| Popis: |
The eight decades with which we are concerned in this paper witnessed remarkable changes in the agricultural system of the Yorkshire Wolds. In 1770 the major part of that area was still being worked by means of the open field system or some variation of it. Each township had its arable fields, worked in common, and its pasture which was frequently the highest area, most remote from the village nucleus. The homesteads and farmsteads were concentrated in villages and hamlets. Outlying farmsteads were the exception rather than the rule, and in each case were associated with partial pre-parliamentary enclosure in the townships concerned. By 1850 parliamentary enclosure had taken place, affecting over 70 per cent of the area. The expanses of open arable and pasture had been replaced by smaller hedged fields and the Norfolk four-course rotation had been introduced at the expense of the earlier methods of rotation. These innovations resulted in the decline of fallowing and in increased agricultural potential and returns. Furthermore, the compact holdings which replaced the scattered strips in the former open fields were often remote from the existing village centres. The geographical and economic centre of these holdings was no longer in the nucleus. A rash of new outlying farmsteads, which originated in the period 1770-1850, reflects this new state of affairs. |
