Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Agriculture
The soil in the west of this sub-district is mainly keuper marl with outcrops of
Arden sandstone. Near Stratford in the east there is rich marl overlying middle lias with
some Arden sandstone and within this are areas of blue lias with outcrops of Wilmcote
limestone. Some piecemeal enclosure had taken place before well before 1660, but in
many manors the open field system was still operating. 23
In 1743/4 Aston Cantlow became the first parish in this zone to undergo
parliamentary enclosure. The award corroborates evidence from probate that many
tradesmen at this period were also farmers, with men from some ten different occupations
receiving allotments of land. 24
Seven more parishes were enclosed before 1800, but a
further six had to wait until the nineteenth century for enclosure. 25
One of these six was
Inkberrow, where in the 1770s ‘nearly one-half the parish is in open field, and the system
of cultivation has not varied within the memory of any man now living. About 200 acres
of waste which give excellent pasture for sheep…. Farms are small 80 to 300 acres….
Rent of land 15s. to 25s. an acre.’ 26
Before parliamentary enclosure land tenure was quite different from place to
place, lending specific characteristics to different manors. For instance, Haselor was
‘predominantly a parish of substantial yeomen and freeholders’. 27
The land tax returns of
1798 still show the diverse nature of land holding, from Arrow with only one proprietor
to Aston Cantlow, Stock and Bradley and the constituent parts of Inkberrow each with
23 For example, Spernall already had many consolidated holdings, (WaRO, CR1998/15, Throckmortons’
estate map, 1695), but Kinwarton was still mainly farmed in the medieval strips, (WaRO, CRO1886/M9,
Lord Brooke’s estate map, 1754).
24 WaRO, QS9/12/1. Occupations of some individuals were mentioned in the award, others are known
from different sources.
25 See Appendix 1. The last, Stock and Bradley, was enclosed in 1829.
26 Rogers, The State of the Poor (by Sir Frederic Morton Eden), pp. 349-350, (cf. rent of land in the Vale of
Evesham at £2 to £4 and acre).
27 VCH Warwickshire, iii, p. 112.
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