Now and in the future there is need that local patriotism, pride in the local community, and willingness to serve it, whether it be village or city, should be kindled again to its old vigour. With the revival of the spirit will come a revival of some of the old forms of village common life, and a creation of new forms in place of those which will remain among the forgotten facts of the past. The Village Community is a hope of the future as well as a memory of the past, and therefore those who are interested in the movement for reviving British Agriculture on democratic lines and for improving the social and economic conditions of our villages have reason to welcome Dr. Slater’s attempt to describe existing and recent survivals of the English Village Community, and to ascertain the circumstances, causes, and consequences of its gradual extinction.
CARRINGTON.
28th November, 1906.
I. ENCLOSURE IN GENERAL.
THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY AND THE ENCLOSURE OF COMMON FIELDS.
CHAPTER I.
ENCLOSURE IN GENERAL.
The internal history of our villages is a more obscure, but not less important a part of English history, than the internal history of our towns. It is, indeed, more fundamental. A town is ordinarily by origin an overgrown village, which never loses the marks of its origin. And it was by agricultural and social changes in the villages that the way was prepared for the great industrial revolution, or more properly, evolution, which is the underlying fact of the history of English towns, especially during the last two centuries.
The central fact in the history of any English village since the Middle Ages, is expressed in the word “enclosure.” Primarily “enclosure” means surrounding a piece of land with hedges, ditches, or other barriers to the free passage of men and animals. Agriculturally, enclosure of arable land in the midst of unenclosed arable land is a preliminary step to its conversion into pasture, the hedge is erected to keep animals in; enclosure of land in the midst of open common pasture is a preliminary step to tillage, the hedge keeps animals out. But in either case the hedge is the mark and sign of exclusive ownership and occupation in the land which is hedged. Hence by enclosure collective use, usually accompanied by some degree of community of ownership, of the piece of land enclosed, is abolished, and superseded by individual ownership and separate occupation.