Floated Water-Meadows in : A Misplaced Innovation By SUSANNA WADE MARTINS AND TOM WILLIAMSON ~ Abstract While the unportance of irrigated meadows in Wessex and the West Country has long been appreciated, their development outside this area has received little attention. This article shows that water-meadows were almost unknown in eastern before the late eighteenth century. A nmnber of extensive systems were then established,mainly by men associatedwith improving aristocratic landlordslike Thomas William Coke. Most of these systems were, however, abandoned at a relatively early date. The reasons why the technique of floating was adopted in this late and limited way outside its western heartland are discussed, together with some of the implicationsthis has for our understandingof the spread of innovations during the period of the 'Agricultural Revolution'. T HF. importance of artificially irrigated teenth century. Most of the principal fiver or 'floated' meadows in the history valleys in Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset of English agriculture was first contained extensive areas of water- emphasized in the I96OS by Eric Kerridge, meadows by the end of the century, and who devoted an entire chapter to them in although further additions to these systems his book The Agricultural Revolution? He were made in the eighteenth century, the went so far as to assert that much of the main phase of construction was over by success of his 'Agricultural Revolution' of 175o.* The artificial inundation of riverside the seventeenth century depended on the meadows during the winter with continu- widespread adoption of the technique. He ally flowing water raised the ground tem- quoted examples from the West Country, perature, and stimulated an early growth the chalklands of Wessex, and of grass, so that an 'early bite' could be Herefordshire. Later studies by, among provided for sheep. After the flock had others, Bettey and Bowie have thrown been moved on to summer pastures, the further light on the development of floating meadows would again be irrigated and in these areas. 3 substantial crops of hay taken in June or In Wessex, the irrigation of meadows July. The increase in feed produced by the on a large scale began in the early seven- technique ensured that larger flocks could be kept and, as a result, more manure was ' We would like to thank R. G Wilson for reading and COlmnenting on an early draft of this article; Philip Judge for supplying the available for the arable land. In Wessex and drawings; Derek Edwards of Norfolk Landscape Archaeology for the West Country floated meadows thus providing aerial photographs and much advice; Lord Leicester for allowing access to the Holkham estate archives; Mary-Anne Garry fulfdled, in the seventeenth century, the for drawing a nmnber of documentary references to our attention; same role as turnips in East Anglia in the Devas Everington for information about the later history of the Castle Acre meadows; the undergraduate students on the 199o early eighteenth century: that is, they Landscape Archaeology fieldcourse for surveying them; and Dick increased the number of stock which could Joyce for aUowing them to do so. E Kerridge, The AgriculturalRevolution, 1967, pp 251-67; idem, 'The be maintained, and thus the quantity of floating of the Wiltshire water meadows', Wilts Archaeol Natural manure produced within an arable farm- Hist Mag, LV, I953, pp Io5-x8; idem, 'The sheepfold in Wiltshi,'e and the floating of the water-meadows', Econ Hist Rev, Second ing system. Series, Vl, I954, pp 282-89. 3j H Bettey, 'The development of water meadows in Dorset during 4 G G S Bowie, 'Northern wolds and Wessex downlands: contrasts the seventeenth century', Ag Hist Rev, 25, I977, pp 37-43; G G S in sheep husbandry and fainting practices, x77o-185o'. Ag Hist Bowie, 'Watermeadows in Wessex: a re-evaluation for the period Rev, 38, 199o, pp117-26; idenl, 'Watenneadows in Wessex', 164o-x85o', Ag Hist Rev, 35, I987, pp 151-58. pp 154-55.

Ag Hist Rev, 42, I, pp 20-37 20 t FLOATED WATER-MEADOWS IN NORFOLK 2I There were two basic forms of irrigation. In fact, Boswell's treatise was the first of The simpler was 'catchwork' floating, in a number of books, pamphlets and articles which channels were cut along the con- on the subject of water-meadows published tours of the valley's side, the uppermost in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth being fed from a lear taken off the river at centuries, a period which -- not coinci- a higher level, or from nearby springs, s dentally -- saw the practice of floating The water simply flowed down the natural spread for the first time into new areas, slope of the valley side from one ditch to outside Wessex and the West. This article the next. This system was most suited to briefly discusses the development of water- steep-sided valleys, and was, therefore, meadows in one of these areas- the most widely used in Somerset and Devon, of Norfolk- and the light that although many examples could also be this throws on the more general history of found in the Wessex chalklands. More floating outside its original western expensive and more difficult to construct heartlands. were 'bedwork' systems, which were used where valley floors were wide and flat and where, in consequence, water could not I otherwise be induced to flow continuously, Water-meadows unquestionably came late as the method required. In this system, a to Norfolk. In 1804, Young was able to lear fed water into channels ('carriers' or assert that floating was 'Of very late stand- 'carriages') which ran along the top of ing in Norfolk: the experiments made are parallel ridges, superficially resembling the few, but they are interesting enough to 'ridge and furrow' of former arable fields. promise a speedy extension.• , s Young in It flowed smoothly down the sides of these fact lists only five places where floating had and into drains (located in the 'furrows') so far been undertaken. Moreover, whereas which directly or indirectly returned the in Wessex and the West water-meadows water to the river. Movement of the water were a basic element of the sheep-corn into different parts of such a system would husbandry system, created by large and be controlled by an often very complex small landowners alike (in some instances, system of sluices (or 'hatches') and carriers. by groups of yeomen), in Norfolk their The seventeenth-century meadows were social context was very different. Here, the constructed quietly, almost as a matter of individuals responsible for the construction course, and generated little in the way of of irrigated meadows were, almost without written instructions or other literature, exception, members of a limited 'improv- with the exception of Vaughan's treatise of ing' clique; a group which formed a ready 161o. 6 Indeed, George Boswell was able to market for a small number of professional claim, with some justification, that his floaters and propagandists. Treatise on Watering Meadows published in Most of the irrigated meadows in 1779 was the first book to contain a full Norfolk described by Young in his General description of the technique. He described View of the Agriculture of No~olk of 18o4 his chapter on how to plan a meadow as were in the south-west of the county, in 'perfectly new in print', and noted that 'It Breckland, an area of acid sands and gravels may appear strange that none of the writers dissected by a number of wide river valleys. on husbandry have given proper attention At P,,iddlesworth, in the valley of the river to the...subject'. 7 Waveney, Sylvanus Bevan had begun floating in I792; by 18o4, there were 46 Kerridge, 'The sheepfold in Wiltshire'. 611. Vaughan, Most Approved and Long Experienced Water I~'/or'ks, 16m. 7 George Boswell, A Treatise on Watering Meadows, 1779. "Arthur Young, General View of the Ag&ulture of Norfolk, I8o4, p 395. I;

22 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW -i acres (c i9 ha) of floated meadows here, in the Gloucestershire method'. *= Although and a further I4 acres (c 6 ha) were under not so noted an improver as Bevan, Galway construction. 9 Bevan was no ordinary land- was at this time working with other local owner. He was a noted improver whose landowners -- notably the Petre family at activities in the marginal environment of nearby Buckenham Torts, and the Brecldand are referred to on a number of Nelthorpes in the adjacent parish of occasions by Young. He spent £7ooo -- to transform the local land- on transforming the landscape in scape, establishing plantations and radically and the adjacent parishes, altering the local road network. Nathan presiding over large-scale enclosures, land Lucas, the third in Young's list of floaters, improvement and tree-planting schemes succeeded the Nelthorpes at Lynford Hall (he planted over a million trees on his in I8O4; '3 Young reported in I8o4 that he estate). The floated meadows represented had 'recently' floated 8 acres (c 3 ha) here. '4 a relatively minor part of a massive scheme The two other irrigators noted in of ostentatious improvement. Young's General View were based in the A4cording to Young, Bevan had trouble north of the county: both were tenants of with his meadows as these were originally the Holkham estate who had floated mea- laid out: 'And having the favour of a visit dows in the valley of the fiver Stiffkey. At from the Rev. Mr. WRIGHT, he Wighton, John Reeve had created 20 acres employed Mr BKOOKS to form new (c 8 ha) after taking the lease on the farm works, by altering the direction of the here in i8o2. At nearby Houghton St beds, and reducing them from ten and Giles, Thomas Purdey of Egmere (whose twelve yards to seven') ° This 'Rev Wright' name is incorrectly rendered 'Purdis' by was almost certainly Thomas Wright, Young) showed the writer 8 acres (c 3 ha) rector of Ould in Northamptonshire and 'which he had very lately renewed'. ~s author of An Account of the Advantages of Thomas Purdey was no average farmer. Watering Meadows by Art, as Practised in the He worked -- as a tenant of the Holkham County of Gtoucestershire, published in estate -- over Iooo acres (4o0 ha), one of 179z. ~ Brooks himse!f cannot be identified the largest agricultural enterprises in the but, as we shall see, was involved in the county. Young frequently refers to him as construction of a number of other mea- an exemplar of the best that the tenants of dows in the county. this most progressive of estates could The second Breckland floater mentioned achieve, under the benevolent eye of by Young, Payne Galway, had irrigated 20 Thomas William Coke: it is not very acres (c 8 ha) of meadow at West Tofts, surprising to learn that Purdey employed, some ten miles north-west of yet again, 'Mr BROOKS, from Riddlesworth. We do not know when he Gloucestershire' to water his 8 acres carried out this work, but it must have (C 3 ha) f6 John Reeve was likewise a noted been after the publication of Wright's treat- improver, as well as being Purdey's ise, if we accept Young's statement that it in~nnediate neighbour. was this which had inspired him to the It is noteworthy that Purdey's meadows endeavour. He subsequently 'made appli- are the only ones in the county for which cation to that gentleman, who procured for him a man (Mr BROOKS) well skilled

':Young, No~folk, p 396. 9 lbid, p 396. ,3 Norfolk Record Ofiqce [hereafter NRO], MC I to/19, 11o/2o. '° Ibid. ,4 Young, No.rfolk, p 396. "Thomas Wright, An Account of the Advantages of Watering Meadows '~ Ibid, pp 24-25, 398-99. by Art, as Practised in the County of Gloucestershire, I792. '61bid, P 399. i FLOATED WATER-MEADOWS IN NORFOLK 23 Young suggests an earlier history of these follow the established pattern, of links irrigation. either with Coke and Holkham, or with Upon examining the spot where it would be proper the ubiquitous Brooks. At Billingford 'Mr to fix the sluice for throwing the water of the river BLOMEFIELD, on the recommendation into the main carrier, the foundations of an old of his landlord Mr COKE, has irrigation sluice were found, in a sound state; and the whole in contemplation'. ~° And, noting the good immediately renewed; on further examination, the carriers and drains in the meadow were all traced, potential for irrigation at in the opened afresh, and thus an irrigation formed upon west of the county, Young records that very nearly the plan of old works, which had been 'Mr STYLEMAN has engaged Mr utterly neglected for at least eighty years; upon BROOKS to make a trial'. ~ There is no further enquiry, it was found that this former firm evidence that the former meadow was irrigation was obscurely known to have existed... ,7 ever, in fact, created; but the latter seems In the Annals of Agriculture he provides a to have been established by I8I:~, when more detailed explanation of why these 'ten acres of water meadow grass' were earlier works were abandoned: 'The cause mown here. = The earthworks of the is to be imputed to a quarrel between the system, in the form of bedworks covering occupiers of that and the adjacent an area of around so acres (4ha), still meadow...resulting in neither of them survive. being prepared to repair the works'. ~s It is Yet 'Mr Brooks' was not the only water- impossible now to assess the validity of meadow engineer working the circuit of Young's archaeological or historical reason- improving tenants and landlords in ing, but if he was correct then Wighton Norfolk. It was not he who laid out John would appear to be a rather exceptional Reeve's meadows at Wighton, but one case. Certainly, only one other possible William Smith. Smith later gained fame as example of an early floated meadow is 'Strata Smith', the first geologist to enunci- known from Norfolk. An undated, untitled ate the principles of stratigraphy. Born at and somewhat ambiguous early seven- Churchill in Oxfordshire, Smith lived teenth-century map from the Le Strange much of his early life at Stow-on-the- archives shows what may or may not be Wold (a Gloucestershire connection again) an area of catchwork floating in where he was assistant to the surveyor in the west of the county. ~9 No other Edward Webb. In I793 he was entrusted evidence for floating here has been traced with surveying the course of a canal and if a meadow was created it must have through the Somerset coalfield, and was disappeared at an early date. One or two engaged on canal work here and elsewhere early attempts at floating may, therefore, until I799, living for much of the time at have been made in Norfolk during the High Littleton (Gloucestershire) and Bath. seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, By I8oo he was working in north-east but they were rare and apparently short- Norfolk, now involved in sea-defence lived experiments, and even in I8o4 there work. ~3 He was sporadically employed on were very few operating meadows in the this until I8O9, but had already, in I8o3, county. laid out 1Keeve's meadows at Wighton. To Young, however, notes in the General judge from Young's account, which does View two further places where farmers or not specifically name him, he was probably landowners were actively contemplating brought in at a relatively late stage to rectify floating in 18o4, and it is noteworthy that :°Young, Norfolk, p 398. ,v Ibid. :' lbid, p 4oi. 'S Annals of Agriculture, XLI, I8O4, p 559. :: NKO, Le Strange Supplementary Box z. "~ NKO, Le Strange OA3. :3 Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, pp 559-6x. ~i~

24 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW problems in a system created by someone dedicated to Coke himseK). Beck did not else, perhaps Reeve himself. ~4 Smith was receive the Norfolk prize for these mea- not, however, called in by Reeve. The dows, presumably because he held his initiative here was apparently taken by extensive farm (two farms, in fact; some Thomas Coke. As Young reported in the I IOO acres (445 ha)) on a yearly renewable Annals of Agriculture, he 'Brought out of tenancy, and it was the Holkham estate Somersetshire a person [Mr Smith] at very which organized and paid for the work. high wages, for making an experiment on As a result, no allowances for the cost of watering and not having land in his own this work appear in the Holkham audit occupation adapted to it, he made the first books. Instead, an additional £50 per year works on the farm of a tenant, a Mr Reeve was added to Beck's rent in 18o7 'for at Wighton'Y improvements by irrigation', a sum Coke's enthusiasm for irrigation had, by increased to £IOO in 18o8, and maintained this time, found another expression. In at that level (as a separate item in the 18o3 he began, through the Norfolk accounts) until Beck's death in 1822. 28 Agricultural Society, to offer an annual Thomas William Coke thus instigated and prize, 'A piece of plate to the value of 5 paid for the project himseK and, in conse- guineas to such person as shall convert the quence, received the gold medal from the greatest area of waste or unimproved mea- Board of Agriculture on 12 March 18o6 dows into water meadows in the most for floating the meadows here. ~9 Their complete manner'. ~6 To qualify, the appli- construction is commemorated on the cant had to give notice to Coke 'of the monument erected to Coke's memory in intended irrigation in order that the land Holkhaln Park after his death in 184°.. may be inspected before and after the The West meadows seem to improvement'. It comes as no surprise to have begun something of a vogue for learn that the prizes mostly went to floating down the valley of the Nar, a Holkham tenants, starting -- needless to chalk stream in the centre-west of the say ~ with John Reeve in 18o3. Indeed, county. A large system of meadows at the only exception was in the second year, Castle Acre, just downstream from West when the prize was awarded to Sylvanus Lexham, was constructed shortly after 18o8 Bevan for his meadows at Riddlesworth? 7 when Thomas Purdey took over the William SInith's arrival in the county, Holkham farm here: this was the same together with the new prize, are evidence Thomas Purdey who had earlier in'igated of an increasing enthusiasm for floating, land at Houghton St Giles. The precise and between I8O3 and 18o6 one of the chronology of the Castle Acre meadows is largest and most successful of the Norfolk slightly unclear, for in this case it was the systems was laid out on the farm of John tenant, rather than the estate itself, who Beck, another Holkham tenant, at West was responsible for the works. Lexham. This was designed by Smith, and Reimbursements made for a range of is described in some detail in his treatise improvements on this lama are recorded in on floating, published in in 18o6, the Holkham audit books, and these Observations on the Utility, Form and include allowances for bricks in some quan- Management of Water Meadows (a book tities: their use is unspecified, and we can clearly aimed at a Norfolk audience, and only speculate that some may have been destined for the weirs and sluices which, • 4 Young, Norfolk, p 398. as Annals ofAgdcuhure, XXXVII, 180-°, pp 5 I o-i 1. :~ Holkhana Hall archive, audit books, A/Au 7I. ~Am~als of Agriculture, XXXIX, I8o3, p 322. ~9 WiUiam Smith, Observations on tile Utility, Form, and Manacement ~TAnnals of Agriculture, XLII, 18o4, p 538. of Water Meadows, Norwich, i8o6, p iv. FLOATED WATER-MEADOWS IN NORFOLK 25 as we shall see, constituted an important boundary of Grenstein Farm and adjoining element of the floating system. There is, a small common, was the subject of some unfortunately, o~y one specific reference controversy in I85I, when H Keary to the meadows, in I812, when Purdey described in his survey of the Holkham was allowed £17 15s 'for lime for use of estate farms how water meadows'? ° The meadows must, It must have been brought into its present pro- however, have been largely completed by ductive state at a great cost to Mr Beck who is 181o, when Purdey was awarded a silver fairly entitled to considerate compensation should teapot, basin and cream ewer at the sanitary reasons compel its abandonment on the Holkham Sheep Shearing for irrigating 30 grounds that the sluice gate which is occasionally used for draining the water was the cause of the acres (12 ha)? x cholera epidemic amongst the cottages of 1L N Bacon, writing in 1844, refers to a by flooding the common near the village.35 further area of water-meadows higher up The outcome of this dispute is unknown, the , at Kempstone. These he tells but there is no archaeological trace of the us were created by 'the late General system in the landscape today, and none Fitzroy', who was a Holkhala't tenant here can be discerned on the I946 RAF aerial from 18o8 until 1838, and a prominent photographs. agriculturalist. 3" These are mentioned in Outside the valleys of the Nar and the Holkham estate survey of I85I, but Stiffkey rivers, and Breckland, there are nothing more is known of them. Bacon only a few places in the county where unfortunately fails completely to mention floating seems to have been attempted. the elaborate bedwork system at East William Smith mentions three in his Lexham, also in the Nar valley, traces of Observations. He refers to meadows created which survived until at least 1946. This by Thomas Branthwayt of Taverham Hall was not on a Holldaam farm, but on a (six miles north-west of Norwich), which separate estate, sandwiched between West were presumably situated in the neighbour- Lexham and Kempstone. There are no ing Wensum valley; and he notes that at surviving estate accounts which can pro- Beechamwell, near in the west vide a date for the system's construction. of the county, 'Mr Motteux's tenants' were All that can be said with certainty is that it 'busily employed in the same pursuit'. 36 was in existence by 184I, when its main Whether either scheme ever came to any- carrier was shown on the East Lexham thing is unclear: certainly, neither seems to tithe award map. 33 It was probably laid out have left any very obvious archaeological by F W Keppel, who bought the estate in traces. Smith also mentions one Money 18o6. As we shall see, the system lay close Hill, who 'will soon become a competitor, to his mansion, within his park. upon lands belonging to his brother'. 37 Bacon refers to a fifth set of water- Nothing more is known of this, but Hill- meadows constructed along the Nar, close who was a prominent Holkham tenant m to its source at Mileham. These he appears to have created some kind of irri- describes as two catchworks, 'reclaimed gated meadow on his own farm at from a bog' in 1816 by one William Beck Waterden, for which he received the (probably the son of William Beck of Norfolk prize in 18o8. 38 In addition to Lexham)? 4 This land, along the southern these, Bacon in the I84OS mentions one 'Mr Foster', of Easton, as one of the 3o Holkham Hall archives, audit book, A/Au 26. 3, Nooeolk Chronicle, 3oJune x8xo. 3s H Keary, Survel, of Holkllam: Holkham Hall archives, E/G 1 I. 3"lk N Bacon, The Report Oll the Agriculture ofNofolk, 1844, p 9 I. 36Smith, Obsen,ations, p iii. 33 NILO, East Lexham tithe award map, no. ,!-4o. 37 Ibid. 34Bacon, No[folk, pp 290-9I. 3SAvnals of Agriculture, XLV I8o8, p 96. 26 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY I~EVlEW county's limited band of irrigators, Floating not only came later to Norfolk although once again there is no obvious than to Wessex, it was also abandoned trace of his efforts in the modern kind- earlier. In Wessex, many water-meadows scape. 39 No other floated meadows are were still being floated in the I92OS and referred to in nineteenth-century printed '3os: but in Norfolk the practice seems to sources, and there are only a few other have come to an end before the 1914-18 places where the 1946 KAF aerial photo- War. This was certainly the case at Castle graphs may possibly indicate relatively Acre, according to Mr Devas Everington, small-scale attempts at floating, most who (like his grandfather and father before notably at South Raynham, in the valley him) once farmed the land here. The of a tributary of the Wensum. There is, in Holkham audit books record allowances addition, a slighdy garbled reference in a for repairs to the meadows as late as 19o5, local newspaper article of 1978 to the but Mr Everington's father seems to have flooding of grassland at Denver, on the abandoned floating around 191o, although edge of the Fens in the west of the county. he continued to worry that the estate might Here a network of small dykes, 'grips' or penalize him for failing to keep the works 'grups', was reportedly used to flood a in order, which suggests that the reinstate- small area of land 'in late autumn to catch ment of the system was still considered a the frosts so that the grass would be under viable proposition. No other meadows in ice. When the spring thaw came this early the county appear to have been floated flush of grass would afford an early bite for within living memory, and most were milking cows kept on the holding'. *° This probably abandoned before the end of the is presumably a description of a small-scale nineteenth century, and perhaps at the start floating system, but we have discovered of the agricultural depression in the I87OS. no other references to it, nor to any Some may have disappeared much earlier. similar systems using dyke water in this None of the three meadows in Brecldand way around the Fen edge. mentioned by Young seems to be referred Other floated meadows may once have to by any later source, such as Bacon's existed in the county, of course. Report on the Agriculture of Norfolk of 1844. Catchwork systems, lacking the distinctive The same book fails to mention the mea- 'ridge-an&furrow' earthworks of dows at Waterden and Houghton, as -- bedworks, are difficult to detect archaeol- more significantly-- does the detailed ogically. Moreover, some bedworks have account of the relevant farms in H Keary's been obliterated by subsequent changes in 1851 survey of the Holkham estate. The land use, by re-seeding, by the dumping meadows at Heacham cannot be traced of material dredged from adjacent water- after I81:L and the possible systems men- courses, or by deliberate levelling. tioned by Smith in 18o6 at Taverham and Nevertheless, while further research might Beechamwell are never referred to again. add a few more sites to the (somewhat While the chronology of the Norfolk meagre) collection shown on Figure I, water-meadows may have been different there can be little doubt that the practice from that of those in Wessex, there is no of floating never really caught on in the doubt that their management was broadly county: by the middle of the nineteenth the same. They were intended both to century, according to Bacon, irrigation had supply an early 'bite', and to produce an been 'but very partially introduced'. 4x increased summer hay crop. If Young's descriptions of the meadows at Houghton 39Bacon, No{folk, p 9I. 4o Eastern Daily Press, 5 January x978. and Riddlesworth, or Smith's at Lexham, 4, Bacon, Norfolk, p 9I. can be believed, the latter amounted to j FLOATED WATER-MEADOWS IN NORFOLK 27

Wlllrdln (leoe}Xoe) x , (C.1810) XoughlOl StOllll (1804} \ \ Mlleham /,' s I 08~8) /

lllllng for d (c.t804) UeOS)

i / o'~: ? .

Woet Tolls (¢.1792.1804)

x W¢lllen evidence only V WrltlOn and archaeolog*cal ev*dence

10 0 Archaeologccal evidence only b r ? Uncertain example 0 kilometros 15 (Dales of construction gwen where known)

FIGURE I The distribution of floated water-meadows in Norfolk around 2 tons per acre -- comparable to when grain prices were particularly high, the yields reported from meadows in and farmers and landowners optimistic Wessex, Oxfordshire, and Nottingham- about future prospects. Floating was a prac- shire in the same period, which were tice essentially alien to the county, intro- generally considered to be around double duced by a small band of improvers, those produced by non-irrigated mea- themselves influenced by a yet smaller dows. 4z In Norfolk, as in Wessex, floating number of propagandists and professional began in late October and continued until floaters. It was practised on a comparatively early March. After a short drying-out limited scale and for a relatively short period, ewes and lambs (or occasionally period of time. cattle) were put on to feed until early May. They were then taken off, the grass was watered again and allowed to grow, and a II hay crop taken in mid-late June. 43 Only in the Nar valley do extensive Most of the Norfolk water-meadows remains of floated meadows still survive in were thus created between I795 and I815, the county. The largest and best-preserved

4: Smith, Observations,p z 16; Young, No~"olk, p 4oi; J Denison, 'On are those created around 18 IO for Thomas the Duke of Portland's water meadows at Clipstone Park',jRASE, Purdey at Castle Acre, and it is worth I, x84o, pp 359-70; P Pusey, 'On the theory and practice of water discussing these in some detail. The mea- meadows', JRASE, X, 1849, pp 462-79. ,3 Smith, Observations, pp x P-[6; Young, Norfolk, pp 39:;-4oo. dows here received some attention a 28 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW \ S

Principal carrier

Carrier .0r ¸

.... ~ ...... Carrier: line inferred

Sluice or hatch FLOATED WATER-MEADOWS IN NORFOLK 29 decade earlier: the Holkham audit books Wessex meadows. More probably, the record allowances made in 1799 and 18oo difference is due to the nature of the local to Abel Ward, a previous tenant, for 'Tiles, land, and to patterns of later land use. As Bricks and Lime new Arches for draining noted above, the Norfolk meadows went meadows'. *4 Such works, if they still sur- out of use rather earlier than the Wessex vive, cannot be distinguished archaeolog- examples. They also, for the most part, ically from those associated with Purdey's occupy ground which is marshy and peaty, irrigation scheme. and on which, when drainage is poor, Purdey's meadows (Fig 2) cover an area tussocky grass rapidly establishes itself, blur- of nearly 3o acres (12 ha). They are similar ring the outlines of minor channels. in most respects to the better-known Moreover, the meadows -- at Castle Acre bedwork systems of Wessex, in that their in particular, but also more generally most conspicuous feature are the blocks of have mainly been used during the course ridges ('beds' or 'panes'), each c 8 m wide of this century as grazing for cattle, the and anything up to 8om in length. treading of which has a notorious effect However, unlike the Wessex systems, the on the finer details of earthworks. hatches here are constructed of brick, Whatever the explanation, the positions of rather than wood. The main sluices are the minor careers can often only be particularly massive structures, directing the inferred from the position of drains and water along different channels through sluices; such inferred carriers are clearly barrel drain-like tunnels (the use of distinguished on Figure 2. masonry for the construction of hatches The Castle Acre system was complex and sluices being strongly advocated by and intricate. Water was taken out of the Smith*S). Most of these structures have fiver Nat some 400 m north of the start of been badly damaged but their sites can still the first block of beds; the traces of the usually be located, as concentrations of sluices here can still be seen in the bed of brick rubble. In contrast to the high the river. The water was conducted in an visibility of the sluices, however, is the very unlined culvert along the side of the flood low visibility of the carriers, a feature plain and under the Castle Acre-Newton shared by other Norfolk systems. The prin- road to two substantial brick-built sluices cipal channels are, for the most part, evi- (at A on Fig 2). These allowed water to be dent enough, but the lesser carriers serving channelled in three directions: straight separate blocks of beds are usually invisible ahead (i.e., southwards), along the principal on the ground, and this is invariably the carrier; eastwards, along a ditch close to case with the individual feeders running the field edge, which watered block I; or along the top of each ridge. Even on the westwards, watering blocks 2 and 3. 1946 R_AF aerial photographs, the latter Flowing southwards along the main high- can be picked out, if at all, only with the level carrier, the water came next to a eye of faith. This is in marked contrast to complex brick-built sluice (t3). From here the Wessex examples, where even the it could be directed straight on, down a minor carriers or feeders are often apparent secondary carrier, to provide the water for on the ground, and on aerial photographs. block number 4; or eastwards across an The reason for this difference is not entirely aqueduct spanning the river to water blocks clear. The carriers may originally have been 5, 6, 7, 8, and- via more aqueducts- more diminutive features than in the blocks 9, IO and II. The main high-level carrier, however, ran westwards and then southwards on a prominent raised bank, to ~4 Holkllam Hall archives, audit books, A/Au 60. 45 Smith, Observations, p 78. hatches which controlled the flow of water 3 ° THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW on to blocks i9., I3 and I4. It then crossed the gentle hill here, being caught and the river on an aqueduct, flanked by sub- redistributed by the minor channels. stantial sluices which allowed water to be No other system in the Nar valley is as diverted eastwards, down into carriers well preserved as that at Castle Acre, which also, rather surprisingly, received although most seem to have shared its water from their other ends (Fig~.). principal features. Thus the West Lexham Crossing over another aqueduct (bridging meadows, designed by William Smith, a main drain), another hatch (C) allowed covered an area of over 5o acres (20 ha). water to be directed on to a small block Their western section is now buried of beds, number I6; and also into a long beneath undergrowth, and all that can be subsidiary carrier which, via a number of said with confidence is that here, as at small aqueducts, took water to blocks I7, Castle Acre, the beds were around 8 m I8, I9, and 2o. After this the main carrier wide, and that there were large numbers begins, somewhat unexpectedly, to run of masonry sluices. The central and eastern uphill, hugging the valley side, to point (a), sections of the West Lexham meadows are, beyond which it cannot be traced. It is however, more accessible, although much here c 1.75 m higher than at its lowest level, smoothed and obliterated by the dredging that is, where it crossed the river on the of the adjacent lake and river, and perhaps aqueduct. This southern section of the by re-seeding. The beds here are narrower, main carrier clearly cannot have been fed no more than 5 na wide in many cases, and from the river and must have utilized water much of the area seems to have been from springs which, due to the substantial operated as a catchwork, taking water not changes in the local water table, no longer only from the river but -- as at Castle flow at this high level. It may also have Acre -- from springs, and from the run- tapped into neighbouring field ditches. off from field ditches. Here, too, masonry Water from these sources was thus used to hatches were used, and aqueducts. One of supplement that coming from the river, these still functions, taking the water of a and explains why provision was made for substantial carrier -- the 'New River' -- certain carriers to receive water from their over that of the 'Old River', in order to southern and western, as well as their bring water into an ornanaental lake. This eastern and northern, ends, via the hatches is locally referred to as the 'moat', because flanking the main aqueduct. But the water it runs around the front of the large, early coming from this direction was also appar- nineteenth-century farmhouse. In spite of ently used in another way. The area lying its name, this is not an old feature: it does immediately downslope from the southern not appear on a map of the area made in section of the main carrier is occupied by I77I, 4° nor on William Faden's map of a complex pattern of faint linear inden- Norfolk, published in I797 but surveyed tations (Fig 3). These appear to represent around I794--5. 47 It was ahnost certainly slight, spade-dug channels which run in created at the same time as the water- roughly zig-zag patterns. The slope of the meadows: its outfall fed directly into the valley side is fairly steep here, so that it main carrier serving the central section of was not necessary to construct beds in the meadows, clearly suggesting that the order to keep the water in motion. Instead, lake's main purpose was to provide a head some form of catchwork floating seems to of water for the system. In other words, it have been practised. Presumably the hatch combined -- in Humphry Repton's oft- at D was closed and the water allowed to I 46 Holkhana Hall archives, Map P.oo,n, 4/5: map of West Lexham, fdl and over-top the edges of the main 177I. carrier, so that it flowed down the side of 47William Faden, A Map of the County of No~'olk, 1797. ~" ~~ ~ :,',,'I FLOATED WATER-MEADOW

MAIN DRAIN ~ "------" ~ --'------..._ 3I /',, ~...... , ,,, ,,,,,,,,,;:,:~:,::, :::.... ::~:::::1::,,.::;,,,,',," .

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"~ ~¢ :',,,," "., :! .::" i! :." :.i :: ". :: "~:. ., : ~,,, ,.,, ',m ~ "',,,:¢,, :i :: i" i~ i~ ;; L: .:- i: : ,, ...... :::::::::::::::::::::::: ...... ]

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...... :...... , ~ ~. ...-.. %~,:; .... " ..... '""" ' ...... ' ...... "';:'.: ¢ ¢i~..:,:" " ' ...... :'~':: : . i ~. "" "¢ "~ .':" • ...',,,'x~ "" ' ~- : H,ten ..... ;'?.':~"' ~ q • • ." ~ ...... ~' ."" ~ATCH .'~¢ i' ...::.:: ...... ; ...... ~;~'~,~i~ ...... "' "" . .. "::".

i' • .,""" o ! •, :,,. "4::,. "'.:::

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FIGURE 3 Casde Acre J quoted Words --_. 'be .... • . , Water-meadows: detail

._hi_endows seem t,~ ~-- . Y- he Lexl~o_ taken ¢,a" .,_ 1note genera/~,~-ave been one n~,~ ~n UpStream £eA ~.~'" .the r/vet so~ - car~;.A _ e*ugramm~ ,~¢: ~--*~ uza ~ .... ~, two lar¢,,~ L, , ""~ 750 rn .o'_'"-~ out on the fa~ 7 "~"nprovemen,o ? ~-a~cnwork. Th~ ;~\vlocKs ofbe.a ~ _ --; Which inclu '2 ' oe .ee Sos aA St? a long o.as drained a ~,uuse and rebuild;~"uLmodernizing ~*~ pane, the Lon,~'a~v e in the centre~"'ff~,uY at a total ~,~ .... -.,~ u~e tarn- 1_ ,% ~"~ anothe- - - --5 water ~.. ~,* one ~ . ~'~ ro the estat- .."I uuuamgs, ti-.~ . and -.__ My , y,us p rovidin NZ'° mg eas ards o 4ooo. e en more L par and J L ...,,_ the Z9a6 ~,-;^,' L~*u~er Up the .-:-- uz beauty a,~.~ - _,.'repressive co~.:- "."~- ~mmber of~,.~,^,; "~''~ Photo~anho o~._,,ver separate -~, ~ urUlty'. East ~'~,natzon • o.,,,tu area ~ ,-*-~ ~ow -state Lexham in East and WeD. ~ s. of possible be.~.__ a demesne, a,~.q ,not part of th., r. Was a Surviv ~ ~,.~ .t ~°~ Lexham. no,~ _ uwon¢ re£e,-.~- " "'~' there are ,~.. -," -'UO/lCham e_ ~,z Lne " -'~,*¢ ot • *~-ces to " • -~ uoc extensive z._ ground tOdd .. which Th _ this stnldn Umenta East L a:: °w~ever' Was theY.. Mu''h ~ore We, e elaburate Works '~ a~r~_an,ge.ment, ry exl~am Park. He~ or~em within t,o~.!~_ ~.exnam cost. "~ ~.astle Acre

•~Holkham Ha//archives,audit books -~, the t,,~ .~'4 an acre 4~ r_ . ' a/au 7~-7~. ~,~,u Cost o[ th,~ ~'- ,a Other •°Bacon, ~Voc~lk,v aoo. "" *briner must 32 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW have been between £300 and £1200: that been at least moderately successful. Bacon of the latter between £500 and £2000. describes the Lexham and Acre meadows These were large sums, rather more than as presenting a 'healthy and luxuriant the figures quoted for contemporary mea- appearance' in February I844, and the dows in the west of England, s° and com- Lexham meadows were much praised in parable to the sums spent on major farm an article in the Journal of the Royal rebuilding schemes. Not all Norfolk Agricultural Society of England by P Pusey in bedworks were as expensive as this, how- I849. s3 A more detailed account is given ever. According to Arthur Young, those at by H Keary in 185I. At Castle Acre, he Pdddlesworth cost only £5 zos per acre, describes 'a useful water meadow which those at Torts £4 4s per acre, prices more grows a great bulk of grass', while at in line with those current in Wessex. Yet Lexham it is noteworthy that Young reported prob- Those [meadows] on the east are the best and grow lems with these comparatively cheap sys- the best description of herbage; nearer to the tems. At Kiddlesworth, as we have seen, commons its peaty soil is observed in the meadow Bevan had to call in 'Mr Brooks' to alter lands and they are consequently not so sound or the layout and the width of the beds; while productive. The pastures are however invaluable to the Lexham farm, furnishing an inmaense quantity at Tofts, Young had 'great doubts of the of early Spring feed.54 method followed. I think the beds or panes too flat', s~ This was because the main At Kempstone, the meadow was also vari- carrier was insufficiently elevated above the able, but was deemed 'on the whole a very level of the river -- i.e., the leat was too valuable field supplying early feed for sheep short -- and the meadows at Lynford in spring and a heavy crop of excellent hay suffered from the same problem. At afterwards'; while at Wighton 'The water Wighton, too, the carrier was insufficiently meadow is sound and healthy, grows grass elevated when the meadows were first of very fair quality and is invaluable in constructed, at a cost of around £5 per early spring affording keep at a time when acre. The modifications designed by Smith it is always most scarce and valuable'. involved more earth-moving, and 'by fill- These large and complex systems may ing up holes, taking up tuff, and laying it have made a useful contribution to their down again, &c., some of the latter part respective farms, but their real financial cost him, it is said, about £20 per acre', s2 viability is not entirely clear-cut. At West What is interesting is that it was the expens- Lexham, as we have seen, the creation of ive and elaborate systems which continued the water-meadows increased the annual to function well into the nineteenth cen- rent of the farm by £xoo, not a bad return tury. The cheaper examples seem to have on an investment of, perhaps, £I5oo. But had a short life. Thus Bacon, writing in the latter was, nevertheless, a very substan- the I84os, describes the meadows in the tial sum, and it is hardly surprising that Nar valley, and those at Wighton, but most, if not all, of these meadows were completely ignores those in the Breckland created during the 'boom years' of the with which Young found problems. Not Napoleonic Wars: nor that by the middle too much should be made of this negative decades of the nineteenth century Bacon evidence, perhaps, but it is suggestive. was able to assert that floating had only The Nar valley systems, together with been introduced in the county 'at so great the meadows at Wighton, seem to have

~°Bowie, 'Watermeadows in Wessex', p 155. s3 Pusey, 'On the theory and practice of water meadows', pp 462-79. 5~ Young, Noorolk, p 396. ~4Keary, Survey of Holkham: Holkllam Hall archives, E/G l l, 5: lbid, pp 398-99. pp 218, 243-44.

i i:i: ii:! FLOATED WATER-MEADOWS IN NORFOLK 33 an expense as to prevent it being carried low lands is in a very backward state'. The out to any considerable extent'. 55 writer went on: 'What a pity that some nobleman or gentleman would not cause this improvement to be adopted in a few III parishes, and then the example would cause The late and limited adoption of water- farmers and others to adopt the same plan meadows was not something confined to in similar situations, for their own Norfolk. Rather, it was a characteristic advantage' .60 shared with other on the eastern Where, in the early years of the nine- side of England. Young, writing in the teenth century, floating was adopted on Annals of Agriculture in I786, thought that any scale in the , it was Babraham in Cambridgeshire had 'the only indeed -- as in Norfolk -- usually through watered meadow of any consequence on the intervention of aristocratic or, at least, this side of the kingdom', and Smith in fanatical improvers. Thus in Lincolnshire 18o6 believed that until very recent times the single example of floating recorded in floating had been unknown in the eastern I813, at Osbornby, was the work of one counties, s6 The various General Views simi- Mr Hoyte, 'that very spirited improver'. 6~ larly make it clear that floating had made In Bedfordshire, irrigation 'was introduced very little headway in the east. In I813, into the county by the late Duke of the Babraham meadows were still the only Bedford', and was limited to the parishes example of irrigation to be found in around the estate centre at Woburn. 62 In Cambridgeshire; there was only a single Leicestershire, floating was restricted to the floated meadow in Lincolnshire; in north-east of the county, and was largely Buckinghamshire there was 'but one associated with Robert Bakewell and his instance of irrigation worthy of record', at improving circle. 63 As was the case with Chenies, in 1813; while in Suffolk in 1813 the more successful Norfolk meadows, there was 'not a well-watered meadow in these works often involved substantial the county'. 57 In Hertfordshire, there were investment and, perhaps, a touch of flam- rather more examples, although even here boyance. Bakewell's meadows were irri- largely restricted to the valley of the river gated by an elaborate canal, while the duke Lea, and that of the Colne around of Bedford's were located within his park, 1kickmansworth. 5s In Kent, however, it and were almost a part of the landscape was reported that 'the practise has yet very design, fed from 'the Temple reservoir': a few friends', while in Middlesex, 'irrigation gander version of the kind of thing we makes no part of the practice of a have already seen at Lexham. Middlesex farmer') 9 In Huntingdonshire Aristocratic enthusiasm for encouraging in 1803 the story was the same; 'Irrigation the spread of floating into new areas in this or artificial watering of meadows or other period is clearly reflected in the decision, in r8o2, by the Board of Agriculture to ss Bacon, Norfolk, p 91. offer an irrigation premium to 'The person ~rAnnals of Agriculture, XVI, 1796, p 177; Smith, Observations, who shall in a county where irrigation is pp i-I2. ~7 lkev A Stj Priest, General View of the Agriculture of Buckinghamshire, not generally in practice, water the greatest z813, pp281-82; A Young, General Vieu, of the Agriculture of number of acres in the completest manner'. Suffolk, 1813, p 196; A Young, General View of the Agriculture of Lincolnshire, x813, pp 312-14; W Gooch, General View of the Agriculture of Cambridgeshire, :813, pp *-58-62. ~° 1~ Parkinson, General View of the Agriadture of Huntingdon, 18 z 3. ss Arthur Young, General View of the Agriculture of Hertfonlshire, I8O4, at Young, Lincolnshire, p 313. p I79. ~T Batchelor, General View of the Agriculture of Bedfordshire, x813, ~gj Boys, General View of the Agriculture of Kent, I8::3, p 164; pp 484-93. J Middleton, General View of the Agriculture of Middl'.sex, 1813, 6~W Pitt, General View of the Agriculture of Leicestershire, I813, pp 398-99. pp 2oi-i2. 34 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW To claim the premium the applicant had he claimed, 40o sheep in feed for five to provide 'An account of the old and new months. 67 This was close to the traditional state of the land, and its value, and of the heardand of floating: but a number of other ( method, expense and produce, verified by systems, in more remote parts of England, e certificate, to be laid before the board by are also described in the Journal. Thus 300 the third Tuesday in January'P* Both gold acres (120 ha) of the duke of Portland's t and silver medals were offered for several estate between Mansfield and Ollerton in I years: this was the prize which Coke won Sherwood Forest were irrigated in the I in 18o8 for the Lexham meadows, and I820s: 'The contrast between the wild which Beck and Purdey were awarded in beauties of nature and the finished works 181o for their work at West Lexham and of cultivation and art, thus placed side ,by t Casde Acre respectively (which Sir John side, is very striking and remarkable .68 ( Sinclair, chaimlan of the Board, described Meadows were also established in upland i as 'one of the first of improvements'). 6s areas: a system I000 ft up in the Brendon The Board's example was fo].lowed by the Hills and another on a Scottish sheep farm duke of Bedford and (as we have seen) by are both discussed in the pages of the Thomas Coke: both awarded prizes for Journal in the I84OS. 69 floating at their respective sheep shearings. Individual improvers might continue to We hear no more of the Norfolk prize establish floated meadows in all kinds of after 1812, presumably because investnaent weird and wonderful places well into the in new meadows in the county was coming nineteenth century, but the spread of the to an end as agricultural fortunes declined practice into new areas made little real at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. headway after the Napoleonic Wars. For Nevertheless, in other areas of the country all the enthusiasm of writers like Pusey, interest in the practice of floating con- Copland's Agriculture Ancient and Modern of dnued strong among certain improvers, 1866 estimated that there were not more and it was maintained in the discourse of than IO,OOO acres (c4oooha) of water- agricultural improvement until the I85OS. meadows in Britain: in Wiltshire, There was, in particular, a rash of papers Gloucestershire and Devon they had been in the early volumes of the Journal of the used 'time out of mind', but 'want of Royal Agricultural Society. Philip Pusey, the knowledge' had prevented them being chairman of the .journal committee, was a more widely adopted. 7° particularly enthusiastic supporter, who This last comment was fairly typical. described the water-meadow as Agricultural writers in the late eighteenth The triumph of agricultural art: changingas it does and early nineteenth centuries expressed the very seasons...A slight fihn of water trickling continual amazement that the practice of over the surface rouses the sleeping grass, tinges it floating was not more widespread, blanfing with living green amidst snows and frosts, and ignorance, laziness, lack of enclosure, or brings forth a luxuriant crop in early spring, just the opposition of nfill-owners. Yet even when it is most wanted...~ their own accounts make it clear that many Pusey himself succeeded to the family of the floated meadows established outside estates in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) in the traditional heartlands were not very I8~8, where he installed a system of mea- successful. It was not only in Norfolk, at dows which enabled him to quadruple his stock of sheep: one 2u-acre meadow kept, 67j Caird, English Agric,lture 185o-51, p I xz. 6~ Denison, 'Water meadows at Clipstone', pp 359-70. ~4 Annals of Agricldture, XXXVII, 1802, p 68. ~'~J Road, 'On the converting of mossy hillside to catch meadows', 65 Norfolk Chro,licle, 3u June I8m. JRASE, VI, t846, pp 518-2z. 66 Pusey, 'On the theory and practice of water meadows', pp 462-79. v°S Copland, Agriculture Ancient attd Modenl, ~866, p 762.

i:! FLOATED WATER-MEADOWS IN NORFOLK 35 Riddlesworth, Wighton, Lynford, and quence irrigation began on Easter Monday Toffs, that problems are recorded in the 'and never sooner than two weeks before': General Views. In Hertfordshire, for all, in Young's words, amounting to 'cir- example, 4o or 5o acres at Watton were cumstances...not easy to understand'. 76 'ill-planned and badly executed' and 'in the greatest state of neglect'; while at Bushey, one 'Mr Wayford' had floated a IV meadow, but 'nothing is done at present'. 7~ Yet the explanation is, in fact, probably More significant, however, is the fact that quite simple. Irrigated meadows as con- some of the irrigated meadows in this structed and managed in Wessex and the particular county were not used to gain an west were here (to use a biological analogy) early bite at all, but simply to produce an at the very edge of their range. Two factors increased hay crop in the summer: thus the militated against their successful develop- extensive meadows between Cassiobridge ment in the eastern counties. Topography and Watford, and at Uxbridge, were mown was one. The gentle gradient of most twice each year, but only the affergrass valleys m especially in Norfolk, was fed. 7~ Cambridgeshire, and much of Suffolk -- The descriptions of the Babraham mea- not only precluded the institution of cheap dows in Cambridgeshire, provided by catchwork systems but also made the cre- Smith and Young, are particularly interes- ation of successful bedworks dependent on ting in this context. These meadows were the construction of long, elaborate leats. created much earlier than any of the Without these, the fall of water would be examples so far discussed: they were laid insufficient for successful floating, and the out between I652 and I654 by Thomas kinds of problems recorded by Young at Bennet, the lord of the manor. 73 But they 1Liddlesworth or Wighton would be en- do not seem to have been true 'floated' countered. As Bowie has pointed out, the meadows, as that term is normally under- sharp gradient of the Wessex valleys was stood. Indeed, both Smith and Young were the 'critical factor' in the widespread adop- perplexed by the system. In Young's view, tion of the system there and, by impli- 'There does not seem to be the least cation, elsewhere in the west. 77 The intelligence or knowledge of the husbandry problem in the east of England was not of water. No other art is exerted, but that just the high cost of constructing very long merely of opening in the bank of the river leats. As Smith emphasized, there was also snaall cuts for letting the water flow on to the difficulty of other lands intervening the meadows', v4 And Smith believed that 'between those to be flooded and the place 'The form of the works seem to prove, where the water must be taken out of the that they were not designed by any person river': the greater the length of the principal from Wiltshire, and that the possessors are carrier, fairly obviously, the more likely totally unacquainted with the management that it would need to cross the land of and utility of water meadows'. 7s Like some several proprietors, and also to interfere of the Hertfordshire meadows, they were with the water supply to mills. 78 not designed to provide early sprng feed, Topography may have been important in but only a summer hay crop, and in conse- another way. Wide flat valleys with gentle gradients tended to contain soils which 7, Young, Hertfordshire, p 178. 7"-Ibid, p 179. were rather more peaty and acid than those 73Adrienne Rosen, 'Babraham' in the Victoria COt,lty History of Cambridgeshire, vol VI, p 25. 76A,,als ofA2ric, lt,re, XVI, 1797, p 177. 74Asttlals ofAgrictdture, XVI, z797 p 177. 77 Bowie, 'Watemleadows in Wessex', p 152. 75 Smith, Obsewatio,s, pp 116-x7. 78 Smith, Observations, p 12o. i: :k

36 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW found in the valleys of the west, and even in 1849, the practice of floating was less when irrigated tended to produce a rather well suited to the drier and colder areas of coarse herbage: something which presum- the country. 8~ Even as ardent an advocate ably explains the frequent complaints that as William Smith acknowledged the prob- water-meadows in the east were badly lems encountered in the second year of infested with rushes. floating at Lexham, when 'The water was However, topography cannot have been applied every night, but, from the coldness the only reason why water-meadows of the season, produced but little effect'. 8~ remained rare in the east of England, for The improved hay crop which could be moderately steep valleys can be found in gained from floating was dependable in parts of the region, especially in such situations; but in England, unlike Hertfordshire and Lincolnshire. An equally some other areas of Europe, most land- significant factor was probably the climate. owners clearly considered the benefits to Irrigated meadows are known from many be derived from this insufficient to warrant parts of Europe, including Poland, the expenses of construction and mainten- Yugoslavia, Portugal, Spain, southern ance. A few such hay-production systems France, Sweden and Denmark. 79 The were established in England, but as part of reasons for irrigation varied, however, from grandiose reclamation schemes in highland region to region. In western Europe, in areas, as on Exmoor by the Knights in the areas with an Atlantic climate and mild I84OS, or on the Brendon Hills in the winters, the main purpose was to expand I82OS (where it was claimed that floating the growing period, by raising the ground between March and May doubled the hay temperature and thus encouraging an early crop), s3 Such systems were always rare, growth of spring grass. The increased pro- however, and they were virtually unknown duction of hay in the summer which these in lowland areas: in part no doubt because systems could also bring was a useful, but here the more muted terrain made their secondary, benefit. In areas with a more construction particularly difficult and continental climate, in contrast -- Poland, expensive. Yugoslavia, and Scandinavia -- hay pro- This might seem a rather obvious con- duction was the main objective. The sever- clusion, but it is nevertheless one with ity and lateness of frosts here was such that important implications. To begin with, it floating was insufficient to stimulate a sig- suggests that, in this matter at least, Young nificant early growth, at least on a regular and most other eighteenth- and nineteenth- basis, and it was rarely carried out for this century writers on agriculture had a less purpose. 8° than perfect grasp of the essential practi- Lowland England may, as far as floating calities of fainting. The failure of the prac- is concerned, be considered as Europe in tice of floating to diffuse from western into miniature. In the west of the country, mild eastern England was not due to the laziness winters and early springs made the early or ignorance of tanners and landowners. forcing of grass feasible on a regular basis. Rather, it was the result of sound judge- In the more continental east, however, ments made on the basis of economic, and sharp and often late frosts, sometimes con- ecological, realities. Moreover, the history tinuing for long periods of time, made the of floating in Norfolk and elsewhere serves i early 'bite' less dependable. As Pusey noted to highlight an important aspect of the

TgUrban Emanuelsson and Jens MOiler, 'Flooding in Scania: a method to overcome the deficiency of nutrients in agriculture in s, Pusey, 'On the theory and practice of water meadows', p 477. the nineteenth century', Ag Hist Rev, 38, 199o, p 136. s: Smith, Obsewations, p i i 5. so Ibid. !i. s3 Road, 'Converting of mossy hiUside', pp 518-2"..

I, !i~ ( , t

FLOATED WATER-MEADOWS IN NORFOLK 37 'Agricultural Revolution' of the late eight- Smith. Lastly, and perhaps most import- eenth and early nineteenth centuries, one antly, this study raises questions about the which deserves more emphasis. These later way in which quite subtle environmental water-meadows were, for the most part, factors could engender profound regional somewhat flalnboyant schemes of improve- variations in eighteenth-century farming ment imposed on environments to which, systems. For it is worth speculating on in reality, they were not very well suited. whether the 'Norfolk four-course Their creation was, of course, encouraged system' -- providing as it did an alternative by the peculiarly favourable economic con- source of winter and early spring feed in ditions of the late eighteenth and early the form of a root crop -- would have nineteenth centuries. But in the final analy- developed when it did, and where, if the sis, the meadows were largely the product advantages gained from floating meadows of fashion, of the hype and salesmanship had been as great in the east of the country, of men like 'Mr Brooks' and William_ as they evidently proved to be in the west.

Notes on Contributors MARY A ATKIN grew up in the Craven district of University of East Anglia. He has written widely Yorkshire, is a geography graduate of Liverpool on the history of the rural landscape: his recent University in the H C Darby era, and developed publications include Parks and Gardens (with A. interests in place-names and field and settlement Taigel), Batsford, 1993, and The Origins of Norfolk, patterns on which she has published a number of Manchester University Press, 1993. He is co-editor papers. After teaching in a range of schools she of the journal Rural History. became Senior Lecturer in Chorley College for Mature Students and in Preston Polytechnic, and gained an M Phil under Prof Glanville Jones at the DR SUSANNA WADE MARTINS is a Research Associate University of Leeds. She has interests especially in at the Centre of East Anglian Studies, University past farming in north-west England. of East Anglia where she is currently engaged with Dr Tom Williamson on a three-year ESRC-funded DR ALUN HOWKINS is Senior Lecturer in History in research project studying Agriculture and Landscape the School of Cultural and Community Studies at in East Anglia 165o-187o. Her publications include the University of Sussex where he has taught since Norfolk, a Changing Countryside, Phillimore, 1988, 1976. He left school at 13 and worked on the land and Historic Farm Buildings, Batsford, 1991. going to Ruskin College in 1968 as a mature student. He went from there to Queen's College Oxford and then to Essex, where he did a doctorate. PROF CHARLES W J WITHERS has just been appointed This was published in 1985 as Poor Labouring Men. as Professor of Geography in the University of Rural Radicalism in No~'olk, 187o-1923. In I992 he Edinburgh. He is the editor of the Historical published a general social history of rural England, Geography Research Paper Series of the Institute Reshaping Rural England. A Social History, 185o-192.5. of British Geographers. In addition to his interests He has just finished a section for the forthcol~ng in the connections between agricultural science, volmne VII of The Agrarian History q[" England and natural history, and enlightenment philosophy, he Wales, 185o-1914, and started work on the small has also published on the historical geography of peasant farmer in Britain. He is an editor of History Gaelic Scotland, on the geography of rural social Workshop Journal and a member of the board of protest, and on the history of geographical ideas. Rural History. He is currendy undertaking research on the relationships between geography, survey, and DR TOM WILLIAMSON is Lecturer in Landscape nationhood in the seventeenth century in the work History at the Centre for East Anglian Studies, of Sir Robert Sibbald.