Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

commonland allowed grazing of horses, sheep (for wool, skins and meat) and also cattle
(for beef, hides and dairy). Some enclosure had taken place before 1660, for instance in
Feckenham, following the disafforestation in 1629, and in Coughton and Sambourne, but
the open field system persisted in many manors until the 1770s or later. 48
Large asserts
that ‘disafforestation accelerated the development of mixed farming’ to serve the
metalware region, with the result that commons were more intensively grazed and
agrarian improvements were made such as the use of clover and floating meadows. 49
‘There is considerable evidence of yeoman farmers around and about Redditch doing
well for themselves and building substantial farmsteads…’ in the century before the Civil
War. 50 Some parishes were enclosed privately piecemeal fashion at various times.
However, the early 1770s saw a flurry of parliamentary enclosures, with more following
between 1812 and 1832. 51
The 1771 parliamentary enclosure award for Redditch
Common and Webheath shows that land was still held (and probably farmed) by
tradesmen as well as specialist farmers. Those allotted land include gentlemen, yeomen,
a clergyman, an exciseman, a butcher, a tailor, a button-maker, a cordwainer, a miller and
a handful of needlemakers. 52
The 1798 land tax returns show a varied picture of land tenure in this zone,
ranging from Studley with sixty-two proprietors to its near neighbour Coughton with a
48 For example, VCH Warwickshire iii, p. 87, discusses early enclosure in Sambourne, which together with
Coughton, belonged to the Throckmortons. Worcester Post or Western Journal 4 to 11 Oct. 1723
advertises a farm to let in Coughton with 150 acres, all enclosed except for 4 acres.
49 Large, ‘Economic and social change in North Worcestershire during the seventeenth century’, p. i.
50 R. Richardson, The Book of Redditch, (Buckingham, Barracuda, 1986), p. 63.
51 Beanhall Fields in Feckenham parish 1771, Redditch Common and Webheath 1771, Bentley 1772,
Sambourne 1773, other parts of Feckenham in 1812 or 1832 and Studley in 1824. See Appendix 1.
52 WoRO, s143 BA307/2, Redditch Common and Webheath enclosure award 1771. Of course the situation
may have changed just before or after enclosure, as in Alcester. Berrow’s Worcester Journal 30 April and
14 May 1772 shows that not everyone was happy with the enclosure. Dragoons were deployed to maintain
order after a riot, and six persons were arrested including Edward Clarke, cordwainer, for riotously
assembling and pulling down posts and rails.
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