In 1795 the chief landowners took steps to obtain an Act for enclosing all four parishes. There were stronger reasons for enclosing than in the majority of the East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire parishes all around, in which Parliamentary enclosure was being pushed furiously on, for the fens were capable of enormous improvement. But in the Isle of Axholme it was not possible for the chief landowners to overbear the opposition of the villagers. One peculiar feature of the locality was that every cottage had a common right, and there were no rights attached to land apart from cottages. This fact, and the peculiarly wide distribution of property, caused the decision to rest with the peasantry. They raised no objection to the division and drainage of the marshes, perceiving that their allotments would be far more valuable after drainage than their common rights before; so this part of the scheme was generally agreed to. But on the question of the enclosure of the arable fields they were not complacent. They saw that the expense of hedging a small allotment would be heavy, and the injury done by the hedge to a small plot, of say 1 or 2 acres, by shading the land and sheltering it from the wind would more than counterbalance the advantage of having that holding in one piece instead of in two or three, to say nothing of the loss of the space given up to hedges. They also probably feared that the arable land, if enclosed, would largely be laid down to grass, and so the benefit of an increased demand for labour and higher wages promised by the enclosure of the marshes would be lost, at least in some degree, through the enclosure of the fields. Accordingly the necessary consent of a “three-fourths majority in number and value” of the owners was not obtained, and the proposal to enclose was defeated. It would appear that all the educated, intelligent, and influential people did their best to overcome this “ignorant prejudice.” But on the other hand there were the votes of all those cottagers who did not as yet possess strips in the common fields, but who hoped to be able to purchase them. They saw that while thousands of acres of land lay immediately round the villages in acre, half-acre, and rood strips, there was a chance of buying one, and so taking the first upward step from the rank of the landless labourer. On enclosure those strips would give place to closes of at least several acres each, and the closes would be quite out of their reach. Blind, obstinate, wilful, and prejudiced as the villagers seemed to their betters, the event shows that they were entirely accurate in their view of the situation.

Arthur Young’s account of these proceedings is as follows: “In the Isle of Axholm there is an immense inclosure on the point of beginning, the Act and survey having been passed of no less than 12,000 acres of commons in the four parishes of Haxey, Hepworth, Belton, and Owston. I passed these commons in various quarters, and rode purposely to view some parts; they are in a wretched and unprofitable state, but valued, if inclosed, in the ideas of the islanders at 10s. or 11s. an acre.

InHaxey thereare305claims onaccount of3810acres.
″Hepworth″236″″2285acres.
″Belton″251″″3664acres.
″Owston″229″″4446acres.

“Cottage rights are claims, but lands without a cottage have none. It was a barbarous omission that when the Act was procured they resisted a clause to divide the open arable fields subject to rights of common. But they have here, by a custom, a right of inclosure which is singular; every man that pleases may enclose his own open field land notwithstanding the rights of common upon it while open; and accordingly many do it when, by purchase, they get five or six acres together, of which I saw many examples.” (“Agricultural Survey of Lincolnshire,” p. 79.)

Somewhat later a second attempt was made in the parish of Owston to obtain an enclosure with partial success. Three of the four fields were divided and enclosed: but the same motives which prevented the enclosure of the four parishes at the previous attempt were strong enough to secure that one field should remain open. It was in 1811, I was locally informed, that the Owston Enclosure took place. I can find no record of the Act.

As we saw above, the old system (probably a four-field course) of cultivation had dropped into disuse even before the beginning of the nineteenth century, but still, up to about the year 1850, the custom remained that on one of the four fields, that under wheat, after the crops had been carried, the “Pindar” gave notice that “the fields are to be broken,” and over that field common rights of pasture were exercised for about a month, from some day in October to Martinmas (November 23rd). Then the Pindar kept watch over the grazing animals night and day, and by night built up enormous bonfires, with all the boys of the village clustering round and roasting potatoes.

But about 1850 even this custom disappeared, and now every holder of lands in the open fields cultivates them as he chooses, but they must be under some form of tillage as long as they remain open. But the tendency, observed by Arthur Young, for the larger owners of lands in the common fields to buy, sell and exchange strips with other owners with the object of getting some half-dozen acres in one continuous piece and then enclosing them, has continued up to the present day. Such enclosures are laid down in grass, and in this way the area of the open fields has gradually been reduced.

The strips of land in the open fields are known as “selions,” the auctioneers’ notices of a sale reading, “All that selion piece of land,” etc. They are also known as “acres,” “half-acres,” “roods,” etc., but these terms must not be taken as exactly defining their area. A nominal acre varies in area from a minimum of about half an acre to a maximum of an acre and a half. As the half-acres and roods similarly vary, it follows that the largest “half-acres” are bigger than the smallest “acres.”

The general aspect of the fields is well shown in the photograph taken for me by Mr. Newbit, of Epworth. I asked in a bar-parlour in Haxey, “Are these allotments both sides of the road?” A labourer answered, “Yes, but there are seven miles of these allotments.” But the publican corrected him. “Well, it’s not allotments exactly, it’s a very old system, that’s what it is.” Further conversation with one man and another gave me a strong impression that the people of Axholme are proud of their “very old system.” That they have some reason to be proud of it Mr. Rider Haggard bears witness: