Rural History Today is published by the British Agricultural History Society

Issue 14 • January 2008

Above – Sheep warning VCH and agricultural history on the SENTA Training Area on the Mynydda and Richard Perren. As readers of RHT will probably know, the Epynt plateau, Mid-Wales. In the topographical volumes, each parish has VCH is a veritable store of information See page 2. concerning the history of English agriculture, a section on economic history, which is likely although it can sometimes be hard to locate! The to include agriculture, market gardening and original intention of the VCH was to have a set nurseries. These will be most useful the more up to date the volume. In preparing these sections, of volumes for each county (including Wales, county staff are encouraged to research any dropped in the 1920s) which would include general comments in directories, and to look in general volumes on the history of the county, family and estate records in the county record and topographical studies of each parish within office or The National Archives. Wills and probate the county. Where a county has been finished, inventories are used for the early modern period, John Beckett is this has indeed taken place. the enclosure map for the eighteenth century, or a nineteenth century tithe award. The agricultural currently Director returns are used to provide information about of the VCH and crops and farms in the later 19th and 20th centuries. Depending on the interest and knowledge of Professor of English the county staff member writing the entry, it may Regional History range widely in terms of length and breadth, but as a starting point for any parish, particularly at the University of as it will be accompanied by the legendary VCH Nottingham as well footnote (one note for each statement), it should provide a good grounding for coming to terms as a member of the with the agricultural history of any particular The original scheme with its emphasis on general parish. Nowadays you can also read the VCH Executive Committee material is no longer followed, and most of the on the web. For researchers without access to a of BAHS work currently undertaken is topographical. Even major library, it is always worth searching for a so, the VCH should not be underestimated as a particular parish on the British History Online source for agricultural historians. At least one website which now has a full text search facility general volume was published for every English at www.british-history.ac.uk/search. More than county with the exception of Northumberland, 100 volumes are already available on this site and a l s o i n Westmorland and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It more are added regularly. It is now policy to add this issue is always worth consulting the first two volumes new volumes two years after they are published in the series, where you are likely to come across by Boydell & Brewer. Parishes which have been Work in progress – page 2 some relevant material. Thus volume 2 in the VCH researched but not yet published can also be read New publications – page 4 Cambridgeshire series, published in 1948, includes in draft on the web. See, for example, Mark Page’s several short sections on agriculture by H.C. work on the Oxfordshire village of Rotherfield Museum news – page 5 Darby, while volume 2 in the Leicestershire series Peppard at www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/ Kindred bodies – page 6 (1954) includes 120 pages of agricultural history by Oxfordshire. Future conferences – Rodney Hilton and Joan Thirsk. Finally, the VCH has a new project currently page 7 For some counties rather more extended ongoing with funding from the Heritage Lottery treatment was published, especially when the Fund, which involves engaging with volunteers general volumes extended beyond the first two on projects that are likely to be published in in the series. Particularly informative, and still paperbacks and on the web rather than in the very useful, are Wiltshire volume 4 (1959), with better known red books. On Exmoor the work extended contributions by Eric Kerridge and of volunteers will be published in 2009 in a book F.M.L. Thompson among others, and Shropshire about the settlement and development of Exmoor. volume 4 (1989) which is devoted entirely to agriculture. The authors included Peter Edwards John Beckett

R u r a l H i s t o r y T o d a y Issue 14 | January 2008  W O R K i n P R O GRE s s

Eleven AHRC-funded projects under the Landscape and Environment Initiative are now under way, several of which are of interest to readers of the Newsletter. The preliminary findings of three of them are described here.

Militarized Landscapes in twentieth-century Britain, France and the United States

Peter Coates is professor Tanks and soldiers in the countryside? Even scholarship on landscape and environment in before the first bomb is dropped on enemy view of these lands’ ecological significance and of American and territory, preparation for warfare reshapes the MoD’s development of conservation policies, environmental history at landscapes and environments at home. Yet this publicized through its magazine, Sanctuary, form of military mobilization remains under- since 1976. the University of Bristol. researched, not least as an aspect of rural history. This investigation of ‘khaki conservation’ His most recent books is grounded in case studies of five sites in are Salmon (2006) and The Ministry of Defence is one of the UK’s largest southwestern England and Wales. The first is landowners, overseeing approximately one the Castlemartin gunnery range within the American Perceptions of percent of national territory, over half of which Pembrokeshire Coast National Park (first used Immigrant and Invasive can be characterized as ‘rural.’ This three-year by the army in 1939). The second Welsh site is the project, at the University of Bristol, seeks to rectify Sennybridge Training Area (SENTA), situated Species (2007). this neglect through a comparative analysis on the Mynydd Epynt, a moorland plateau of the emergence, meaning and management north of Brecon Beacons National Park, whose of militarized landscapes. We are particularly dispersed community was displaced during the interested in military lands as reservoirs of Second World War. The third site is Lulworth biodiversity often superior in ‘green’ value to Range in Dorset, where the renowned ‘ghost’ surrounding non-militarized landscapes subject to village of Tyneham, subject of Patrick Wright’s intensive agriculture and other customary forms acclaimed book, The Village that Died for England, of encroachment (including mass recreation). The was requisitioned in 1943. Dartmoor, our fourth status of Defence Estate lands as places emptied site, was selected as Britain’s first artillery of human residents and civilian activities is training ground in 1875. Our final British site another central ingredient. The focus on British, is the Salisbury Plain Training Area, covering French and American histories brings out both a ninth of Wiltshire, where the War Office first the common ground and national divergences, purchased land in 1897. This militarized landscape providing a vital historical perspective on highly encompasses the largest remaining area of chalk topical questions of military power (defending grassland in northwest Europe and all five sites nation) and environmental responsibility contain a wealth of natural assets, including (defending nature). various designated sites of special scientific Peter Coates, the project leader, is looking interest (SSSI). specifically at the conversion of military So far we have launched most aspects of sites into wildlife refuges in Colorado.Tim the project. We visited SENTA (on a non-firing Cole, the co-investigator, is focusing on the weekend!) in the early summer and followed relationship between the social history of human this with an autumn visit to Salisbury Plain’s displacement from British militarized lands ‘deserted’ village of Imber (requisitioned in 1943). and the environmental history of these sites (is In addition, Pearson has already completed two human loss non-human nature’s gain?). Chris research trips to France. Pearson, the project researcher, is responsible Planning for a project conference in September for covering France, and Marianna Dudley, the 2008 is underway and there has been an project student, is working on a doctoral thesis enthusiastic response from California to China entitled ‘“Greening” the Ministry of Defence: An to our call for papers. We have also submitted a Environmental History of the Defence Estates proposal for a documentary to our film company in Post-War Britain.’ Two external partners project partner. The subject is the recent are assisting the project: the Defence Estates’ re-introduction of the great bustard – on Salisbury Environmental Support Team (based at Westdown Plain. Extinct since the 1830s, it was a victim of Camp at Tilshead, Wiltshire) and Icon Films, a enclosure, agricultural mechanization, global Bristol-based documentary film making company. cooling and over-hunting. Dudley’s research is most directly relevant For further information about the project, visit to British rural history. That no environmental www.bristol.ac.uk/history/militarylandscapes history of the UK’s Defence Estates has been written to date is an important gap in the Peter Coates

 Issue 14 | January 2008 R u r a l H i s t o r y T o d a y Contested Common Land: environmental governance, law and sustainable land management c.1600–2006

The project focuses on the local management of common land since the 16th century, tracing governance mechanisms in the light of the changing legal context and changing perceptions of the value placed on common land.

Historically, commons yielded an array of vital resources, not only grazing but also peat and turf, a range of species of vegetation (heather, rushes, bracken, for example), game and minerals. Despite the enclosure of thousands of hectares of com- mon land in the 18th and 19th centuries, surviving commons remain important as an agricultural resource (especially in the uplands) but they are also now valued as a recreational resource and as the location of some of the nation’s most ecologi- cally sensitive environments and landscapes. Commons Act 2006 has introduced a new legal Above: Common land in the Large areas of common land fall within framework for the governance of common land, national parks or designated Areas of Outstanding Pennines: the commons of aimed at improving environmental governance Natural Beauty and considerable sections are Blea Moor, Littledale and and the protection of both biodiversity and land- subject to more specific protective instruments, Winterscales Pasture (on the scape value. The interplay between this complex as SSSIs, areas of ESA (Environmentally Sensitive slopes of Whernside) from legal history and the attempts to manage common Area) status, or scheduled ancient monuments. the summit of Ingleborough land at the local level forms the central theme of Contemporary policy debates focus on sustainable common. the project. management: stocking levels (both over-grazing That theme is being explored by focusing on and under-grazing) pose threats to ecological four case studies to illustrate the changing pat- and landscape character, while recreational use This three-year project, terns of land use, differing management principles can cause problems such as footpath erosion. The funded as part of the and regulatory mechanisms applied to common diversity of ‘stakeholders’ in common land – Landscape and Environment land from c.1600 to the modern day. The case and the potential for tension between their aims – studies have been chosen to embrace a diversity Programme of the Arts makes common land an excellent laboratory in of types of common land with contrasting his- and Humanities Research which to study the interplay between cultural per- tories. They are: Eskdale common, Cumbria, a Council, began in February ceptions of landscape and environmental change. large unstinted common in the heart of the Lake 2007. It takes an inter- The legal context of the management of com- District fells; a group of commons surrounding disciplinary approach, seeking mon land at local level has undergone profound Ingleborough in North Yorkshire, where there is change since 1600. From the later medieval period, to provide an historical a long history of stinting on Pennine moorland; the exercise of common rights was governed by perspective to contemporary Cwmdeuddwr common lands surrounding the the byelaws and orders made by manor courts, so debates surrounding the Elan Valley in Powys, in the uplands of central that most commons were subject to a body of local management of common Wales; and a group of lowland commons in the customary law regulating grazing, peat-digging land in England and Wales. Brancaster area of north Norfolk, including both and other forms of exploitation. The collapse of The Principal Investigator coastal salt marsh and inland commons. effective governance by manor courts in the 18th is an environmental lawyer, The research will marry archival evidence or 19th centuries (the timing varied from place to gained through historical enquiry with qualita- Professor Chris Rodgers of place) led to a period of drift, sometimes bordering tive data generated by semi-structured interviews Newcastle Law School; the on anarchy. One of the main aims of the project is with stakeholders in the four case study areas. historical research is being to explore local attempts to manage common land Commoners, land managers, voluntary groups undertaken at Lancaster in the 19th and 20th centuries, after the failure of and the public agencies responsible for the gov- University by Dr Angus manorial control. A third distinct phase was ush- ernance of common land will also be involved in Winchester, with Dr Eleanor ered in by the Commons Registration Act of 1965, the project through participation in seminars for which required those with rights in common land Straughton as Research stakeholders to be held in each case study area in to register their interests but did not tackle ques- Associate. the concluding phase of the research project. tions of governance. It is generally agreed that the Synopses of the historical data gathered during 1965 Act confused an already creaking system, the project will be posted on the project website not least by assuming that grazing rights would (currently under construction) at http://commons. be registered numerically, even where rights had MORE … ncl.ac.uk/ been ‘without number’, that is governed by the The third AHRC report traditional rule of levancy and couchancy. The Angus Winchester is on the back page

R u r a l H i s t o r y T o d a y Issue 14 | January 2008  NEW PUBLICATIONS

In the shadow of Bennachie: a field archaeology of Donside, Aberdeenshire

from the unique Early Bronze Age recumbent stone circles, to spectacular Iron Age forts and Pictish carvings. But the field archaeology is much more than these overt and striking monuments, and this study embraces the lesser structures from prehistoric hut-circles to the This handsome fully huge post-medieval expansion of settlement. It uses over forty-five maps and numerous illustrated volume is plans and photographs to present and explore a model of how a total the history of human settlement and what is field archaeological known of the exploitation of its environment. Almost half of the text focuses on the evolution survey should be of the landscape from the medieval period carried out and to the present day, concentrating on the transformation that took place in the 18th and published, covering as 19th centuries. For example, the ruins of crofts it does all periods from and small farms that litter the upper reaches of so many glens are set in context, a strand the Palaeolithic to the of north-eastern individuality in a process of Second World War. change that was visited upon every district of Scotland. Here was the solution of north-eastern landowners to secure the labour force at the very end of the 18th century into the beginning Aberdeenshire lies beyond the Mounth, the of the 19th century. These holdings created a mountain rim that bars the route northwards new class of crofter who held their land directly from the eastern lowlands of Angus. Riven from the landowner, not only tying them to the with paths and passes, this mountain barrier estates, but also allowing the landowners to is by no means impenetrable, but access is invest in the improvement of former common seldom easy. In effect, to cross the Mounth pasture at little direct outlay. into the North-east is to enter into another The volume does not seek to synthesise all land, a land with its own deeply etched sense the potential information bound up in archives of identity which not only permeates its and museum collections, and it is not conceived people today, but also its past. as a printed gazetteer, the traditional fare of county inventories. It sets out to provide a Donside lies at the core of this land, sandwiched commentary on the field archaeology and the between the rugged highlands of Deeside and landscape, and references the reader back into the windswept Buchan plain. And Bennachie, the records held in the archive of the Royal is a distinctive landmark that dominates the Commission on the Ancient and Historical landscape for miles around. The land appears Monuments of Scotland via CANMORE at rich and lush today, but this is testimony to www.rcahms.gov.uk. The preparation of the generations who have laboured to clear the volume has been long in gestation, but the stones that are its most reliable perennial its publication ushers in the centenary of the crop. Indeed it is from these very stones that RCAHMS, which was established to record the ancient identity of the North-east is built, the ancient monuments of Scotland on manifesting an individuality within the wider 7th February 1908. trends in Scottish history. In the Shadow of Bennachie explores this Published by the Royal Commission on the Ancient theme through the field archaeology, tracing and Historical Monuments of Scotland and the it through a remarkable range of ancient sites, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, price £30 + p&p

 Issue 142 | January 20082007 R u r a l H i s t o r y T o d a y MUSEUM NEWS

New buildings and a gallery The Weald and and Downland Open Air Museum is as busy in the winter as in the summer. The construction of a new gallery for displaying some of the Museum’s large ciollection of vehicles and implements is under way and should be open by next season. A Small World exhibition Buildings to house a cattle and gipsy wagon as A temporary exhibition at MERL (The Museum well as a van are also being built. of English Rural Life, University of Reading) The recently restored Marshalls of which will appeal to young and old alike is Gainsborough threshing drum built in 1862 entitled A Small World: scale models and along with the living van and elevator which miniatures from the MERL collections and together with a traction engine made up the runs from 6th November to 2nd March 2008. threshing train will also be displayed in the Small scale models are always appealing and eighteenth century hay barn currently the exhibition includes a model gypsy caravan, being re-erected. a steam engine and threshing machine, a 1950s Tri-ang toy tractor (pictured above) and a Garrard The editor welcomes 1820s landscape recreation plaster model of a short-horn bull of about news from museums 1800. A browse through the exhibition is more of interest to rural A new attraction at Beamish (County Durham) than a nostalgic trip down memory lane. It is historians. is the recreated 1820s landsape, thank to also an education as the models illustrate the Details to: funding from County Durham Environmental evolution of styles and technologies and some scwmartins@ Trust (CDENT). are historically significant in their own right. hotmail.com

The self-contained village: The social history of rural communities Christopher Dyer (ed). University of Hertfordshire Press 2007.

This is the second volume in a new series of mid-length monographs of fresh and unusual subjects within local and regional history published under the auspices of the Centre of English Local History, University of Leicester and the Centre of Regional and Local, University of Hertfordshire. NEW PUBLICATIONS It considers the question of whether there ever was such a thing as a self-contained village The editor always and essays cover subjects such as demography, welcomes details of relevant publications migration, agriculture, inheritance, welfare, to be included in this politics, employment, industry and markets section. with contributions by David Brown, Henry French, Steve Hindle, Jane Whittle, Ian Whyte Details to: and Christopher Dyer. scwmartins@ hotmail.com Available at the very reasonable £15.99 (including p&p) from University of Hertfordshire Press, Learning and Information services, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB.

R u r a l H i s t o r y T o d a y Issue 14 | January 2008  environment and the conservation of the KINDRED Local History Societies Thriplow region. The Parish Council asked the Society to take over the care of the village BODIES The article in Issue 13 of RHT about Smithy which stood on the village Green and Crackenthorpe’s farming notebooks which, the beginnings of a collection of agricultural until the work of Paul Brassley and Richard tools relevant to the area was formed. Hoyle had been thought to be those of Joseph A programme of talks, outings, and socials Ellis of Thriplow, prompted Shirley Wittering was put together and editors found to produce of the Thriplow Society to write to the three Journals a year free to members. One editor about the work of the Society and its of the first speakers was Mike Petty who had foundation. founded the Cambridgeshire Collection at the Central Library, a wonderful repository of local On the night of 15th and morning of 16th information. He spoke of the village chronicles Running a local October 1987 a severe gale blew through a history society, that had been written by various villages swathe of south eastern England and East particularly in a rural using the card indexes he had made from the Anglia, wreaking havoc to property and location can be a Cambridge Chronicle and other old newspapers. uprooting over 15 million trees. As it passed lonely business, yet it Soon a Thriplow Chronicle was under way; this over the small village of Thriplow (pop. 480), is from groups such led to other documents being perused in the eight miles south of Cambridge, it lifted the roof as these that the raw Record Office in Cambridge. The Society has of a barn and let it down six inches from where material of much rural flourished, we have 80 family members out of research is built. it had been. This barn belonging to Bacon’s 150 households. They pay £6 a year for six talks, Following our short Manor had been used as a museum housing outings and socials as well as the three Journals article on the Newton rural bygones and was open to the public a year. We open the Smithy at Daffodil Weekend History Society (Issue every Daffodil Weekend, a festival to which and a blacksmith hammers horseshoes and 13), the editor would thousands of visitors come from far and wide. like to receive short wrought iron items; the Society has also put on The gale had however done more damage than articles (preferably exhibitions to celebrate VE day, the Millennium was at first apparent, for the top of the walls with a web address for and the Archaeology of the village. which were made of clay-bat or clay lump, a further information) Work by individual members has established sort of brick made of puddled chalk and straw, on other local history much about the history of the area from were now open to the rain and the walls began groups. prehistoric times, through the medieval period to cave outwards. The owner felt that it was no of open-field husbandry to the twentieth longer safe to open the barn to the public. A century. The papers of the Ellis family together notice was placed on the door of the Post Office with the extensive archives held by the inviting people who had loaned objects to the Cambridge colleges and the University Library museum to reclaim them; the rest were sold. who hold the Ely diocesan records – both The Parish Council were worried by the bodies who never throw anything away – form sudden loss of the museum and a committee a treasure trove of history just waiting to be was formed which led, in 1992 to the mined for their riches. Bacons Manor with the foundation of the Thriplow Society. Its remit derelict barn after the was to promote interest in local history, the Shirley Wittering gale of 1987.

 Issue 142 | January 20082007 R u r a l H i s t o r y T o d a y conference Deserted Villages Revisited Saturday 21 June and Sunday 22 June 2008 noticeboard Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester, in collaboration with the Medieval Settlement Research Group. BAHS Spring Conference A weekend conference will be held to mark the 60th anniversary of the gathering in Leicestershire Monday 31 March – Wednesday 2 April 2008 of Hoskins, Beresford, Postan, Steensberg to look University of Nottingham. at DMV sites, in June 1948. Papers will cover topics from nineteenth The purpose is to recall to everyone that the century oxen to medieval zoo-archaeology, study of DMVs is an interesting subject, as a way from early pioneers in organic farming to the of learning about, not just social and economic rural history of modern Spain. There will be changes in the 15th century, which attracted the a New Researchers’ session and a field trip original group of scholars, but also the variety of to Sherwood Forest to look at the ancient and rural settlements (including farmsteads and ham- modern management of woodland. Speakers lets) which experienced shrinkage and desertion. will include Professor Ted Collins, Professor The speakers will be concerned with the whole Juan Pan-Montojo, Professor John Beckett, Dr process of rural depopulation, which continued Elizabeth Griffiths and Dr Umberto Albarella. from the later middle ages into the 19th century. Full details of the programme and We hope that this gathering will signal that registration forms will be available on the DMV studies have quietly been yielding many Society’s web site (www.bahs.org.uk/ novelties in recent years, and that new research agevent.htm) from early 2008. agendas are unfolding as a result of this work. Registered post-graduate students in any The speakers (in order of their place in the aspect of rural history who would like to programme) are Chris Taylor, Stuart Wrathmell, attend are eligible for bursuries to cover the Chris Dyer, Richard Jones, David Hinton, Sally costs of the stay, and should apply to Dr John Smith, John Broad, Tom Williamson, Bob Silvester. Broad by email ([email protected]) An excursion will be guided by Paul Everson and with details of their research areas and a Graham Brown. supporting letter from their supervisor. For more details and an application form contact C. Dyer, Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester, 5, Salisbury Road, Leicester LE1 7QR. E-mail [email protected]

CALL FOR PAPERS Land, Landscape and Environment, 1500–1750 Monday 14 July to Wednesday 16 July usefulness of twenty-first century political imperatives for Early Modern Research Centre, University of Reading an interpretation of the early modern past? Papers are invited in the following areas: plantation Current debates over the environment – and in particular and colonisation as civilising progress; agrarian over the exploitation or management of natural resources capitalism and sustainable agriculture in theory and – find their origin in early modern discourses of mastery in practice and consequences; law, property, rights and and stewardship. Whilst a pervasive argument saw it as tenure; husbandry and husbandry manuals; the country man’s responsibility to exploit the Earth, to what extent house and its landscapes; horticulture and gardens; rivers; were those who made their living from the countryside, writing the land; artistic representations of the landscape; and those who wrote about it, ambivalent about landscape cartography, maps and signs; the country and city; parks; change in the name of progress and improvement? How urban pastoral; travel, travel writing, walking tours and far was land, landscape and environment the subject of sight-seeing. struggles between those who were the subjects of rural Proposals (max. 300 words) for 30 minute papers capitalism and those who lived off its profits at first and a brief CV should be sent via e-mail attachment by or second-hand? How did representations of land and 1st February 2008 to Dr Adam Smyth, School of English environment develop in this period? And what does the and American Literature, University of Reading, recent turn towards ‘green politics’ suggest about the [email protected]

R u r a l H i s t o r y T o d a y Issue 14 | January 2008  W O R K i n P R O GRE s s Continued from page 3

Dr Briony McDonagh Changing Landscapes, Changing regional artists such as George Clarke of Scaldwell (Northamptonshire) as well as to more well- describes the work based Environments: enclosure and culture known commentators on enclosure like the poet at the University of in Northamptonshire, 1700–1900 John Clare of Helpstone (Northamptonshire, now Hertfordshire which Cambridgeshire). This interdisciplinary project draws together The three-year project got underway in the was awarded a Research historians, historical geographers and art summer of 2007 and research to date has centred Grant under the historians from the Universities of Hertfordshire on the impact of parliamentary enclosure on and Lincoln in order to examine the role played AHRC’s Landscape and aristocratic and estate landscapes, as well as on by parliamentary enclosure in the long-term Environment Research the place of the church in these newly enclosed evolution of the English landscape. Programme. and rationalised landscapes. In early October, Between 1750 and 1836, over 5000 Acts of the project team put on their walking boots and Parliament were passed, transferring the fleeces for an informative (if also rather wet) ownership of previously open fields, commons field trip to Northamptonshire. The day began and wastes into private hands. A great deal in West Haddon, where in 1765 opposition to of scholarly ink has been spilt debating the A note from enclosure manifested itself in a riot organised consequences of enclosure’s severe rationalisation under the guise of a football match. The team then the editor of the landscape for contemporaries, as well as its ventured onto the Althorp estate to see the model Rural History Today is impact on agricultural productivity, land-holding cottages and estate church built in the late 1840s published by the British structures and the economic well-being of the and 1850s by the Spencer family, before driving Agricultural History Society. poor. Yet one aspect of the problem – crucial to south towards Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger. The editor will be pleased any historical assessment of enclosure – remains These two hamlets were the last in the south of to receive short articles, untouched: its long-term impact. At present, the county to be enclosed under Parliamentary press releases, notes and parliamentary enclosure is frequently assessed Act, and the site of one of the final enclosure queries for publication. in isolation, and its consequences sought within riots in England in 1841. In Deanshanger parish Articles for the next a time-frame encompassing perhaps ten years. on the Northamptonshire-Buckinghamshire issue should be sent by However if the effects were as severe as some have border the team compared the field patterns 30 November 2007 to stated – one scholar recently calculated that an around the hamlet of Passenham, enclosed by Susanna Wade Martins, average of 49% of those with access to common the lord of the manor in the 1620s, with those The Longhouse, rights in Northamptonshire were dispossessed at around Deanshanger, an open village without Eastgate Street, enclosure – the history of these communities must a resident landlord which was enclosed under North Elmham, have been affected for several generations. a Parliamentary Act of 1772. The day ended in Dereham, Norfolk Focusing on the county of Northamptonshire – neighbouring Wicken, where the local landowner NR20 5HD where levels of parliamentary enclosure were and amateur architect Thomas Prowse enclosed or preferably by email particular high – the project seeks to understand the open fields in 1757 without the need for an Act of Parliament, at the same time as rebuilding the [email protected] how communities traumatised by the experience of enclosure healed themselves in the decades and church and extending his country house. centuries that followed. To this end, the project Forthcoming events include a day conference Membership of the BAHS approaches the Northamptonshire landscape on landscape and enclosure to be held at Rewley is open to all who support its from four distinct but overlapping thematic House in Oxford on Saturday 17th May 2008 and aim of promoting the study of perspectives: historical, literary, architectural a major conference planned for winter 2008. For agricultural history and the and aesthetic. The project investigates both more information about these events or any aspect history of rural economy and aristocratic and popular reactions to agricultural of the research, check out the project website at society. Membership enquries change, as well as examines artistic and literary www.landscapeandenclosure.com or email the should be directed to the representations of the landscape during and team at [email protected] Treasurer, BAHS, after enclosure, drawing attention to the work of Briony McDonagh c/o Dept. of History, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ. Enquiries about other aspects of the Society’s work should be directed to the Secretary, Dr John Broad, Dept. Humanities, Arts and Languages, London Metropolitan University, 166–220 Holloway Road, Estate cottages at Great London, N7 8DB Brington, built by E. Blore Tel: 020 7753 5020 for the Spencer family in Fax: 020 7753 3159 c.1848. [email protected] Photograph B. McDonagh

 Issue 14 | January 2008 R u r a l H i s t o r y T o d a y