An Extra Dimension? Lincolnshire Farm Buildings as Historical Evidence* By P S BARNWELL Abstract The last decade has seen a growth of interest in historic farm buildings, but they have usually been seen as individual structures, and in isolation from other aspects of rural history. On the basis of a systematic survey of entire farmsteads in part of Lincolnshire, it is here suggested that the physical remains may contribute to understanding agrarian conditions. It is tentatively concluded that, if studied on a regional basis, farmsteads may provide evidence for the local realities which lie behind national agricultural trends and, more especially, that systematic examination of farmsteads can provide valuable evidence for a way of life soon to be lost to living memory. N 1993 and 1994, the Royal Sleaford (Figure I). Within those areas all Commission on the Historical the extant buildings of almost all the farm- I Monuments of England recorded over steads with pre-I93OS structures were 25o farmsteads in five contrasting parts of recorded; there are a few eighteenth- England: north Northumberland, central century buildings, but most are nineteenth- Cheshire, south Lincolnshire, south century. Only the farms with the most Berkshire and east Cornwall. The main fragmentary or heavily converted remains findings of the survey has been published were excluded, and, unlike many previous elsewhere, ~ but the present paper seeks to studies of agricultural buildings, the unit examine the potential of the physical of record was the complete farmstead, remains as evidence for agrarian history (in rather than individual buildings. its widest sense), taking south Lincolnshire as a case study. The conclusions drawn are tentative, but it is hoped that they may I stimulate debate concerning the links The eastern survey area contains four par- between farm buildings and social and ishes on the Black Sluice Fen: each parish economic history. contains a large amount of fenland, at the The area selected for the survey consists west end of which, where the land rises of two almost contiguous blocks of parishes very slightly, is the main settlement; which lie east of Grantham and south of beyond, is a smaller area of land, in places referred to as the Common. Much of the * I should like to express my gratitude to my colleagues, A T Adams, area is strong clayland, described in I85I Colum Giles and D A H Richmond, who read drafts of this paper and suggested a number of improvements, as also did Dr S Wade as 'stiff clay, harsh and difficult to work'? Martins. I am also grateful for the comments of the participants in The western parishes are entirely on the a joint conference of the Historic Farm Buildings Group and the Society for Landscape Studies, held in April ~995, at which I higher land, which is predominantly heavy, delivered an earlier version of the material presented here. None cold clay. of those who have been kind enough to share their thoughts would, however, necessarily agree with my views. Finally, I should Enclosure was achieved shortly after like to thank A T Adams for producing the illustrations. 18oo - and some of it much earlier - but The reports, drawings and photographs of the farmsteads surveyed by RCHME as part of its project are available to the punic through realization of its full potential was ham- the Public Services department of the National Monuments Record pered by inadequate drainage, particularly (RCHME's archive), at the National Monuments Record Centre, Kemble Drive, Swindon SN2 2GZ. The findings of the survey are published in P S Bamwell and Colum Giles, Englist, Farmsteads, :J A Clarke, 'On the farming of Lincolnshire', JRASE, XlI, 1851, r75o-I914, Swindon, 1997. p 268. Ag Hist Rev, 46, I, pp 35-46 35 [i: 36 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ~\ Newark 1857 1859 ~oiddlng 0 Grantham Bracab Lw..~..t n=~r Folkingham Sappe, 0 6 rnllr~s I',,I I I I I i 10 10 km FIGURE I The survey areas, showing features discussed in the text. in the fenland parishes. 3 Traditionally, such it was not until the late I84OS, when the drainage as there had been was effected by South Forty Foot was itself deepened, and the Roman Car Dyke, which runs along a steam pumping engine installed, that the the western edge of the fen, near the system reached its full effectiveness.* villages. Although it took some of the Although the western group of parishes downwash from the higher land, its effect was higher, drainage of a different kind - on the fen proper was negligible. The first underdrainage - was required in order to major improvement came in the late- render the highly water-retentive clays suit- eighteenth century, when the South Forty able for tillage: although commenced Foot drain (which marks the eastern before 1851, it had not progressed very far boundary of the parishes) was created. by that date. s In neither of the survey Although this was a considerable advance, areas, therefore, was the maximum area of the improvement was not sustained, and arable land available until the middle of the there were annual floods between z795 and nineteenth century. 18oz. The installation of windmills to lift A second factor which affected the econ- water from the parish drains into the South 4 Clarke, 'Lincolnshire', pp 298-3o2, 306-7; J A Clarke, 'On the Forty Foot made the land more secure, but Great Level of the Fens, including the Fens of South Lincolnshire', JRASE, VIII, I847, pp r22-3; Gfigg, Agricultural Revolutiot,, 3 D B Grigg, The Agriadtural Revolution in South Lincolnshire, z966, p pp z8-9; J Think, English Peasant Fanning: the agrarian history of 33; A Young, General View of the Agriodture of the County of Lincoln, Lincolnshirefrom Tudor to recent times, z957, p zzo. I799, pp 54, 57. s Clarke, 'Lincolnshire', pp 379-8o. / LINCOLNSHIRE FARM BUILDINGS 37 omic potential of the region was the devel- hamlet of Hanby) were dominated by the opment of new modes of transport. The holdings of the Heathcote family, and Car Dyke had once been navigable, and Pickworth by those of the duke of one source records it as being so in Great St Albans; smaller areas of land were held Hale and Helpringham as late as 1855. The by a number of other families of varying South Forty Foot was certainly navigable status and importance. In the fenland area, during the entire nineteenth century, and the pattern of ownership was different: in in 1851 it was reported that a steam packet Swaton all the land belonged to the was to commence operation along its full Warners of Walsingham Abbey, but else- length. These facilities meant that the east- where the land was owned by a number ern block of parishes had relatively easy of individuals and estates, including quite a access to markets served by the river large number of small freeholders. Partly, Witham - westward to Lincoln and east- but not entirely, on account of the presence ward to Boston and the coast. 6 of the latter, the average farm size in the The situation was greatly improved by fen area was 14o-I6O acres, around half the advent of railways during the second that in the clayland parishes to the west. s half of the nineteenth century (Figure I). The railways were probably even more important for the western area, since they II provided the first easy means by which These general background features are produce could be moved out of the region. directly relevant to the nature of the agric- The significance of this development for ulture which was practised in the survey Lincolnshire as a whole was clearly seen at area from the late-eighteenth to the early- the time, James Caird, writing in 1852, twentieth century - the period from which being explicit about the impact of railways the extant buildings survive. At the begin- on agricultural practice, and land agents in ning of the nineteenth century, grassland the I86OS considering that rents could be predominated: one contemporary, speak- increased in proportion to proximity to ing of a wider area of south Lincolnshire, railway stations/ appears to have seen this as being at least A further factor which could affect both partly a response to poor transport links, profitability and the nature of agricultural since it was easier to move livestock than exploitation was that of land ownership; grain along bad roads to market. The main this is also directly related to buildings, agricultural emphasis was on locally-bred since estates did not always invest in them sheep, and the finishing of cattle which at the same time or in the same way. For were imported from as far afield as Scotland this reason, one of the criteria for the and Wales. In most of the western parishes, selection of the survey area was that it the largest arable crop in I8OI was wheat, should include parts of a number of estates. but the acreages were generally small; the In the western group of parishes, Newton, arable acreage was rather larger in the Haceby and Sapperton were largely owned fenland area, with oats being the main crop by the Welby estate, while Walcot, except in Swaton. 9 Folkingham and Lenton (apart .from the Between I8Ol and I866, the area under ~Kelly, Post Office Directory of Lincobtshire, I855, pp 11o, 1t6-17 HSince the tithe records are so patchy, the figures are based on the states that the Car Dyke was navigable in Great Hale and records of the r9Io National Property Valuation for the relevant Helpringham, though the 25" OS maps of the i88os show that it Income-Tax Parishes, held in PP.O, Ilk58; for the wider context, had ceased to be by the time of their production.