FARMING CHANGES IN BRITAIN ENCLOSURES ACTS 1790 1810

FARMING CHANGES IN BRITAIN ENCLOSURES ACTS 1790 -1810 Working towards AQA - 86063 Project One Alternative Provision Ltd | support@project 1. org. uk

What was the farming enclosures act? The farmers enclosures act was invented and put into place through the end of the 17 th century heading into the 18 th century. It was aimed at larger land owners and a change in the agricultural times with the ability to join back together lots of previously separated plots of land. This happened because it became available to use machinery and gain the maximum crop potential by doing so. However this stopped the smaller farmers and tenants from being able to compete with prices. This made it harder to make a living and caused farmers to live in poverty until the smaller farmers moved away finding jobs in the city and town to make a living.

Diagram of how enclosures act changed villages Today in rural locations you will still see signs of how the land was farmed before the enclosures act. The field system was called ridge and furrow, this is where strips of land were separated to grow vegetables to live from. No fences were used so the land was made into a ridge and the furrow was created in rows to separate everyone's land.

Who gained from the enclosures act? The land owner who had lots of fields that are joined together. They could open up the land using it all with no furrow increasing land growing space so more rent could be gained from the increased acres. The larger and more established farmers had equipment ready to be used on the larger pieces of land. They also have more worker available to them to collect in the crops making the larger farm easier and more cost effective.

Who struggled with the enclosure act. Tenant farmers of the land before it was joined together. They may have had problems proving written legal entitlements. This lead to them loosing the land not being able to provide for their family’s. Small farmers who had smaller plots of land were not able to keep up with the machinery changes and prices. They also couldn’t compete with the prices larger farms were willing to pay for things.

What happened to the farm workers? When the encloser act came into place, there were lots of smaller farmers that had to change their lifestyle. It became a lot harder to compete with the large farmers. People that didn’t own land but used areas around villages to grow food to eat, lost out on there produce and were left with an increased food bill causing hunger and poverty. At this time some small land owners that had passed land through generations and which had a legal entitlement could gain compensation for their loss however they were still left with no land to grow the food they required to eat. When the entitlement act was made, the land workers were forced to move away from the countryside and into the city’s. This also caused a huge depopulation in the countryside making farm workers harder to find also causing a large rise in housing requirements throughout towns and city’s. Many of the farm workers went to find work in the factories so they could provide for there families.

Question time. 1 - What are the strips of land called that were used in villages to grow vegetables called? 2 - Where did the farm workers move to once the enclosure act changed the local farming methods? 3 - Who became rich from the change in the law? Research further and create a your own poster, you can do this in a word document and add pictures to help show your own research.