Completed Her Doctoral Thesis (‘Blessings for Nature in the English Liturgy, C.900–1200’) in 2010
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
the agricultural history review a journal of agricultural and rural history Volume 64, Part I 2016 Agricultural History Review Volume 64 Part I 2016 contents CONTENTS Notes on contributors iii Forthcoming conferences iv Intensive rabbit production in London and nearby counties malcolm thick 1 in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries: an alternative to alternative agriculture? Dutch investors and the drainage of Hatfield Chase, piet va n 17 1626 to 1656 cruyningen The Corbetts are ‘victorious over all’: agricultural implement tamsin bapty 38 making in Shropshire, c.1860 to 1914 A neglected innovation: the double-furrow plough in heather holmes 54 Scotland, its early adoption and use, 1867 to 1880 The Cinderella of the cattle industry: the state and settler godfrey hove 81 commercial dairy farming in Southern Rhodesia, and sandra swart c.1908 to 1937 Annual list of publications on agrarian history, 2014 peter mcshane 103 Book Reviews Gerry Barnes and Tom Williamson, Rethinking ancient m. jane bunting 117 woodland: the archaeology and history of woods in Norfolk Peter Foden and Norton Community Archaeology Group, miriam muller 118 Records of the Manor of Norton in the Liberty of St Albans, 1244–1539 Vandra Costello, Irish demesne landscapes, 1660–1740 david a. fleming 119 ii agricultural history review Alan Fox (ed.), Parish government in a Leicestershire village: brodie waddell 120 The Buckminster Town Book, 1655–1767 and Constable’s Book, 1755–1813 Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann (eds), Slavery and the perry carter 121 British country house Lucinda Lambton, Palaces for pigs: Animal architecture and briony mcdonagh 122 other beastly buildings Mark Johnston, Trees in towns and cities: A history of British paul elliott 122 urban arboriculture Seán Beattie, Donegal in transition: the impact of the eoin mclaughlin 124 Congested Districts Board Susanna Wade Martins, The conservation movement in david matless 125 Norfolk: A history Andrew Connell, Appleby Gypsy Horse Fair: Mythology, jennifer s. holt 126 origin, evolution and evaluation Ian D. Rotherham, The rise and fall of countryside c. v. j. griffiths 127 management. A historical account Sandip Hazareesingh and Harro Maat (eds.), Local lucy veale 128 subversions of colonial cultures: Commodities and anti-commodities in global history Winter Conference Report 2015 imogene dudley 130 Notes on contributors notes on contributors tamsin bapty is Curator of Library and Archives for the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. She completed her doctoral thesis (‘Blessings for Nature in the English Liturgy, c.900–1200’) in 2010. Her research focused on cultural and religious activities associated with crops and water supplies. Since moving into the heritage sector, Tamsin has been exploring more recent phenomena; in particular the relationship between urbanised agricultural implement manufacturers and their customers. Address: Dr Tamsin Bapty, Library & Archives, Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Coach Road, Coalbrookdale, Telford, Shropshire, tf8 7dq. Email: [email protected]. heather holmes received her PhD on potato harvesting in the Lothians, 1870–1995, at the University of Edinburgh in 1996. She has continued an interest in Scottish agricultural history, where her current interests are the production, distribution and reception of the Board of Agriculture’s county agricultural reports (1793–1817), Scottish agricultural books and newspapers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers and their work, 1843–1970, and the social history of steam ploughing in Scotland. Address: Dr Heather Holmes, 37 Heatherfield Glade, Adambrae Parks, Livingston, West Lothian eh54 9je; email [email protected]. godfrey hove is a senior lecturer in the Department of Economic History at the University of Zimbabwe. His research interests lie in Agricultural and environmental history of Southern Africa. Email: [email protected]. sandra swart is a senior lecturer in the History Department at Stellenbosch University. Her research interests are in environmental and social history. malcolm thick has written a book and several articles on market gardening in England and has also researched aspects of food history in the early modern period, including editing William Ellis’s Country Housewife’s Family Companion. A few years ago he produced a book on the life and work of the Elizabethan proto-scientist Sir Hugh Plat. He has written about manuscript recipe books dated before 1800: their structure and language, and the social history they reveal. Recently he has been working with the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition at Reading University on the Hugh Sinclair Archive. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Email: [email protected]. piet van cruyningen is senior researcher with the Rural and Environmental History Group, Wageningen University. His research mostly focuses on agricultural development and the history of water management in the North Sea area. Email: [email protected]. Forthcoming conferences The role of the landowner and agent in food security and sustainabilty: past present and future A one day symposium (sponsored by the BAHS) to be held on 12 July 2016 at the University of Leicester will bring together landowners, land agents and historians to discuss the past, present and future of food security and food sustainability. Estimates suggest that the population of Britain will rise by some ten million over the next 15 to 20 years, at a time when agricultural experts are considering whether farm productivity has peaked. The aim of the day will be to combine historical knowledge with modern expertise, to assess whether past solutions during periods of food scarcity may have relevance for modern land management practitioners. More details from Dr Carol Beardmore at [email protected] British Agricultural History Society Winter Conference, 3 December 2016 Trade and markets in agricultural goods: from plough to plate, field to fork Further details will be available from the Society’s website at www.bahs.org.uk British Agricultural History Society Spring Conference, 3–5 April 2017 Plans are under way for this conference, to be held at Plumpton College in East Sussex. Further details will be available from the Society’s website at www.bahs.org.uk European Rural History Organisation (EURHO) Rural History 2017, 11–14 September 2017 The third biennial conference to be held under the auspices of EURHO is being organised by the Interfaculty Center for Agrarian History (ICAG), in collaboration with the research network CORN (Comparative Rural History of the North Sea Area), and will take place at the University of Leuven, Belgium. The technical programme planning starts with the Call for Panel Sessions. All details will be available from the Conference website at www.ruralhistory2017.be. Intensive rabbit production in London and nearby counties in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries: an alternative to alternative agriculture?* rabbit production in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries by Malcolm Thick Abstract The history of rabbits raised in rural warrens has been investigated, but little has been written about domesticated rabbits, raised for meat or fur. Such rabbits were often bred in London or its suburbs and, because little or no farmland was involved, production did not follow the pattern of alternative agriculture suggested by Joan Thirsk. Rabbits were raised in special pits, hutches, sheds, and courtyards. They also inhabited pens, lofts, cellars, backyards and rented rooms in lodging houses. Their owners ranged from full-time commercial breeders to poor people making a small amount of money from selling rabbits. The reports of trials conducted at the Old Bailey in the eighteenth century describe aspects of London rabbit-keeping in some detail and scattered references at earlier times reveal that the practice had been going on for some centuries. A number of histories of wild rabbits in England, and the rural warrens stocked with them, have been written.1 By contrast, little notice has been taken of more intensive rabbit production, especially that which took place within, or near, the built-up area of London, although there has been recent interest in the animal population of London as a whole, especially in the nineteenth century. Urban rabbit production involved domestication: feeding rabbits, looking after their health, and controlling their breeding. In these situations they grew used to human contact, and became docile. Breeding from bucks exhibiting desired characteristics, led in turn to the development of distinctive breeds of tame rabbits.2 * I wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments on the first draft of this article, the genesis of which was a paper at the 2013 Anglo-American History Conference. 1 John Sheail, Rabbits and their history (1972); id., 2 The most recent book on animals in London is ‘Changes in the supply of wild rabbits, 1790–1910’, AgHR Hannah Velten, Beastly London (2003). See also Peter 19 (1971), pp. 175–7; Elspeth M. Veale, ‘The Rabbit in Atkins (ed.), Food and the city in Europe since 1800 England’, AgHR 5 (1957), pp. 85–90. (2007). AgHR 64, I, pp. 1–16 1 2 agricultural history review I Joan Thirsk’s theory of alternative agriculture in England (that when demand for traditional agricultural products slackens, new or unusual crops and livestock are farmed until, under population pressure, mainstream agriculture again