Agricultural History Review, Volume 57 Part 2 (2009), p. 283

In this handy little volume Robin Stanes draws together a lifetime’s work on the husbandry of the south-west, with particular reference to Devon. Apart from two short pieces by Andrew Jewell on south-western ploughs, and Richard Bass on Devon’s unique hedge banks, the book consists of six chapters by Stanes written between 1946 and 2008. Five of these have been published before, but they are mostly in sources which are not well known, or are not readily accessible. Stanes has unusual qualifications as an agricultural historian. With a degree in agriculture from Oxford, and a few years experience working on farms, he bought a 67acre farm near Slapton in south Devon in 1952 and farmed it for 15 years before taking up school teaching and historical research. His experience as a ‘handson’ working farmer thus gives him a rare insight into writings on agricultural history.

The earliest chapter in the book is an edited version of the ‘A Georgical account of Devon and Cornwall’ written by Samuel Colepresse in 1667 and published in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association in 1964. In it Colepresse attempts to answer some questions about farming in Devon circulated by the Royal Society. Colepresse was a clergyman who may have farmed his glebe near Plymouth and he seems fairly knowledgeable about the ley farming system in Devon, but it is disappointing that none of the questions he was asked concerned livestock or dairying, which were probably the mainstays of south-western farming.

The next chapter is ‘Devon agriculture in the mid-eighteenth century: the evidence of the Milles enquiries’, first published in Exeter Papers in Economic History in 1969. Although a relatively short chapter, the analysis is based on a great deal of work, for the Rev. Jeremiah Milles, who was Precentor, then Dean of Exeter from 1764 to 1782, proposed to write a history of Devon and sent a vast questionnaire, including questions about farming, to the clergy of 450 parishes, of whom 257 (57 per cent) replied between 1747 and 1756. This produced some interesting maps, about such issues as the use of lime (widespread in all areas of Devon except Dartmoor) the production of cider and the colour of cattle as well as much else. The replies about cattle colour were most surprising – they were almost universally black. This indicates that the famous brown and red breeds had hardly developed before about 1760.

In ‘Landlord and tenant husbandry covenants in eighteenth-century Devon’, published in Exeter Papers in Economic History in 1981, Stanes shows that contrary to Habakkuk’s belief, covenants were increasingly introduced to ensure that farmers kept good rotations and manured their land properly. This was based on a sample of some 340 leases.

In Uffculme. A peculiar parish: a Devon town from Tudor times (1997) Stanes had a unique opportunity to look at Devon probate inventories, for being a ‘Peculiar’ Uffculme’s inventories survived the 1940s air-raid that destroyed the rest of Devon’s inventories. The 179 surviving farming inventories show a pattern of small farms very similar to those in Cornwall.

The book ends with two pieces based on Oliver Cromwell’s famous remark of 1658 ‘I have been in all the counties of England and Devonshire husbandry is the best’, in which Stanes shows why he thinks this was so. It is good to have this compilation of Stanes’ long career as an agricultural historian in one book, and at the reasonable price of £8.50 it should appeal to those with an interest in farming history in general as well as of the south-west in particular.