Friends of the Forest (the Forest Recreation Ground Nottingham)

Nottingham Inclosure Act, 1845: Why is it important today?
June Perry.   14th April 2013

 

AN  INCLOSURE    is the changing of open fields, moorland and wastes into fenced areas, basically a change from the mediaeval three-field system  with all the farms together in the village, to the later one of a farm away from the village, surrounded by its own fields.    The large fields became small fields, some of the rough areas became cultivated.   These enclosed plots were individually owned and common rights were extinguished.

Some Inclosures were done by agreement, when there were only a few owners of common fields and they could see the advantages of having their own fields within a small area close by, with the management under their own control, instead of in separate strips at a distance with different holdings every year, the management controlled by the set pattern of tradition.
Laxton remains today as the only example of the old system.

In other cases there were large areas in the possession of one or two wealthy men who enclosed the great moorland commons or other as yet uncultivated places to increase the value of the land by cultivation, to make themselves exclusive sheep-runs at a time when wool was at a premium and to sell bits if they wished.     An Inclosure Act of Parliament was required if there were dissenting owners.   This was not necessary in Nottingham for the Castle Park, with only the duke of Newcastle as owner, but was needed for St. Mary parish.

The outrage expressed over the enclosure of commons, as in the famous poem asking why it is such a crime to steal a goose from off the common, but not the common from the goose, I believe came in the late 18th century, when the village commons, or village greens, of which a few still survive today, were enclosed by the lord of the manor.   This remains the popular image of an enclosure, as the benefits of the poor being stolen by the rich.

This sort of enclosure is referred to in the evidence of Mr. Browne, lawyer, of Nottingham, at a parliamentary enquiry in the 1860s.   He has nothing but good to say about the Nottingham Inclosure, but referring to that of Eastwood, he points out that a famous 15-acre cricket ground was wiped out there, mainly because, as in other places, the humble people of the area owed their livings and their houses to the man doing the enclosing and would not dare speak out.

 

THE  NOTTINGHAM  INCLOSURE  ACT,  ST.  MARY’S  PARISH, 1845 -before

The Nottingham enclosure was unlike any other.   There had been other Inclosure Acts for the town, such as for the Derby Road area and the General Cemetery, where land with common rights was sold by the Lord of the Manor, (in this case the Mayor and Burgesses), but the changing of use of most of the huge stretch of land from the river to what is now Gregory Boulevard and over Mapperley Hills as far as the Plains, and from Sneinton to Lenton, involved dealing with a great number of different rights.

The Town was notoriously overcrowded to a disgusting and dangerous degree, and it needed to extend over the fields that surrounded it.  The infant death rate was extremely high.   The town was no longer pastoral but industrial, but as long as the land brought small amounts of wealth to a great number of people, mostly those who could claim to be a Burgess but also others who thought they had a claim to common rights or received another related benefit, it was going to be contentious to change.

The pattern of use of the Three Fields of mediaeval Nottingham, and its Wastes, had been altered at some time in the late seventeenth century.   William White, in his History of Nottingham of 1840, says that the owners found it inconvenient to cultivate the fields for two years but then have them entirely commonable the third.   They agreed that henceforth each would fence his own small plot and open it for commonable use each year at agreed times, with two gaps in the hedges of each field.

 In the Sand and Clay Fields this was from 12th August to 12th November.   The meadows were open from 6th July to 2nd February but closed from 13 August to 3rd October and the East Croft could be used at a payment of a fee from 19th September to 11th November.   From  2nd February to 6th July there were no Fields open but the Wastes of the Forest and Mapperley Hills were available all the year round to all comers.

Many of the Freeholders wanted change, but the Common Hall (Town Council) consisting entirely of burgesses was consistently against it.   So it remained until the shake-up of the way in which councils were to be elected in the future, by the Municipal Reform Act of 1835.

 

NOTTINGHAM  INCLOSURE  ACT  1845  ST.  MARY’S  PARISH  –  after

An Act to enclose the Fields and Wastes of Nottingham, St. Mary’s Parish, was given the Royal Assent on June 30th 1845.   There had been much opposition but this time the Act which would allow the town to build out over the fields in all directions had been passed into law.   The Award was not made until twenty years later, 1865, which must indicate the number and complexity of the different issues raised.

At first all those making a claim, for land, rights of common, a burgess part (which was a small sum annually for the most aged burgesses) or other benefit that would be lost were asked to present them in writing on such a date.   The days given for this were extended and eventually there were over 550 claims.

These were then set out for public view and objections to the claims were asked for, again in writing on a particular date.   This had to be put back as clearly too many people were trying to comb through too many documents.

When at last the claims and objections, many of them multiple, were in, the Commissioners discussed how they were going to deal with them, and had Schedules made which put everything into understandable tables.   When they started to hear the claims, in December 1846, a year and a half had already gone by.   Some claimants had died and fresh claims had to be put in.

One aspect of this Inclosure, however, was agreed and pursued by the council
 with vigour, and was one that was perceived to promise great benefit for all the townspeople.   This was the giving of 130 acres of the newly freed land for the use of the public for recreation, and so known as Allotted Recreation Grounds.   The open fields around Nottingham had given the inhabitants plenty of space for walks and games in the fresh air, and now it was intended to keep something of this facility in spite of the building that was about to cover all the fields.   The first idea was of long, wide walks that would nearly encircle the town, and a few cricket grounds.   After the idea of an arboretum gained ground, the extent of the walks was cut back, but was still five miles in all, with five parks more or less linked by them.   Eight acres were to be used to add to the two new town cemeteries, one already established and one yet to be laid out, which are the General Cemetery and the Rock Cemetery.