Milestones
Enclosure Movement
Also Known As Inclosure (the older legal spelling)
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The centuries-long conversion of England's common land into private, fenced holdings, ending the traditional rights of commoners to graze and gather there. From the first parliamentary act of 1604 to 1914, over 5,200 acts enclosed some 6.8 million acres, about a fifth of England. It made the improved rotations of the agricultural revolution practical, and it broke the small farmer, the cottager and the squatter, sending the displaced into the industrial towns; both halves of that ledger are the milestone.
Facts
Milestone YearThe first parliamentary enclosure act; enclosure by agreement ran earlier and the parliamentary wave ran through 1914. WhenFrom the first parliamentary act in 1604 through 1914, with the heaviest activity in the 18th and early 19th centuries 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Enclosure made the improved rotations of the agricultural revolution practical, at the commoners' cost
Sources
1. Enclosure (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section and Parliamentary enclosure sectionQuote, Lead section and Parliamentary enclosure section
Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage.
Common Land (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationEnclosure and Decline sectionQuote, Enclosure and Decline section
sometimes accompanied by force, resistance, and bloodshed, and remains among the most controversial areas of agricultural and economic history in England
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