Whom? Power and Politics
in the 1920/21 Agricultural Crisis p.176
Abstract
In the sunmaer of I92I the Lloyd George government repealed the
Agriculture Act I92O, just six months
after its enactment, when faced with a seriously deteriorating economic
situation, plummeting cereal
prices, and the prospect of substantial subsidies payable under its
interventionist provisions. The act was
a continuation of a wartime and post-war policy of controlling
agriculture, and thereby protecting it in
peacetime from world competition in the interests of greater
self-sufficiency in food. The period following
I921 was the last time that free trade in agriculture was attempted in
Britain, and therefore that date
forms a watershed in British economic and social history. The sudden
move away from the control of
agriculture, in favour of laissez-faire, has since been hailed by
Whetham as 'the great betrayal' of farming.
But, if anyone, it was the farm worker who was betrayed by a secret
deal between the government and
the National Fanalers' Union which paid farmers a bounty in exchange
for their acceptance of the policy
reversal. Farml workers received nothing in compensation for the demise
of the Wages Board. The
incidents in this story show, first, the crude exercise of power by
government and its kindred interests.
They also show, secondly, the fragility of the political case for the
nurturing of agriculture at this time
and, thirdly, the major effect that the deteriorating economic
circumstances had on the way that decisions
were made.
VJ Morris List of Books and Pamphlets on Agrarian History, 1996 p.195
Whichwood Forest, Oxfordshire: An Episode in its Recent Environmental History
46.1
(1998)
Susan Scott, S R Duncan, and
C J Duncan, The
origins, interactions
and causes of the cycles in grain prices in England, 1450-1812,
pp
1-14
Abstract
Conventional time series analysis of the English wheat price series,
145O-1812, reveals a short wavelength
(period 5-6 years) and a medium wavelength (period 13-16 years) cycle
throughout this time, although
they developed strongly only at the end of the sixteenth century. The
comparable cycles revealed in the
series of oats and barley prices are strongly coherent with wheat
prices (p<<o.oI), that is the different
grain prices responded together. Multivariate analysis and time series
analysis show that the medium
wavelength oscillation in wheat prices correlates with weather
conditions: low winter and summer
temperatures are the most significant factors. Both may have a direct
effect on the growth and harvesting
of the crop, but cold winters may also have indirect effects by
establishing a generally cold spring and
summer. High winter rainfall is of secondary importance. However, the
short wavelength (period 5-6
years) cycle in wheat prices is not significantly correlated with
weather and it is suggested that it is driven
by economic factors, the short-term effects of a good or bad harvest
(autoregressive effects) and possibly
by regular epidemics of fungal pathogens of grain. The significance of
the 5-6 year oscillation in driving
corresponding mortality cycles and of producing cycles of
susceptibility which maintained the epidemics
of lethal infectious diseases is discussed.
Elizabeth Griffiths, Sir
Henry Hobart: a new
hero of Norfolk
agriculture? pp 15-34
Abstract
This article challenges the pre-eminent role attributed to west Norfolk
landowners in the late seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, and argues the case for east Norfolk
landowners and their prior contribution to
the development of Norfolk agriculture and estate management in the
seventeenth century. Their personal
involvement and sustained commitment to the idea of improvement started
in the I600s and lasted until
the end of the century. This 'century of improvement' divided into four
stages: the selection and
reorganization of properties as a pre-condition to improvement from the
I600s to the I620s; the
consolidation and expansion of estates and enterprises which lasted
until the mid-I64os; the period of
reconstruction and experimentation which followed the Civil War and
continued through the long
recession until the mid-I690s; and finally, the standardization and
simplification of estate management
which was completed by the I720s. These stages reveal the significance
of organizational, political and
cultural factors on the development of estates and agriculture. This
paper will focus on the first two
stages, and most particularly the achievements of Sir Henry Hobart of
Blickling, between1596 and I625,
who emerges as a 'new hero of Norfolk agriculture'.
P S Barnwell, An extra
dimension? Lincolnshire
farm buildings as
historical evidence, pp 35-46
Abstract
The last decade has seen a growth of interest in historic farm
buildings, but they have usually been seen
as individual structures, and in isolation from other aspects of rural
history. On the basis of a systematic
survey of entire farmsteads in part of Lincolnshire, it is here
suggested that the physical remains may
contribute to understanding agrarian conditions. It is tentatively
concluded that, if studied on a regional
basis, farmsteads may provide evidence for the local realities which
lie behind national agricultural trends
and, more especially, that systematic examination of farmsteads can
provide valuable evidence for a way
of life soon to be lost to living memory.
David Smith, The
Agricultural Research
Association, the Development
Fund, and the origins of the Rowett Research Institute, pp
47-63
Abstract
The Aberdeen Agricultural Association, later renamed the Agricultural
Research Association, was estab-
lished in I875. Relying upon donations from landowners, the Association
set up an experimental station
and laboratory, and for a few years ran an experimental farm. From the
beginning, the organization
challenged the views of agricultural scientists in England. Thomas
Jamieson, the Association's chemist,
demonstrated that insoluble phosphate was a more useful fertiliser than
had been supposed, and later
claimed to have shown that green plants could fix atmospheric nitrogen.
This lead to a bruising conflict
with the director of Rothamsted Experimental Station. In the I9I0s the
Association's work ceased after
it failed to secure a grant from the newly-formed Development
Commission. In contrast, a joint committee
of the North of Scotland College of Agriculture and Aberdeen University
obtained Development
Commission funds for an animal nutrition laboratory, and in I914
appointed John Boyd On:, a Glasgow
medical graduate, as research worker. Orr proved much more effective
than Jamieson, both in building
and using alliances with members of the agricultural science
establishment in England, and in obtaining
private funds, leading to the official opening of the 1Kowett Research
Institute, of which Orr was designated
director, in 1922.
John Bowers, Inter-war land
drainage and policy
in England and
Wales, pp 64-80
Abstract
Economic conditions in the inter-war period made field drainage
uneconomic to the farmer and, in
consequence, there was no social return on arterial investment designed
to facilitate it. Despite this, the
Ministry of Agriculture carried through a substantial programme of
arterial drainage. To achieve this it
was necessary to reform the archaic and chaotic system of drainage
administration and to overcome
opposition from the farming community to paying for its programme.
Administrative reform was consoli-
dated in the Land Drainage Act of I93o. Opposition was overcome in
three ways: by promoting land
drainage for other purposes such as the relief of unemployment and thus
tapping other sources of funding;
by widening the definition of beneficiary so as to broaden the fiscal
base; and, via loans and grants to
drainage authorities, by shifting the burden from rates to general
taxation. The programme was comple-
mented by propaganda to promote field drainage. The motivation for the
programme appears to have
been technical, stemming from the recognition that land drainage would
increase agricultural output.
This foregone output was presented as a loss to the nation despite the
fact that it was not economic to
produce it. Parallels are drawn with the post-Second World War Ministry
view that the economic
incentives facing the farmer should be manipulated so as to achieve
production that was technically possible.
Gillian Bristow, Measuring
regional variation
in farm support: Wales
and the UK, 1947-72, pp 81-98
Abstract
This article uses the Producer Subsidy Equivalent (PSE) method of
measuring farm support as a basis for
quantifying the subsidies provided in the UK as a whole and the region
of Wales between 1947 and 1972.
The results demonstrate that when expressed as a percentage of" the
value of production, the PSE was on
average higher in Wales than the UK as a whole. This was partly a
product of the spatial dimension to
UK farm policy provided in the form of hill farm subsidies. However,
market price support dominated
farm policy expenditure which, along with headage payments and
improvement grants, tied the benefits
of support to the scale of production. This penalized Wales where farm
size was smaller on average than
in the UK as a whole. Indeed, when the PSE results are expressed per
hectare and per farm they show
that hill farm subsidies were not sufficient to compensate for the
disadvantage Welsh agriculture experienced
from its smaller average farm size.
Janet Collett, Annual list of articles on agrarian history, pp 99-109
John R Walton, Conference report: 'Crime in the countryside',
winter
conference 1997, pp 110-111
46.2 (1998)
Susanna Wade Martins and Tom
Williamson, The
development of the
lease and its role in agricultural improvement in East Anglia,
1660-1870, pp 127-141
Abstract
Historians have long debated the role of the lease in agricultural
change during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. This paper examines the development of the lease
in East Anglia, and argues that it
was probably not a crucial factor in the improvement of farming in the
'agricultural revolution' period.
Husbandry prescriptions did not have a major role in encouraging the
adoption of improved methods,
and terms and conditions tell us as much about the changing
relationship between landlord and tenant as
they do about the development of fanning practice.
Michael Turner, Counting
sheep: waking up to
new estimates of
livestock numbers in England c 1800, pp
142-161
A bsh;act
Before the appearance of official basic agricultural statistics in the
1860s agricultural historians have had
relatively few estimates of the extent of farm crops and the number of
fatal animals on which to rely.
This article is concerned with farm animals. It is based on a series of
government inquiries which were
conducted from I796-I8O3, which together covered about 25 per cent of
the land area of England.
Estimates of the size of the national herds of cattle, pigs, horses,
and sheep have been constructed on the
basis of these inquiries. From this base, the article proceeds to
concentrate on the sheep estimate, which
turns out to be much smaller than the one which historians have used in
the past. A case is made for
suggesting that the recycling of old estimates, on the basis of
guesswork rather than scientific methods,
has perpetuated a myth about the size of the sheep population in c 1800.
Alastair Pearson and Peter
Collier, The
integration and analysis of
historical and environmental data using a Geographical Information
System: landownership and agricultural productivity in Pembrokeshire c
1850, pp 162-176
Abstract
Historical maps and documents, such as census returns, estate plans,
tithe maps, rent rolls and court rolls,
have traditionally provided fundamental data sources for historians.
This paper concentrates on the
integration of environmental data with such historical sources and
their subsequent analysis using a GIS.
It demonstrates that the scale and range of enquiries that are made
possible by such a methodology
increases with the application of the new tools that GIS provides.
Although the study concludes by
suggesting that the application of GIS is not itself unproblematic, it
argues that the work presented does
illustrate the potential value o f GIS in offering a new dimension to
agricultural history research.
R J Moore-Colyer, Farming in
depression: Wales
between the wars,
1919-39, pp 177-196
Abstract
This article attempts to trace the response of Welsh fanning to the
depressed conditions which prevailed,
in the main, throughout the inter-war years. As the pre-existing system
of land tenure, dominated by the
large estate, gave way to freehold occupation, the new freeholders were
obliged to come to terms with
economic conditions not markedly different from those prevailing in the
closing decades of the nineteenth
century. Whereas co-operative activity helped partially to cushion the
blow, the principal response was a
drastic reduction in arable farnaing with increasing concentration on
dairying, for which market conditions
became progressively more favourable. Even so, economic and
agricultural depression came perilously
close to damaging the fragile cultural and environmental framework of
the country, and it was only with
financial help and infi'astructural change after the Second World War
that the farnfing conmmnity returned
to some semblance of relative prosperity.
Philip Conford, A forum for
organic husbandry:
the New English
Weekly and agricultural policy, 1939-49, pp 197-210
Abstract
This article identifies the New English Weekly, a review of economic,
political and cultural issues which
ran from 1932 to 1949, as the most important publication in the
development of the British organic
husbandry movement. It defines this movement and summarizes its various
strands, including concern
about health and nutrition, rural reconstruction, de-forestation, and
the dangers of a mechanistic approach
to natural processes, all of which were to be found in the New English
Weekly. The article concentrates
on those strands most concerned with agriculture, and on the period
from the outbreak of war to the
paper's closure, a decade which saw the movement coalesce and define
its philosophy of husbandry. A
study of the New English Weekly during this period demonstrates that
all the major figures in the organic
movement could be found in its pages as it dealt with questions of
farnfing policy and food production;
the consequences of mechanization; the threat of soil erosion and
dwindling fertility; and methods of
restoring and maintaining the soil's humus content. Although the paper
was not primarily aimed at a
farming readership, many of its contributors became founder members of
the Soil Association. The years
following the New El~lish Weekly's closure saw agricultural policy
develop i,a an entirely different direction
fi'om that which it had advocated, but it had played a central role in
establishing an environmental
philosophy which would make itself heard more strongly from the 196os
onwards.
V J Morris, List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history, 1997, pp 211-214
Christine Hallas, Conference report, spring conference 1998, pp 215-216
R W Hoyle, Review article: Medieval society and the manor court, edited by Zvi Razi and Richard Smith, pp 217-219
G E Mingay, Review article: Alternative agriculture:
a history
from the Black Death to the present day, by Joan Thirsk, pp
220-222
VOLUME 47 PART I 1999
CONTENTS
ROBERT LIDDIARD The
distribution of Ridge and
Furrow in East Anglia:
ploughing practice and subsequent land use pp. 1-6
Abstract
Ridge and furrow remains a visible surviving feature of the medieval
landscape but outside of the Midland
Plain some aspects of the practice are not clearly understood. It is
the distribution of ridge and furrow
in such an area, in this case East Anglia, that is considered here.
Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire
retain relatively few examples of ridge and furrow. There is an uneven
distribution across the three
counties, despite the fact that during the medieval period, open-field
agriculture was ubiquitous. It is
argued that in the post-medieval period the majority of former
open-field land was cross-ploughed and
underdrained after enclosure, a practice that removed ridging ahnost
completely. It is concluded that
the pattern of post-medieval arable cultivation in East Anglia has
largely determined the mid-twentieth
century distribution of ridge and furrow, and that the extent of ridged
fields in the medieval period was
more widespread than has been hitherto imagined.
GUY DEJONGH New estimates of
land productivity
in Belgium, 1750-1850 pp.7-28
Abstract
Most previous studies of Belgian land productivity in the eighteenth
century have focused on the Flemish
region, notably the provinces of Brabant, East and West Flanders. The
evolution of crop yields in the
other provinces has scarcely been considered. By constructing a new
series of yield estimates for all
provinces within Belgium, this article seeks to fill an important gap
in rural historigraphy and sheds new
light on the internal dynamics of Belgian agriculture during a period
of fundamental economic change,
175o-185o. Our estimates show a noticeable increase in arable crop
yields in the southern Low Countries
in the second half of the eighteenth century. Although land
productivity responded positively to rapid
population growth and rising prices after 175o, it realised a less
marked rate of increase. The increase in
yield after ~75o can therefore not be attributed to an 'agricultural
revolution': the term 'growth acceler-
ation' seems a more appropriate description of the agricultural growth
process.
JOHN R. WALTON Varietal
innovation and the
competativeness of the
British cereals sector, 1760-1930 pp.29-57
Abstract
Varietal innovation is a neglected aspect of British agricultural
history. This paper traces the origins of
the varietal proliferation which occurred during the nineteenth century
to late-eighteenth century ad-
vances in breeding science and to the growth of international commerce
in cereals for consumption. It
has been generally assumed that, in technical terms, high farming
served the needs of cereals and livestock
production with equal effectiveness and without prejudice to their
character. In fact, this system helped
establish a drift from the cereal varieties most suitable for human
consumption to those better adapted
to livestock. The consequential changes, which varied from cereal to
cereal, form the main subject of
this paper. The paper concludes by identifying shortcomings in the
standard view that British farmers
in the late nineteenth century were the passive victims of cheap wheat
imports..
DENNIS R. MILLS Trouble with
farms at the
Census Office: an
evaluation of farm statistics from the Censuses of 1851-1881 in England
and Wales pp.58-77
Abstract
From two viewpoints this article evaluates the tables in the 1851-81
Census Reports based on farlners'
responses regarding farm size and employment. It is intended both as a
guide to the tables, and to the
strengths and limitations of the data contained in them. It also
discusses the apparent strategies of the
Census Office in relation to the wider concerns of census-taking and
the collection of agricultural
statistics. The information discussed is the most comprehensive of its
kind for the period, but needs to
be treated with considerable caution. Much of the difficulty lies in
the intention of the Census Office to
arrive empirically at a definition of'farmer' by collecting data,
rather than by taking an arbitrary definition
and applying it to the census process.
GARY MOSES Proleterian
labourers: East Riding
farm servants, c.1850-75 pp.
78-94
Abstract
In a recent 'polemic' examining the nature of the nineteenth century
rural work-force, Alun Howkins
emphasised the continued pervasiveness of peasant agriculture and farm
service. This, he suggested,
questions the legitimacy of rural historians' continued attachment to
the notion of the agricultural
proletarian as the main form of farm labour in nineteenth century
Britain. In doing so Howkins placed
all farm servants outside the category of the rural proletarian. This
article considers the validity of
this position and suggests that at least some nineteenth century farm
servants should be regarded as
proletarian labourers.
Annual list of articles on Agrarian History, 1997 JANET
COLLETT
Conference Report: The
Society's
Winter
Conference, 1998 NICHOLAS GODDARD<
VOLUME 47 PART 2 1999
JAN LUITEN VAN ZANDEN The
paradox of the Marks. The exploitation of commons in the
eastern Netherlands, 1250-1850 pp. 125-144
Abstract
The paper presents a survey of the development of the
markengenootschappen, the institutions which
governed the exploitation of the commons in the eastern Netherlands
between 1250 and 1850. It deals
with the principles which governed the management of the commons,
relates these to the 'moral economy'
of the peasants, and addresses the question of whether the marks were
able to prevent their overexploit-
ation. Finally, the division of the marks and the enclosure of the
commons in the nineteenth century is
described.
DEBORAH YOUNGS Servants and
labourers on a late
medieval demesne: the case of
Newton, Cheshire, 1498-1520 pp. 145-160
Abstract
The paper examines the relatively under-explored subject of late
medieval demesne personnel through
the example of Newton, Cheshire. Based on an unusually rich set of
accounts, the paper discusses the
contracts, tasks and wages of Newton's servants and labourers and seeks
to locate the former in relation
to established types of medieval fiunuli and early modern servants of
husbandry. The paper argues that,
in contrast to some recent historical research, the balance of power at
Newton lay with the landlord.
PAMELA SHARPE The female
labour market in
English agriculture during the
Industrial Revolution: expansion or contraction?
pp. 161-81
Abstract
This article reviews some of the recent literature on women's farm work
and adds evidence from sources
such as Marshall's Review and farm accounts to consider patterns of
expansion and contraction in the
demand for female labour from the capitalist sector of English
agriculture over the period a7oo-185o.
The amount of work available to women, the sexual division of labour
and female wage rates are discussed.
It argues that although generalizations regarding the causes of
increase or decline in female work and
wages are not easily made, the final impression is that both before and
during the Industrial Revolution,
the demand from agriculture for female labour was limited.
DAVID BROWN Reassessing the
influence of the
aristocratic improver: the example
of the fifth Duke of Bedford (1765-1802) pp.182-95
Abstract
The significance of the aristocratic improver has been questioned by
recent research which has tended
to see financial return as the sole motive for agricultural
development. This paper seeks to re-assess the
r61e of the improving landowner by offering the first modern study of
one of its leading examples, the
fifth Duke of Bedford (1765-1802). It argues that he was influential
both in his county and in the broader
development of scientific agriculture. His motivation was not financial
return but derived from the
intellectual and political environment of his time. Indeed, his policy
was doomed as it took no proper
account of return on investment and, if generally pursued by his class,
would have quickly destroyed
their é1ite position.
List of books and pamphlets on agrarian history, 1998 V. J.
MORRIS
Supplement to the bibliography of theses in British agrarian history, 1993-8 JANET COLLETT
Volume 48 Part I 2000
CONTENTS
JANE WHITTLE and MARGARET
YATES "Pays reel" ou
"pays legal"?: Contrasting patterns of land
tenure and social structure in eastern Norfolk and western Berkshire,
1450-1600 pp. 1-26
Abstract
Combining detailed studies of two contrasting regions, eastern Norfolk
and western Berkshire, this article
examines regional differences in land tenure and social structure in
the period 1450-1600. Comparing
manorial records with tax returns and probate records, it questions
whether the patterns of landholding
in the two regions were really as different as the manorial records
alone would suggest. The use
of non-manorial records also allows the relationship between manorial
administration, land tenure, the
land market, and social structure to be explored in some detail,
touching on issues such as the cost of
customary land, engrossment, sub-tenures and landlessness.
HARVEY OSBORNE The seasonality of nineteenth-century poaching pp.27-41
Abstract
Historians have generally explained the pronounced seasonal pattern of
nineteenth-century poaching in
economic terms, emphasising the apparent correlation between annual
peaks in offending and cyclical
periods of unemployment and poverty. There has been little
acknowledgement of the role nature played
in determining that most poaching activity occurred in the autumn and
winter months. This paper will
use evidence from case studies of salmon and game poaching in Victorian
Cumberland, Westmorland
and Suffolk to suggest that ecological and environmental factors played
a fundamental part in shaping
the annual pattern of offending. Poaching was a crime often linked to
poverty, but its seasonal timing
usually owed more to practical considerations concerning both the
suitability of the natural environment
for hunting and the availability, maturity and marketability of the
quarry.
R. J. MOORE-COLYER Aspects
of the trade in
British pedigree draught horses with the
United States and Canada, c.1850-1920
pp.42-59
Abstract
The transatlantic export of pedigree draught horses was part of the
extensive flow of livestock exports
to North America in the nineteenth century. This article deals with
various aspects of the organization
of the trade in Clydesdale and Shire horses, considers the origin and
destination of animals reaching the
USA and Canada, and considers some of the reasons why the initial
popularity of British breeds
evaporated in the face of importations from mainland Europe.
PAUL BRASSLEY Output and
technical change in
twentieth-century British
agriculture pp.60-84
Abstract
Previous estimates of British agricultural output in the twentieth
century have covered the period before
the Second World War, or after it, but not both. This paper reconciles
the differences between previous
estimates and goes on to calculate changes in the volume of output
between 1867 and 1985. As a result,
it is suggested that output grew more rapidly between 1945 and 1965
than during any period before
or since. Some of the reasons for this rapid growth are then examined,
and it is suggested that the rapid
adoption of pre-existing technology was of greater significance than
the technical innovations of the
period.
ALUN HOWKINS and LINDA
MERRICKS 'Dewy eyed veal
calves'. Live animal exports and middle class opinion, 1980-1995
pp.85-103
Abstract
Arguments about the treatment of animals and animal rights have become
more and more central to political
debate since the 196os. This article looks at the 'practical'
manifestation of these arguments as they emerged
in relation to the campaign to halt the live transport of farm animals
in 1994-5. The campaign is examined
against the background of changing views of animal welfare and the
movements of public opinon in
1994-5 and described through both press reports and material gathered
through the organization Mass-
Observation in the Spring of 1995. The paper argues that there was
widespread support for the campaign
and this was part of a wider, highly critical view of modern British
farming. However, opposition to
exports was based on traditional 'welfare' grounds rather than on newer
theories of animal rights.
Annual list of articles on Agrarian History,
1998
JANET COLLETT
The Society's Conference Report: Winter Conference
1999
JANE WHITTLE
Volume 48 Part II 2000
DONALD WOODWARD Early modern servants
in husbandry
revisited pp. 141-50
Abstract
The publication of Ann Kussmaul's Serva,ts itt husbandry in 1981 was a
landmark for rural history. Much
of what she revealed has stood the test of time but two areas need
further exploration. First, why did
employers continue to favour annual contracts, especially for their
younger workers? It is argued here
that the value of the arrangement lay in the availability of servants
for work 24 hours a day throughout
the year. Secondly, doubt is cast on Kussmaul's argument for the
existence of long-run swings in the
incidence of service in husbandry between the late fifteenth and the
nineteenth century.
JOHN BROAD Housing the rural
poor in southern
England 1650-1850 pp,151-70
Abstract
This article surveys local provision for the homeless poor in England
under the Old Poor Law, considering
the effects of a mobile and growing population, and the shifting basis
of village agriculture. It analyses
the types of housing available and the legal framework for provision
before focusing on the part played
by housing owned by parishes and local charities. The paper argues that
this played a significant role in
supporting the poor over much of England. It uses two sources to
estimate the scale of provision before
the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act required parishes to sell their housing
stock to pay for workhouses.
H. R. FRENCH Urban
agriculture, commons and
commoners in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the case of
Sudbury, Suffolk pp. 171-99
Abstract
Urban agriculture and town commons have been largely overlooked in the
existing literature, and have
never been systematically surveyed. This study lays out a typology of
urban commons, citing examples
fi'om across the country. It focuses on the uses and users of one urban
common, in the cloth-producing
town of Sudbury, Suffolk, between 17m-28. It details the occupational
profile of commoners, distinguishes
differences in their use of the commons, and compares them with those
freemen who did not common
animals. The study explores corporate management of this resource, in
response to economic uncertainty,
and in the context of wider urban agriculture. It concludes that the
importance of urban agriculture and
agrarian resources has been under-estimated, as has their survival and
significance into the 'modern'
period.
ELIZABETH T. HURREN
Agricultural trade unionism
and a
crusade against outdoor relief: poor law politics in the Brixworth
Union, Northamptonshire, 1870-75 pp. 200-222
Abstract
This article examines the impact of the crusade against outdoor relief
in the Brixworth Union (Nol'thamp-
tonshire), which was one of the most fervent supporters of central
government's poor law retreilchment
campaign in the late-Victorian era. The paper examines the relationship
between the origins of the crusade
against out-relief and the advent of agricultural trade unionism. It
argues that guardians of the poor in the
Brixworth Union anticipated central government's new anti-out-relief
guidelines because they wanted to make
a pre-emptive strike against trade union combination in 1871-2. This
set the stage for a very protracted and
bitter contest that was not resolved until the poor law was
democratized in the mid 1890s.
STEPHEN MATTHEWS The
administration of the
livestock
census of 1866 pp. 223-28
Abstract
This paper examines the administration of the 1866 livestock census,
drawing upon a newly discovered
collection of Inland Revenue circulars. Using these it amplifies and
corrects our previous accounts of the
exercise, showing how procedures developed as practical problems were
identified. The key figures in
the census were the Surveyors of Inland Revenue. The occupiers to whom
the census forms were to be
sent were identified by the Surveyors from the Schedule A and B books
maintained by them and it was
they who collated the returns locally. It seems that the census was
successful, but for reasons which are
unclear, future censuses were undertaken by the Revenue's excise
officers.
Volume 49 Part I 2001
PHILLIPP R. SCHOFIELD
Extranei and the market
for customary land on a Westminster Abbey manor in the fifteenth century
Abstract
This article attempts, through a case study of a fifteenth-century
Essex manor, to explore both the extent
of and reasons for outside investment in customary land. The article
identifies certain sectors of society
and economy from which such outside investment may have issued and
discusses developments within
the manor which may have encouraged such investment. It is a contention
of the article that a softening
of seigneurial policy was a significant stimulus to the incursion of
outsiders, extranei, into the market
for customary land. In turn, the long-cherished policies of landlords
were, by the dose of the period,
challenged by the expectations of the new wealthy and high status
tenants.
DOUGLAS G.LOCKHART Lotted lands and planned villages in north-east Scotland
Abstract
Between 17zo and the 185os some 490 planned villages, characterized by
a regular layout of streets, building
plots and adjacent fields (or Lotted Lands) were founded on estates
throughout Scotland including loo
or so in north-east Scotland. Lotted lands were fields, typically
subdivided into one- or two-acr e lots,
which were leased to villagers to grow crops such as oats and turnips
and for grazing cattle and horses.
Agricultural activities were particularly important where labouring and
domestic industries provided
insufficient employment. Working lotted lands gradually became less
popular during the first half of the
twentieth century though they continued to exist in a few places until
the 197os.
NICOLA VERDON The employment
of women and
children in agriculture: a reassessment of agricultural gangs in
nineteenth-century Norfolk
Abstract
This article examines one of the most infamous forms of rural labour in
nineteenth-century No rfolk:
the agricultural gang. Using Parliamentary Papers as its source, the
paper argues that some previous
interpretations of this form of organized labour have both exaggerated
the scale of ganging in the county,
and misrepresented the composition of agricultural gangs. It will be
shown that, far from exploiting the
cheap labour of young children and adult women across Norfolk, by the
186os, agricultural gangs mainly
consisted of a youthful workforce and were regionally concentrated in
the west of the county. It calls for
a more considered approach to using Parliamentary Papers to prevent the
perpetuation of generalizations
concerning female and child labour in the nineteenth-century
countryside.
JOHN GODFREY and BRIAN SHORT
The ownership,
occupation and use of land on
the South Downs, 1840-1940: a methodological analysis of record linkage
over time
Abstract
Threb major complexes of documents are now available for the study of
agriculture from the mid-nine-
teenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. The tithe surveys, already well
known, are now joined by the Lloyd
George 191o Valuation Office material, and the National Farm Survey of
1941-3. This paper expl ores the
methodological issues arising from the use, and especially the
comparison, of the three sources in the
context of a case study from the South Downs in Sussex.
Annual list of articles on agrarian history, 1999 JANET COLLETT
Work in progress on agrarian and rural history, 2000 BETHANIE AFTON
Conference Report: Winter Conference
2000
JEAN MORRIN
Volume 49 Part II 2001
Abstract
This article assesses the impact of grain commercialization on the diet
and wages of stipendiary famuli
on a number of manors held by the abbot of Glastonbury in southern and
south-western England at the
beginning of the fourteenth century. Using correlation and regression
analyses, it shows that grain
commercialization had a negative impact on workers' living standards.
Specifically, high grain commer-
cialization seems to have caused, or at least contributed to, the
distribution of low-value, and thus
low-quality, grains to stipendiaryfamuli. Such actions seem to have
been an important aspect of an estate
policy that emphasized the exploitation of the market and the labourer
in search of profit.
Abstract
Historians have always assumed that the 'modernization' of North
American agriculture necessarily
entailed the disappearance of domestic manufacturing, including the
production of handmade cloth. The
weavers, who were female, gave up weaving in favour of dairy and
poultry production as soon as
factory-made materials became available. This process fits Jan de
Vries's model of an industrious revol-
ution in the countryside. Consequently, lingering domestic cloth
production is described as symptomatic
of a stagnant agriculture. However, late domestic cloth production may
not have been the consequence
of poverty, but a rational economic choice. It may also have been part
of a North American variant of
the 'industrious revolution'. These themes are examined using detailed
data mostly drawn from the
Canadian census of 1871 for household and farm production in a number
of Canadian villages
MARK FREEMAN The
agricultural
labourer and the
"Hodge" stereotype, c.1850-191
Abstract
This article examines the stereotyping of the agricultural labourer as
'Hodge' in the nineteenth century,
showing how the changing economic, social and political position of the
labourers affected the ways in
which they were represented in the social investigations and rural
literature of the period. It is argued
that the stereotype changed significantly in the 188os and 189os, and
although it had largely fallen out of
use by the 19oos, many of the attributes that made it up did in fact
persist into the later period. The
label Hodge was rarely used without being subject to contestation from
labourers themselves and their
spokesmen, and this article shows how it became a potent weapon in the
social and political conflicts
that characterized rural England in this period.
R. J. MOORE-COLYER Rolf Gardiner, English patriot and the Council for the Church and Countryside
Abstract
With the seemingly inexorable advance of organicism from the fringes of
'muck and mystery' towards
the core of current agrarian strategy, the career of Rolf Gardiner, one
of the most original thinkers among
the inter-war ruralists and an early propogandist for the Soil
Association, is of considerable significance
to modern agricultural and rural history. In reviewing aspects of
Gardiner's earlier career, engaging with
the difficult issue of his political allegiances, and considering his
association with the Council for the
Church and Countryside, this article seeks to portray Gardiner as a
paternalistic patriot bent upon
the regeneration of rural England.
CORMAC O'GRADA Review
article: Farming high and
low
Conference Report: the
Society's
Spring
Conference,
Ambleside, April 2001
S. M. STEVENS
Volume 50 Part I
2002
JONATHAN THEOBALD
Agricultural productivity in Woodland High
Suffolk,
1600-1850
Abstract
The recently published work by Turner, Beckett and Afton has
highlighted the fact that historians
interested in evaluating land productivity in early-modern England have
far more than just probate
inventories at their disposal. This paper utilizes complementary
sources in order to counteract the obvious
flaws and limitations of the inventory. From this the paper has been
able to glean new livestock and
grain yield data for Woodland High Suffolk and these are placed in the
context of agrarian change in
the district. Its conclusions as to if, when and how the district
'revolutionized' its means of producing
food for the nation, lend support to the recent findings of historians
such as Turner, Overton and
Williamson.
A. J. GRITT
The survival of service in
the English agricultural
labour force: lessons from Lancashire, c.1650-1851
Abstract
The high level of farm service in the north of England in the
mid-nineteenth century has previously been
seen as a 'survival' of an early modern rural social structure. In
contrast, the prevailing interpretation of
the decline of service in the south-east between the late eighteenth
and mid-nineteenth centuries suggests
that this was a product of the spread of agrarian capitalism and
improving agricultural regimes. This
article explores the changing composition of the agricultural labour
force in Lancashire between the
mid-seventeenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries. It is argued that
farm servants only became a
significant part of Lancashire's agricultural labour force in the last
third of the eighteenth century in
response to the increased labour demands of an improving farming system
stimulated by the growth of
towns and industry. Farm servants were thus intrinsic to agricultural
development, not evidence of an
ossified social structure.
JEREMY D. HAYHOE
Litigation and the policing of communal
farming
in northern Burgundy, 1750-1790
Abstract
This study examines the administration of common land and rights in
northern Burgundy (now the
département of the Cote
d'Or). Based primarily on court
cases heard and
fines handed out in a sample
of seigniorial courts, it argues that the glue holding communal farming
together was a vigilant local court
system assisted by a few inhabitants co-opted each year by the
community to work as field guards. The
everyday working of communal agriculture involved chronic rule
breaking, sneaking, policing, fining and
litigation in a constant struggle between the village as a community
and each villager as an individual.
In their attempts to describe class struggle and fights between lords
and villages over commons, French
historians have underestimated the extent of everyday conflict that was
inherent to the system.
JOAN E. GRUNDY The Hereford
bull: his
contribution to New World
and
domestic beef supplies
Abstract
The most recognisable characteristic of the Hereford breed of cattle is
its white face. This prepotent
feature confers an advantage where visual evidence of ancestry is
needed, and has huge economic
importance in the commercial cattle trade, far outside the confines of
the pedigree world. Hereford bulls
were used extensively to upgrade cattle populations when there was a
need for increased and improved
meat supplies. In the late nineteenth century, when unimproved range
cattle were upgraded to useful
beef animals, the Hereford was more successful internationally than at
home. In mid-twentieth century
Britain the breed dominated the commercial beef trade, due to demand
for beef from dairy-bred calves.
The paper offers insights into the interaction between the pedigree and
commercial sectors of the livestock
industry in the improvement of national cattle stocks.
JANET COLLETT
Annual list of articles on Agrarian History,
2000
JANE WHITTLE
Conference Report: the
Society's
Winter
Conference,
December
2001
Volume 50 Part 2
2002
JOAN THIRSK The British Agricultural
History Society and The
Agrarian History of England and Wales: new projects in the 1950s p.155
Abstract
Joan Thirsk is the last surviving member of the founding Executive
Committee of the British Agricultural
History Society. In this paper, drawing on her own recollections as
well as those of her contemporaries,
she describes the circumstances of the foundation of the BAHS in 1953
at the suggestion of George Fussell.
She then recalls the establishment of the Agrarian History of England
and Wales in 1956 on the initiative
of the first editor of this Review, H.P.R. Finberg, and its subsequent
travails, concluding with the
triumphant publication of volume VII in 2ooo.
EDWARD I. NEWMAN Medieval
sheep-corn farming: how much grain
yield
could each sheep support? p.164
Abstract
In medieval times sheep were commonly grazed on pasture land by day but
folded on arable each night.
This was recognized as a way of improving the soil fertility of the
arable. This paper calculates how much
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium per sheep would be transported to
the arable by this practice, and
hence how much grain export from the farm could be supported without
soil fertility declining. The
answer it is suggested, is about 3-5 bushels of grain per year per
sheep. Applying these figures to data
from demesne accounts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries shows
that on some demesnes the
number of sheep was fully adequate to maintain soil fertility, but on
others it fell short.
MALCOLM BANGOR-JONES Sheep
farming in Sutherland in the
eighteenth
century p .181
Abstract
The introduction of commercial sheep farming to Sutherland has been
associated with the Sutherland
clearances of the early nineteenth century. This study examines the
history of sheep farming on different
estates in Sutherland during the eighteenth century, from the
aristocratic experiments of the 173os and
174os to the marked expansion during the last quarter of the century.
By 18oo sheep farming was firmly
established in Sutherland.
Abstract
This article investigates a number of parliamentary reports published
during the first half of~e nineteenth
century to demonstrate that the distinction between open and close
parishes was a crucial determinant
of the ways in which the poor laws and the laws of settlement were
implemented in English rural society.
Focusing on Oxfordshire, it shows that three seemingly separate issues
- whether parishes in different
economic circumstances adopted different policies on poor relief,
whether the parishes responding to
Rural Queries of 1832 were representative of parishes in general, and
whether the mid-nineteenth-century
parliamentary returns properly reflected the real condition of the
rural localities - are closely inter-related
and that parish typology provides an important clue to understanding
that inter-relationship.
Abstract
Following publication of the Agrarian History of England and Wales,
VII, 1850-1914, this article examines
responses to the late nineteenth-century agricultural depression in one
of the worst affected counties,
Essex, and considers these responses within the broader debate on
British economic performance at that
time. Responses to depression, especially farmers', were fairly
impressive: agriculture did not 'fail'. The
landlords' entrepreneurial performance was less impressive, although
their shortcomings are unlikely to
have affected either output growth or total factor productivity
significantly. There were similarities in
agricultural and industrial performances although, overall, that of
agriculture was arguably the more
impressive.
JOHN SHEAIL Arterial
drainage in inter-war England: the
legislative
perspective p.253
Abstract
The Land Drainage Act of 193o became the benchmark of twentieth-century
agricultural-drainage legis-
lation. Its purpose was to simplify and update drainage legislation
enacted since the sixteenth century
and to reorganize the maintenance and improvement of arterial drainage
on a catchment-wide basis.
The paper reconstructs the five stages by which such a fundamental
overhaul was perceived to be necessary
and implemented. The bitter controversy as to the funding of the major
improvements to the estuary
and tidal length of the River Great Ouse had a considerable bearing on
the timing and content of the
Bill. The immediate and longer-term significance of the Act is
discussed, both in respect of the wider
management of watercourses and the potential for agricultural
improvement of the adjacent lands.
Volume
51 Part 1 2003
The British Agricultural History Society Golden Jubilee Prize Essay
Competition winners:
DAVID STONE The productivity and management of sheep in late medieval
England p.1
Abstract
Sheep husbandry played a vital role in late medieval English
agriculture, but evidence from demesne
farms reveals that it was blighted by falling fleece weights and rising
mortality rates. These trends are
currently thought to have been caused by a long term climatic shift
towards colder winters. This essay,
however, argnes that these trends, together with rising fertility rates
on some manors, can be explained
by changes in the way in which demesne flocks were managed after the
Black Death. Rather than being
thwarted by their environment, demesne officials were, in essence,
responding rationally to worsening
economic conditions.
Abstract
The farmer's wife remains One of the most elusive figures in agrarian
history. Her labour on the farm
(and in the farmhouse) was largely unpaid, and therefore unrecorded.
Historians have acknowledged the
contribution made by farmers' wives, but no attempt has yet been made
to examine in detail the whole
range of tasks usually undertaken by them and the value attached to
this work. This artide seeks to
redress tbis neglect. Using a range of agricultural literature (farming
manuals, encyclopaedias, journals
and tours), it will be argued that the position of the farmer's wife
depended on status and region, and
whilst some women had withdrawn from active participation in the farm
economy by the early nineteenth
century, this trend should not be overstated.
Other articles:
H. R, FRENCH Urban common rights,
enclosure and
the market: Clitheroe
Town Moors, 1764-1802 p.40
Abstract
The social and agrarian impact of parliamentary enclosure is again in
dispute. However, the effects of
enclosure on urban agriculture and commons have yet to be examined.
This detailed case study of the
small borough of Clitheroe, Lancashire, examines the usage and the
social profile of users between 1764
and 1779. It also depicts the local enclosure process, and argues that
little redistribution of land or
extinction of rights occurred. Access rights and stints had been
subverted before enclosure by the creation
of a 'market' in entitlements that reflected the distribution of
property and resources in commercial
agriculture beyond the commons. Urban sources provide unique detail to
illustrate how fundamental
change could occur in the management of commons before their abolition
by enclosure.
STEPHEN HIPKIN The structure
of landownership
and land occupation in
the Romney Marsh region, 1646-1834 p.69
Abstract
This article offers a contribution to the long-running debate about the
causes and chronology of the
emergence of large-scale commercial tenant farming in England.
Remarkably comprehensive evidence
covering 44,ooo acres in Romney Marsh (Kent) discloses a consolidation
of landownership and the
increasing dominance of large tenant farms during the century after the
Restoration, but also demon-
strates conclusively that these trends were unconnected, and that they
were reversed during the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when there was a notable
revival of owner-occupation on the
marsh. It is argued that tenant initiative and shifts in the level of
consumer demand were the forces
driving developments throughout the long-eighteenth century.
N. FLAVELL Urban allotment gardens in
the
eighteenth century: the case
of Sheffield p.95
Abstract
Many acres of the horticultural land surrounding Sheffield in the late
eighteenth century were utilized
as allotment gardens. Provincial town histories, apart from those of
Birmingham (where small gardens
were often different in character) make little or no mention of
anything similar for this period. This
paper makes the case for Sheffield being the first to experience
workers' gardens en masse and demon-
strates that there may have been, on a cautious calculation, 15oo-18oo
allotments available for rent in
the town in the 1780s.
JANET COLLETT Annual list of articles on Agrarian History, 2001 p.107
Volume 51 Part 2 2003
MARK
PAGE The
technology of medieval sheep farming: some evidence from Crawley,
Hampshire, 1208-1349
p. 137
Abstract
Sheep farming was a pro�table business for the
bishops of Winchester
before the Black Death. Evidence
from the manor of Crawley demonstrates that investment in the
management of the flock peaked in the
early fourteenth century. Elsewhere on the estate, improvements in the
provision of sires, housing,
feeding, medicaments and the labour supply have been shown to impact
favourably upon fertility and
mortality rates. However, this was not the case at Crawley. Instead,
this paper con�rms
Stone’s view that
productivity was determined by conscious decisions taken by demesne
managers and argues that their
concern in this period was to raise fleece
weights.
HADRIAN COOK, KATHY STEARNE
and TOM
WILLIAMSON The origins of
water meadows in England, p. 155
Abstract
It is usually assumed that the
floating
or artifi�cial irrigation of
water meadows was an innovation of the
early modern period. Indeed, many authorities still attribute the
technique to the late sixteenth-century
improver Rowland Vaughan. There is, however, good evidence that
irrigation was already understood
and practised on at least a limited scale by the start of the sixteenth
century. It is probable that early
irrigation systems normally took the form of catchworks: the key
development of the post-medieval
centuries was the creation of more sophisticated bedwork systems, which
allowed the widespread adoption
of floating on the chalklands of southern
England.
JOSEPH BETTEY The
development of water meadows
on the Salisbury
Avon, 1665-1690 p.163
Abstract
This paper surveys the literature on the mobility of eighteenth- and
early nineteenth-century English
rack rent tenant farmers and farming families, and provides new
quantitative estimates of the speed of
turnover in the market for farm tenancies using data from archival
sources. The evidence presented
should increase our confidence in the stylised fact
of relatively low
tenurial mobility, although the extent
of inertia should not be exaggerated. Some of the factors that could
disrupt the apparent underlying
long-term relationship between landlord and tenant are considered.
DAVID R. STEAD The mobility
of English tenant farmers, c.
1700-1850 p. 173
Abstract
This paper surveys the literature on the mobility of eighteenth- and
early nineteenth-century English
rack rent tenant farmers and farming families, and provides new
quantitative estimates of the speed of
turnover in the market for farm tenancies using data from archival
sources. The evidence presented
should increase our confidence in the stylised fact of relatively low
tenurial mobility, although the extent
of inertia should not be exaggerated. Some of the factors that could
disrupt the apparent underlying
long-term relationship between landlord and tenant are considered.
HUGH CLOUT The Pays de
Bray: a vale of
dairies in northern
France p. 190
Abstract
Survival strategies for the local economy of the Pays de Bray highlight
the attractiveness of its 'green'
landscapes of pastures, woodlands and orchards that contrast with the
surrounding arable plateaux of
northern France. The area has benefited from its
relative proximity to
Paris, its environmental resources,
and the entrepreneurial skills of its farmers to develop an important
range of dairying activities, comprising
traditional farm-produced cheeses (Neufchâtel
fermier) and
numerous factory-made varieties, as
well as butter. The history of this specialisation is traced from the
mid-eighteenth century. Attention is
drawn to the transformation of the discipline of distance as a result
of road improvements and railway
construction in the nineteenth century. Production increasingly became
factory-based and although farm
cheese production is now only a pale shadow of its former importance,
it has recently received Appellation
'Origine
Contôlé' (AOC) status.
Abstract
By 1945 the Labour Party had abandoned its historic commitment to the
nationalisation of agricultural
land. Labour retreated from rural land nationalisation not for reasons
of pragmatism or for fear of
antagonising an electorate suspicious of ideological commitments, but
because such a policy did not
provide an economic solution to the question of agricultural
productivity nor did it guarantee improved
nutrition. The war-time agricultural executive committees demonstrated
the benefits of state intervention
as an alternative to the state ownership of rural land. By 1945 Labour
had come to recognize that land
nationalisation was an irrelevance to the immediate problem of post-war
food shortages which might
compromise its relationship with the farmers in the drive for increased
productivity.
Volume 52 part 1 2004
R. DOUGLAS HURT Reflections on American agricultural history page 1
Abstract
This paper reviews the contribution of American agricultural history
over the twentieth century. It traces
the earliest writings on the topic before the foundation of the
Agricultural History Society in 1919. The
discipline is reviewed under six heads: land policy including tenancy;
slave institutions and post-bellum
tenancy in the southern states; agricultural organizations; the
development of commercial agriculture;
government policy towards farming; and the recent concern with rural
social history. A final section considers
whether the lack of any definition of agricultural history has been a
strength or a weakness for the
discipline.
RICHARD BRITNELL Fields, farms and sun-division in a moorland region, 1100–1400 page 20
Abstract
Earlier work combining the pre-Black Death charter evidence and
post-medieval maps for county
Durham has shown how extensive areas of waste survived in the county
until the early modern period.
This paper begins by considering the enclosed arable land of townships
within the larger waste, showing
how it was normally held in furlongs which often show evidence of
subdivision according to the principles
of sun-division. The right to graze the remaining waste is discussed.
The Bishops of Durham were
in the habit of granting enclosures from the waste by charter: the
arable of these enclosed farms might
also be divided by sun-division.
DAVID L. WYKES Robert Bakewell (1725-1795) of Dishley: farmer and livestock improver page 38
Abstract
Bakewell's reputation rests on the
principle of in-and-in breeding and
the establishment of the New
Leicester sheep, in which he was assisted by a group of local improvers
who were cousins and fellow
Presbyterians. Although his high prices were controversial, before 1780
most of his rams were let for
under ten guineas. Bakewell's success as
a breeder was founded on his
ability to meet market demands
by producing a better beast for the butcher, but there was a decline in
fecundity and meat quality. Doubts
about his achievements have recently been expressed, but the Border
Leicester remains the most
successful modern long-wool cross.
SAMANTHA WILLIAMS Malthus, marriage and poor law allowances revisited: a Bedfordshire case study, 1770-1834 page 56
Abstract
The debate on whether poor law allowance payments to the families of
agricultural labourers 'encouraged'
early marriage and large families is still far from resolved, partly
because the exact geographical
prevalence and timing of such allowances has not been adequately
established. A case study of two
communities in Bedfordshire provides evidence on the timing, duration,
and value of such allowances,
as well as detailed information of the family circumstances of
labouring families. The study finds that
allowances were largely restricted to periods of particular economic
hardship and that they were a
necessary response to increasing family size rather than a cause of
such shifts in demographic behaviour.
SELINA TODD Young women, work and family in inter-war rural
England page 83
Volume 52 part 2 2004
STEPHEN G. UPEX The uses and functions of ponds within early landscapes
in the east Midlands page 125
Abstract
Ponds are a neglected historic feature of the landscape. They vary in
their dates of construction, many
being related to the open fields of the pre-enclosure
period where they
formed an integral part of the
farming system. Accounts of early enclosures also record their
construction. Ponds provided water for
livestock and draft animals, they linked with drainage systems and they
also had miscellaneous functions
such as being used for retting cloth and providing manure from pond
cleaning. The present paper draws
on both the field evidence of surviving ponds but
also map and
documentary materials to review the
numbers, uses and origins of ponds in 26 parishes on the
Cambridgeshire-Northamptonshire border.
JOHN STOBART The economic and social worlds of rural
craftsman-retailers in eighteenth-century Cheshire page 141
Abstract
The lives and activities of rural craftsmen-retailers have long been
marginal to meta-narratives of rural
change and retail revolution. Only with their disappearance in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth
century have they been regarded as important markers of more general
processes. Drawing on a detailed
reading of probate inventories and wills, this paper
offers some new
insights into the numbers, distribution
and activities of rural tailors and shoemakers in eighteenth-century
Cheshire. It highlights the
limited capitalization of their craft activities and their close
involvement with agricultural pursuits,
including the ownership of livestock and husbandry ware. It also
reveals the close social ties which they
enjoyed with their rural communities: friends and family were primarily
rural, as were their customer
and credit networks.
P.J. ATKINS The Glasgow case: meat, disease and regulation,
1889-1924 page 161
Abstract
Contemporary estimates indicate that a substantial proportion of the
indigenous beef consumed in
Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came from
tuberculous animals. If properly
cooked, this meat presented less of a risk to human health than
infected raw milk, but concerns were
nevertheless expressed by many public health professionals, especially
in the 1880s and 1890s. This paper
looks at the interests of the various parties in the debate about
diseased meat that evolved between 1889
and 1924. It investigates the solutions proposed and comments on the
nature of central government policy-
making. Much depended on a notorious case in 1889 in Glasgow. The local
authority there
successfully prosecuted a butcher and a meat wholesaler for displaying
diseased meat illegally, and
thereby created a precedent, placing the responsibility for quality at
the feet of particular actors in the
food system. This unleashed a heated debate between the local state and
the meat trade and friction
between farmers and butchers. Finding a negotiated compromise between
the various parties proved to
be difficult and finally,
in 1924, the government felt the need to impose
its own solution in the form of
the Public Health (Meat) Regulations.
R.J. MOORE-COLYER Kids in the Corn: School Harvest Camps and farm labour supply in England, 1940-50 page 183
Abstract
This article is concerned with the contribution of schoolchildren
towards the food production drive in
England during the Second World War. After a consideration of the
broader aspects of the farm labour
problem between 1940 and 1950, the focus is directed towards the
various official and
semi-official
schemes by which children were involved in summer and autumn harvest
work. Logistical, operational
and financial issues are reviewed in some detail
along with various
aspects of gender and attitudes of
interested parties towards the scheme. While harvest camps generally
seem to have been a positive and
enjoyable experience for school children, there remains a great deal of
scope for oral history studies to
elucidate the finer details.
VOLUME 53 part 1 2005
A.J.GRITT The operation of lifeleasehold in south-west Lancashire,
1649-97 page 1
Abstract
South-west Lancashire emerged from the civil war in need of social and
economic recovery. The region
was a Catholic stronghold and landlords and tenants alike had
experienced the humiliation of military
and political defeat and borne the financial cost of
sequestration.
Landlords were faced with the challenge
of maintaining social stability and promoting economic growth and
recovery. At the same time,
many tenants were undercapitalized, markets were underdeveloped and
agricultural production was
hampered by the inadequacies of the drainage system. This article
explores the extent to which the social
and economic contract framed by the lifeleasehold system helped promote
social stability and economic
recovery. It is argued that although the lifeleasehold system provided
security of tenure and economic
recovery is evident, this was only possible through the incursion of
outside money. This undermined the
idealist preferences of landlords who sought to promote a strong bond
between tenant nuclear families
and the land.
DESMOND NORTON On landlord-assisted emigration from some
Irish
estates in the 1840s page 24
Abstract
This article utilizes the recently-discovered archive of a firm of
Irish
land agents to investigate landlordassisted
emigration from some of the
firm's client estates
during the 1840s, and
during the famine years
in particular. Such emigration was not merely a response to starvation
in Ireland: much of it was also a
precondition for improvement of estates, especially in western parts of
Ireland. It is concluded that landlord-
assisted emigration during the famine was probably on a larger scale
than modern historians have
hitherto assumed: however, precise and verifiable
estimates of the
numbers involved will remain an
impossibility.
JO DRAPER 'Never-to-be-forgotten acts of
oppression . . . by
professing Christians in the year 1874'.
Joseph Arch's Agricultural
Labourers' Union in Dorset,
1872-74 page 41
Abstract
Dorset was notorious in the mid-nineteenth century for its low
agricultural wages and the poverty of its
labourers. This paper traces the first years of union
activity in the
county, 1872-4. It is based largely on
reports carried by a short-lived but sympathetic newspaper which are
extensively quoted to give a flavour
of the source and the extreme hostility the Union provoked. Particular
attention is paid to Milborne St
Andrew where in 1872 the farmers appear to have accepted at least some
union demands for higher wages
but dismissed pro-union labourers after the harvest of that year. A new
strike in the spring of 1874 was
countered by a lockout and evictions. The background to the
much-reproduced photographs of the evictions
at Milborne St Andrews is explained.
PHILIP CONFORD Organic society: agriculture and radical
politics
in the career of Gerard Wallop, ninth Earl of Portsmouth
(1898-1984)
page 78
Abstract
Through examining the ideas and activities of G. V. Wallop, ninth Earl
of Portsmouth, this article
demonstrates a close connection between the emerging organic movement
and radical right-wing politics
during the 1930s and 1940s. Evidence from his papers reveals that
Wallop, a noted farmer and
landowner, was instrumental in drawing together leading organic
pioneers, and belonged to many of the
groups which promoted organic husbandry during the mid-twentieth
century. Other important organicists
were to be found actively involved in his political initiatives, which
were well to the Right of the
spectrum. While rejecting the view that commitment to organic husbandry
necessarily implies far-Right
politics, the article argues that
Wallop's espousal of both causes
casts serious doubt on the claim that the
early organic movement was a-political.
Annual list of articles on Agrarian History, 2003 page 97
VOLUME 53 part 2
2005
BEN DODDS Managing tithes in the late middle ages page 125
Abstract
Tithes were an important resource for monasteries in the late middle
ages. This study of one major tithe
owner shows they were either collected directly or sold before harvest.
Management decisions were not
unlike those made for manorial demesnes but with some
differences
related to the process of tithe
collection, national and regional agricultural trends and changing
methods of obtaining household
grain supply. The sale of tithes represented an opportunity for certain
groups in society but does not
necessarily imply declining interest in management by tithe owners.
Responsiveness to change is reflected
in the adaptation of bureaucratic arrangements.
MARGARET A, LYLE Regionality in the late Old Poor Law: the
treatment of chargeable bastards from Rural Queries page 141
Abstract
In 1832 the Royal Commission enquiring into the administration and
practical operation of the old
Poor Law sent a questionnaire, the Rural Queries, to parishes
throughout the country. This paper
reports the results of a computer analysis of their answers to the
commissioners' enquiry into the
amounts given to the mothers of chargeable bastards. The results give a
good countrywide overview of
the treatment of those mothers and their children and reveal distinct
regional variations in the amounts
awarded to them.
Links to Colour
versions of maps
in this article: Fig.4
Fig.5 Fig.6
LEIGH SHAW-TAYLOR Family farms and capitalist farms in mid
nineteenth-century England page 158
Abstract
The published 1851 census contains a series of tables documenting, for
every British county, the distribution
of farm sizes and the employment levels for adult males. Hitherto these
data have largely been
ignored on the grounds that they were unreliable. This paper shows that
the data are in fact reliable and
can be used to document the geography of farm size and employment
patterns at county level. These
data in turn are used to investigate the relative importance of
agrarian capitalism and family farming and
its geography in England. Agrarian capitalism was more important than
family farming everywhere.
Large-scale agrarian capitalism was dominant in the south and east of
the country. A substantial family
farm sector survived only in the far south-west and north of England by
1851.
Links to Colour
versions of maps
in this article: Fig
1.
Fig.2
Fig.3
Fig.4 Fig.5
Fig.6
Fig.7 Fig.8
Fig.9
Fig.10
STEPHEN MATTHEWS Cattle clubs, insurance and plague in the
mid-nineteenth century page 192
Abstract
This article surveys the history of cattle insurance in the middle of
the nineteenth century, primarily in
Cheshire, describing the mixture of generally short-lived national and
local insurance companies, and
the cattle associations and cow clubs, which both preceded and replaced
the earliest commercial policies.
All of them had to face the impact of epidemics of pleuro-pneumonia and
rinderpest in the 1860s, which
caused most of them to collapse. It looks in greater detail at one of
the few enduring schemes whose
records have survived, which operated on the estates of the Marquis of
Cholmondeley.
RICHARD PERREN Farmers and consumers under strain: allied
meat
supplies in the First World War page 212
Abstract
The allies faced growing shortages of meat between 1914 and 1918.
Consumers in Britain and overseas
were affected by the decision to divert
increasing amounts to feed the
British, French and even the Italian
army. Overseas producers in America, Australia, and New Zealand found
there were limits to the
extent to which they could benefit from the increased
demand in Europe.
Refrigerated shipping space
was in short supply and was firmly controlled by the
British government.
This meant Argentine and
Commonwealth farmers faced financial losses during
the periods when they
were unable to sell finished
animals. Attempts by all allied governments to impose controls on their
internal markets to ensure the
fair distribution of meat supplies did not always work out in the ways
they expected, and caused further
complaints from consumers and farmers.
JAN BIELEMAN Technological innovation in Dutch cattle breeding and
dairy farming, 1850-2000 page 229
Abstract
This article attempts to present the broad outlines of technological
change in Dutch cattle breeding and
dairy farming over the last 150 years. After 1850, Dutch dairy farmers
and cattle breeders profited from
the rapidly increasing opportunities offered
by expanding foreign
markets. Herd book organisations were
established to meet the demand for breeding cattle from abroad. In
1904, the Dutch Herd Book Organisation
was reorganised, aiming its breeding policy at three
well-defined types
of cattle according the
pure-line breeding principle. After 1950 aims in cattle breeding were
changed, as it appeared likely that
in the near future the production of cheese would become more important
than that of butter. At the
same time it became clear that the one sided concentration on exterior
appearance had led cattle breeding
into a cul-de-sac. Consequently breeding programmes had to be developed
which used new
technologies in breeding, centralised milk recording and
artificial
insemination. At the same time, the
need for a higher labour productivity encouraged the rapid spread of
milking machines. To cope with
the increasing number of cattle per farm, new types of stall and
foddering systems were introduced and
the transportation of milk from farm to factory changed fundamentally
with the introduction of bulk
milk tankers.
VOLUME 54 part
1 2006
CHRISTINE GRAINGE Assarting and the dynamics of
Rhineland
economies in the ninth century: Scarae at Werden, Weissenburg and
Prüm Abbeys page 1
Abstract
The article contributes to the continuing debate about 'the Carolingian
economy'. The first part introduces
the reader to documents written in some of the hugely landed
Carolingian abbeys in different parts
of the Carolingian Empire: the second examines the meaning of the word
scara as it appears in land surveys
written in the second half of the ninth century at three monastic
houses, the abbeys of Werden,
Weissenburg and Prüm in the Rhineland. In Werden
documents the
word refers to division or share of
land. In Weissenburg documents it refers to assartment of
newly-acquired land. In a Prüm document
written later in the century, the word means both assartment and
division of land, and share or cut of
the raw materials and commodities that came from the land. The word
identifies the period of expansion
initiated by abbeys which led to significant economic growth on
monastic lands with access to the
Rhine network of rivers. The Appendix offers a philological study of
the word.
MARGARET YATES Between fact and fiction: Henry
Brinklows
Complaynt against rapacious landlords page 24
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to separate fact from fiction in the
observations of economic trends contained
in the writings of the evangelicals of 1542. It does so by examining
the polemical tracts of Henry
Brinklow and his fellow Protestants for their comments on rent, tenure
and the engrossing of landholdings
and then comparing them with data drawn from a case study of
Brinklow's
home parish in
Berkshire. The result establishes that, although their writings did
contain nuggets of truth, the evils were
neither as widespread nor recent as they would imply. They were based
on an established literary tradition
that dated from at least the fourteenth century, augmented and
justified by frequent references to
biblical passages. The novelty was their urgency to bring about a godly
commonwealth whilst there was
still time.
HEATHER HOLMES The circulation of Scottish agricultural books
during the eighteenth century page 45
Abstract
This paper focuses on aspects of the circulation of Scottish
agricultural books in the eighteenth century
to 1790. In viewing the books as an object of material culture, it
considers a range of factors which
affected their circulation: the progress of agricultural development,
the rise of the Scottish book trades
(and the demand for books), the methods that were available to publish
books, the ability to read, the
cost of books and their reputation. It concludes with a survey of the
subscribers to a selection of agricultural
books. These show that the range of people who purchased and read
agricultural books widened,
especially between the 1760s and 1790s.
DONNA J. ULYATT Female agricultural labour on the Dixon
Estate,
Lincolnshire, 1801-17 page 79
Abstract
This article continues the examination of
women's work in the early
nineteenth century drawing on
two detailed logbooks kept on the estate of the Dixon family of Holton
Hall, Lincolnshire, 1801-17. Some
of the women working can be identified as the wives of labourers
working on the estate. Others were
girls, including the daughters of the same labourers. Female labour
seems to have been drawn on most
heavily in the first years of the century and diminished thereafter
although later evidence is offered to
show the practice continuing even in mid-century. Women were used most
heavily in weeding, hay
making and harvest work: there were occasions when they were employed
in heavy work such as
dung-spreading.
JUNE A. SHEPPARD Agricultural workers in mid nineteenth-century Brighton page 93
Abstract
Like many other English towns, Brighton had a number of residents who
described themselves as agricultural
workers in the 1861 census. This article examines where they were born,
when they moved to
Brighton, their housing and occupational histories. Most seem likely to
have been casual workers on
South Downs farms within walking distance of the town.
ANNE MEREDITH From ideals to reality: The
women's smallholding
colony at Lingfield, 1920-39 page 105
Abstract
The immediate impetus for the colony at Lingfield in Surrey was the
desire by the Women's Farm and
Garden Association to enable women who had worked on the land during
the First World War to be
able to farm on their own account. However the motivation for the
colony can also be traced back to
late nineteenth-century ideals. The colony soon ran into problems which
were exacerbated by the adverse
agricultural conditions of the early 1920s. The association responded
constructively but the colony was
wound down from 1929. At one level the colony could be seen as a
failure, yet this article argues that the
colony provided a rural community where single women lived in a
mutually supportive environment.
VICENTE PINILLA The development of irrigated agriculture in
twentieth-century Spain: a case study of the Ebro basin page 122
Abstract
This paper describes the transformation wrought by irrigated
agriculture in the Ebro Basin (Spain's
largest river system) during the twentieth century. Irrigation in this
area is both relatively large in scale
and has been the precursor of changes occurring later in the rest of
Spain. We first consider the significant
impact of hydrological policy on the expansion of irrigation. We
continue by examining the process
of intensification which took place throughout the twentieth century
and the gradual shift towards specialization,
closing this part of the paper with a discussion of the importance of
technological change for
output growth. Finally, we take account of some impacts of the
expansion of irrigated agriculture on the
natural environment and the conflict that has emerged in the last few
decades over the building of new
dams.
VOLUME 54 part 2 2006
JOHN HARE The
Bishop and the Prior:
demesne agriculture in medieval Hampshire page 187
Abstract
The bishops of Winchester possessed the richest and by far and away
best-documented estate in medieval
England. This article examines demesne agriculture on part of its
estates and that of a related estate in
the same area: the Cathedral Priory at Winchester. Together these two
estates show some of the characteristics
of the great estates of southern England and particularly of the great
chalkland manors: mixed
farming characterised by large sheep flocks and late leasing of the
demesne. But while the two estates
show much in common, they also show subtle variations in the chronology
of demesne shrinkage and
in the emphasis given to different crops and livestock. Some of these
variations may be ascribed to
the differing nature of the household that the estate supported, while
for others the explanations for the
variation in managerial policy are less clear.
ALASDAIR ROSS Scottish environmental history and the (mis)use of Soums
page 213
Abstract
For much of the historical period in Europe, upland pasture has been
apportioned into relatively small
units. Scotland was no exception to this norm and here such units were
called soums. Both soums and
stocking figures have been widely used to construct theories relating
to the environmental history of
the Highlands, particularly in relation to changing grazing pressures
during the last 300 years. Using a
particularly stark case study from Breadalbane, this article will argue
that in fact soums are largely unreliable
and confusing pieces of historical evidence that should never be used
without good corroborating
evidence. In the absence of reliable historical souming information, it
will be suggested that historians
should instead integrate site-specific palaeoecological data into their
arguments to create a more accurate
picture of changing grazing pressure over time.
JOHN
GOODRIDGE The case of
John Dyer's fat-tailed sheep and their
tail-trolleys: 'a
thing
to some scarce credible'
page 229
Abstract
The eighteenth-century English georgic poem was a compendious form and
incorporated a wealth of
information on many subjects, including agriculture. This essay
considers an example taken from one
of these poems: a description of the fat-tailed 'Carmenian'
sheep from
John Dyer's The Fleece (1757).
Comparing this with portrayals of this type of sheep in other texts,
the essay focuses on a curious detail
described by Dyer and others, that of how wheeled carts were
constructed to protect the long tails of
these sheep from harm. This has often been regarded as a
traveller's
tale, but the essay argues that it is
indeed true, and that the story's
dubious reputation probably springs
from the fact that writers from
Rabelais to Goldsmith have used it satirically.
IAN WHYTE Parliamentary enclosure and changes in
landownership in an
upland environment: Westmorland,
c.1770-1860
page 240
Abstract
The impact of parliamentary enclosure on landownership, especially on
small proprietors, has been
considered mainly in the context of lowland open-field arable
communities. However, it also affected
extensive areas of upland common pasture in northern England. This
article examines parliamentary
enclosure in Westmorland where the context of enclosure and the
structure of rural society were markedly
different from southern England, particularly in the prevalence of
customary tenures with rights
effectively equivalent to freehold. A study of sales of allotments in
enclosure awards, and changes in
landownership between awards and subsequent Land Tax returns, shows
that there was considerable continuity
of occupation by smaller proprietors despite enclosure. Parliamentary
enclosure in Westmorland
does not appear to have caused the large scale disappearance of small
owners or their transformation
into landless wage labourers. Small owner-occupied farms remained a
characteristic feature of this area
into the later nineteenth century.
FERNANDO
COLLANTES Farewell
to the peasant republic: marginal rural communities and
European industrialisation,
1815-1990 page 257
Abstract
This paper provides a comparative analysis of economic evolution in the
upland communities of
Switzerland, Scotland, France, Italy and Spain during the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. At the
start of European industrialisation, these communities were mainly
composed of peasant families which
combined the income and resources from their small farms with the
earnings from off-farm activities.
Industrialisation brought into play three mechanisms which
substantially transformed these economies:
farm specialisation, the emergence of employment opportunities in
industry and services, and
rural-urban migration. The timing of the impact of these mechanisms is
shown to have varied from
region to region.
NIGEL GOOSE Farm service, seasonal unemployment and
casual
labour in mid nineteenth-century England page 274
Abstract
A county-wide analysis of the census
enumerators' books for
Hertfordshire vindicates the published
report's county figures while revealing
distinct local variation,
explained by differences in economic
vitality, urbanization and industrial employment opportunities.
Discrepancies in the data regarding
numbers of labourers cannot be explained by seasonal unemployment, but
might serve as an index of
casualization. Within Hertfordshire, the stronger retention of farm
service at mid-century was associated
with areas of economic vitality, but these same areas generally
experienced higher levels of labour
casualization, while seasonal unemployment was more marked in the least
dynamic districts. A preliminary
analysis by county for England and Wales tentatively suggests that
these features might apply more
generally.
SUSANNA WADE MARTINS Smallholdings in Norfolk,
1890-1950: a social and
farming experiment page 304
Abstract
The smallholding movement is unique in modern agricultural history. It
is the only occasion on which
we see the promotion of small, rather than ever-larger farming units.
Their creation had a profound, if
short-lived affect, both physically and culturally on the rural scene:
yet the history of the movement has
still to be written. The documentation for the setting up and
administration of smallholdings in Norfolk
where by 1930, the County Council was the largest landowner in the
county, is particularly complete.
After surveying the national background, this paper will look at how
far the aims and aspirations of the
promoters of smallholdings were met in Norfolk during the years from
1890 to 1950.
R.J. MOORE-COLYER Children's
labour in the countryside during
World War II:
Volume 55 part one 2007
Christopher Dyer A Suffolk farmer in the fifteenth century p.1
This article explores the impact of farmers on rural society in the
ffeenth century, when they represented a new tendency in agricultural
production. The farmer of Chevington in Sufolk was a forceful and
dominant fgure, who established a close relationship with his lords,
the abbots of Bury St Edmunds, and ruled in his village by buying land
and promoting his family. This example shows the potential for change
that farmers represented, and the shift in initiative from lord to
tenants in the fifteenth century. Although the Parman family continued
to be prosperous landholders in their village, their founder’s
towering fortune and powers of manipulation were not perpetuated.
Margaret Albright Knittl The design for the initial drainage of the Great Level of the Fens: an historical whodunit in three parts p.23
This article challenges the received view that it was the Dutchman, Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, who designed and oversaw the draining work done in the Great Level of the fens when Francis, fourth Earl of Bedford became its Undertaker in January 1631. It first shows that Vermuyden did not become Director of Works under the Earl or a partner in the undertaking before arguing that the design employed was not the one offered by Vermuyden the previous year. Te final part demonstrates that the work done while the Earl of Bedford was Undertaker responded to the long held aspirations of local landowners, the group from which Commissioners of Sewers were drawn. Finally it suggests what the grounds may have been for depriving the Bedford group of the reward for which they had invested so heavily.
Mary Young Scottish crop yields in the second half of the seventeenth century: evidence from the Mains of Castle Lyon in the Carse of Gowrie p.51
In the second half of the seventeenth century, Scotland’s under-developed economy struggled to recoverfrom the Cromwellian wars and their aftermath. Although there is evidence of an expansion in cereal production in this period, the country was a marginal area for bread grains and a severe famine was experienced in the 1690s. This essay presents crop yield data recorded over a 23-year period (1673–95) on a farm in the Carse of Gowrie, one of Scotland’s most favoured arable areas. It explores the nature and context of the improved agrarian practices introduced there and the considerable increase in returns achieved. However, the generally low yields obtained, together with fuctuations in their level from one harvest to the next, also reveals the threat to the supply of staple foods posed by an extended period of poor weather.
Joyce Burnette Married with children: the family status of female day-labourers at two south-western farms p.75
While female factory workers and agricultural servants were primarily young and single, female agricultural labourers were more likely to be middle-aged, married mothers. This paper examines the female labourers at two south-western farms and finds that middle-aged married women account for the majority of days worked. Widows and mothers of illegitimate children account for only a small fraction of the workforce. While evidence from the Bragg farm suggests that some mothers worked when their children were still infants, evidence from the Estcourt farm suggests that women reduced their labourforce participation when their children were young. Child care was available for mothers who worked outside the home, but it was expensive.
Margaret Lyle Regional agricultural wage variations in early nineteenth-century England p.95
This paper provides a detailed mapping of the agricultural wage in England based on responses to a wages
question in the ‘Rural Queries’, sent to selected parishes in 1832. It shows clearly the regional nature of the
wage and the relative amounts given by region. It reveals hitherto unreported detail, with two centres of
high wages and a gradual falling away with distance from these centres. Wage profles within each region
are discussed in the text and give confdence that the regions are real and not an artifce. These newly
mapped wage regions are then used to demonstrate that magistrates awarded ‘maintenance payments’ to
mothers of bastard children in direct proportion to the basic agricultural wage.
Volume 55 part two 2007
Susan Oosthuizen The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia and the origins and distribution of common fields p.153
This paper aims to explore the hypothesis that the
agricultural layouts and organisation that had developed into common
felds by the high middle ages may have had their origins in the
‘long’ eighth century, between about 670 and 840
AD. It begins by reiterating the distinction between medieval
open and common felds, and the problems that inhibit current
explanations for their period of origin and distribution. The
distribution of common felds is reviewed and the coincidence with the
kingdom of Mercia noted. Evidence pointing towards an earlier date for
the origin of felds is reviewed. Current views of Mercia in
the ‘long’ eighth century are discussed and it is
shown that the kingdom had both the cultural and economic
vitality to implement far-reaching landscape organisation. The
proposition that early forms of these feld systems may have
originated in the ‘long’ eighth century is
considered, and the paper concludes with suggestions for
further research.
Roger Wells The Poor Law Commission and publicly-owned housing in the English countryside, 1834–47 p.181
This
paper addresses aspects of the Poor Law Commission’s policy
of encouraging parishes to dispose of their often considerable stock of
social housing, in some cases built up over many years, and a topic
previously analysed in this Review by John Broad. Policy was in part
conditioned by the cost of new workhouses required in many of the
unions created under the 1834 New Poor Law. This fell on individual
parishes’ ratepayers; sales of their real estate would
lighten, and sometimes remove, the fnancial
pain. It also arose out of the Commission’s commitment to
engineering able-bodied workers’ independence through the
abolition of all non-medical aid funded from the poor rate, which had
traditionally included the provision of domestic accommodation at no or
nominal rents by overseers of the poor. But, while putting the
Commission in charge of sales by parishes, parliamentarians insisted
that the owners and occupiers of property in each parish, had to vote
to sell or retain, some or all, of their housing
stock. The stipulation of compulsory disposals, which Broad erroneously
assumed, remained a political impossibility.
Hilary Crowe Proftable ploughing of the uplands? The food production campaign in the First World War p.205
This
paper considers the fnancial efects of the government’s
direction of agriculture in the pastoral uplands of England during the
Great War through a study of the West Ward in Westmorland. The paper
aims to identify which farmers gained most from an agricultural
production policy which enforced a shif to arable cultivation in areas
unsuited to it. It considers wartime production at the county, parish
and individual farm level and describes a wide variety of individual
outcomes resulting from variations in topography, climate, landholding,
farm size, labour structure and the extent of wartime intervention. A
more general pattern is superimposed on the micro level and the paper
shows that it was the most marginal farmers at the highest elevations
who were least disrupted by wartime direction and who saw the greatest
increases in net cash returns.
John
Martin
George Odlum, The Ministry of Agriculture and ‘Farmer
Hudson’ p.229
Friesians. In 1942 his farm was privately sold to R. S. Hudson, the
Minister of Agriculture, who was, according to the local agriculture
committee, treated as ‘Farmer Hudson’. Following
press comment that the farm was in ‘poor condition’
prior to its sale, Odlum embarked upon a lengthy campaign to clear his
name which culminated in a libel trial in 1946. The evidence presented
at the trial provides a detailed insight into the way a progressive
farm was managed during the war and suggests strongly that the
Wiltshire CWAEC was not impartial in its dealings with either Odlum or
Hudson.
Papers read at the eightieth birthday
conference for F. M. L. Thompson (with a
rejoinder by Michael Thompson)
Mark Rothery The wealth of the English landed gentry, 1870–1935 p.251
This article explores changing levels of unsettled personal wealth amongst the landed gentry of Devon, Hertfordshire and Lincolnshire during the period of the Agricultural Depression of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The main quantitative sources employed for this research are the National Probate Calendars. Despite problems with agricultural incomes and land values, overall levels of gentry wealth were sustained. This was a result of the diversifcation of wealth away from land and into other safer investments of a non-agricultural character. A fnal section shows how one Devon gentry family converted land into liquid investments at the end of the First World War.
John Beckett and Michael Turner End of the Old Order? F. M. L. Thompson, the Land Question, and the burden of ownership in England, c.1880–c.1925 p.269
In
1921 the Estates Gazette announced that one-quarter of the land of
England had changed hands since the end of the war. F. M. L. Tompson
has suggested that if this really was the case, then it represented a
revolution in landownership on a scale unknown since the Dissolution of
the Monasteries in the sixteenth century or even the Norman Conquest.
Tis paper revisits Tompson and the land question on the eve of the
First World War to ask whether such apocalyptic language truly refected
accumulating
pressures on landed society, including the late nineteenth-century
agricultural depression, the impact of the encumbered estates
legislation, the introduction in 1894 of death duties, and the fears
posed by Lloyd George’s land tax proposals. To distinguish
between political scaremongering and real land revolution the paper
employs previously only partially used data to assess land turnover
both before and afer the 1918 Armistice. Te credibility of contemporary
claims is questioned. Was the country in the grips of a
landownership revolution or were the fears expressed by landowners
before 1914, and by commentators afer 1918, a misunderstanding of the
reality of the land question in these years?
Michael Thompson The land market, 1880–1925: A reappraisal reappraised p.289
The notion that
there was ‘a revolution in landownership’ in the
spate of land sales in 1918–21 was based on claims in the
trade journal, the Estates Gazette. Beckett and Turner’s
article, ‘The end of the old order?’, demonstrates
conclusively that that journal did not contain the detailed evidence to
support its claims, thus appearing to demolish the
‘revolution’. Consideration of the scale and timing
of the growth of ownerfarming, however, coupled with experimental use
of data on landownership from Kelly’s Directories, calls for
second thoughts. It seems possible that something not far short of
‘a quarter of England’ may actually have changed
hands in 1918–21.
