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Yeomen and Peasants? Landownership Patterns in the North Yorkshire Pennines c. 1770–19001
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2008
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‘Everything which can be said [about the land question] … must already have been said in the numerous books, pamphlets and articles’. Thus said Cuthbert Brodrick writing in 1881 in the preface to his substantial book on English land and landlords. Although it was accepted that, as Caird had clearly put it in 1878, the English countryside was dominated by the simple tripartite system of landlord, tenant and labourer, with a few owner-occupiers forming another simple, but tiny and diminishing group, considerable debate surrounded the structure of landownership particularly in terms of size of estates, the rate of decline of the ‘traditional yeoman’, and the significance of ‘open’ and ‘close’ parishes. Despite his preliminary comments Brodrick demonstrated in the course of his book that the land question was still an unexhausted topic in the final part of the century. Nor did the debate on these issues cease then, for it has continued into the twentieth century. Despite a few dissenting voices, the idea of the single coherent English tripartite system still persists. As with much of our perception of the dynamics of the countryside, this view has derived largely from the experience of the arable areas to the south and east of the country and to the statistics presented at national level. It fails to embrace the complexities of landholding in the nineteenth century. Even where it is accepted that owner-occupiers existed, there is little recognition of the fact that these should not be regarded as a single group.
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References
Notes
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43. Ibid.
44. The use of the word ‘holding’ here does not refer to owner-occupancy of single farm units but to extent of ownership of land. Although there may be some disparity between the earlier tithe information and the later Return of Owners of Land which is due to differences in data collection and reliability, other contemporary evidence suggests that the overall picture is accurate in terms of a significant decline in the number of owners by 1873.
45. Although there is no concrete evidence for this assumption, the population was expanding (Swaledale reached a peak of population in 1821) and contemporary evidence points to an increased number of holdings, some of which will have been purchased. Cooper MSS, (copy of) Agreement Regulating Settlement in the Township of Muker, 1780; Harland, J., A Glossary of Words Used in Swaledale, Yorkshire, 1873, p. 2;Google ScholarFieldhouse, and Jennings, , A History, pp. 135–40.Google Scholar The initial effect of enclosure in increasing the number of small owners has been noted elsewhere, Turner, , Enclosures in Britain, p. 67Google Scholar; Beckett, , ‘The Pattern’, p. 17.Google Scholar
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47. For example, Lord Bolton's estate included land in Carperby township, upper Wensleydale, and in adjacent Castle Bolton township, lower Wensleydale.
48. See note 44 above.
49. The 1851 census has been used in preference to the 1841 census which is much less reliable for recording occupations. Owners as a proportion of total population in Swaledale in the 1840s and 1870s is 8.2 and 4.3 per cent respectively and for Wensleydale at the same dates is 9.7 and 3.6 per cent respectively. PRO HO 1245–6, 1252–4, 2379–80, RG 9/3667–73, 11/4873–8, Census Enumerators Books, 1841, 1851,1871, Wensleydale and Swaledale; LGB, ‘Owners of Land’, passim; see also tables 2 and 4. For details of the occupied population see Hallas, , ‘Economic and Social Change’, vol. I, pp. 18–21.Google Scholar
50. However, the proportion of England and Wales in this category was inflated as some were owners of non-agricultural land, Brodrick, , English Land, p. 160.Google Scholar
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52. BPP, 1881, Agricultural Interests, p. 138Google Scholar, ‘[farming] families … nearly starve before they will sever the connexion’; see also Richmond Observer, 12th 11, 1887.Google Scholar This situation still pertains today, information supplied by J. L. Barker, landowner; (late) H. Kirkbride, owner/farmer; D. Middleton, owner/farmer; and other residents of Wensleydale and Swaledale.
53. West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds (WYAS/L), RD/RT/195, Tithe Award, Redmire, 1843.
54. Bear, W.E., ‘Our agricultural population’, EJ, 4 (1894), pp. 320–1;Google ScholarGraham, , Rural Exodus, pp. 1–25;Google ScholarChambers, J.D. and Mingay, G.E., The Agricultural Revolution 1750–1880 (1966), p. 173.Google Scholar It is possible, however, that the number of owner-occupiers in some parts of Swaledale was significantly higher in 1844 than in 1895. A recent study shows that in 1844 owner-occupiers in Grinton Township, Swaledale farmed 52 per cent of their land; Hall, D., ‘Landlord and tenant in Swaledale 1844/5’, unpublished article, 1974, p. 1.Google Scholar In 1895 owner-occupiers in Grinton farmed only 21.9 per cent of their land; PRO MAF 68/1579, MAFF, Parish Summaries of June Returns, Grinton, 1895.
55. Perry, P. J. (ed), British Agriculture 1875–1914 (1973), p. XXVII.Google Scholar Recently it has been suggested that vast numbers of tenants did not leave the land at this time, Offer, ‘Farm Tenure’, p. 9.
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66. NYCRO, Valuation for Tithe Commutation, Wensleydale and Swaledale, 1839–1844.Google Scholar
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68. Broderick, , Valuation of Township of Askrigg, 1872.Google Scholar
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80. BPP, 1897, XV, RC on the Agricultural Depression, Final Report, p. 37;Google Scholar for an interesting discussion on the characteristics of a peasantry see Howkins, , ‘Peasants, Servants’, pp. 51–57.Google Scholar
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