Genealogy Chat

Weren't the 1870s the period when the whole country was flooded with cheap American wheat, causing a huge decline in agriculture? In Surrey, my ag labs became gardeners, in Norfolk they followed the railways as labourers or became miners in the North East. In the 1830s, the plight of the Dorset agricultural labourer was reckoned amongst the worst in the country. The Tolpuddle Martyrs date to this period. I think it was also the period of Corn Riots and Captain Swing. My Dorset ancestors moved down to Poole in this period, became shipwrights and went on to Portsmouth.

The Inclosure Acts were a number of United Kingdom Acts of Parliament which inclosed common land in the country. This meant that the rights that people once held, to graze animals on these areas when not planted by crops, were now being denied. Common usage is enclosure, but this is not the name of the acts. Inclosure acts for small areas had been passed sporadically since the 12th century but the vast majority of them were passed between 1750 and 1860. Much larger areas were also inclosed during this time and in 1801 the Inclosure Consolidation Act was passed to tidy up previous acts. In 1845 another General Inclosure Act allowed for the employment of inclosure Commissoners who could inclose land without submitting a request to parliament. Under this process there were over 5000 individual inclosure acts and 21% of land in England was enclosed, this amounts to nearly 7 million acres (28,000 km²).

That's the one!!!! Thanks so much Jennifer...... I had just gone completely blank haha!

The Enclosure Act. Jennifer

I am having one of those days..... There is a collective term for the Agricultural Depression/ Oppression in Dorset c 1870- 1900. Landowners ceased to allow the ordinary folk to graze their livestock on common land which caused poverty and starvation. Families, many of which had always worked as agricultural labourers and kept their own livestock, often migrated away from the area to find work in order to feed their families. I seem to think it was 'The In.......' something but I have completely gone blank..... can anyone remember the name for this?