CD-ROM Aktief 1995 #3/CDA3.iso/genealog/pro40txt.zip/PRO_40.TXT

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                          PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
                    RECORDS INFORMATION Leaflet No: 40
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  [Note: this and all other PRO Records Information leaflets are (c)
  Crown Copyright, but may be freely reproduced except for sale or
  advertising purposes.  Copies should always include this Copyright
  notice -- please respect this.]   (c) Crown Copyright, April 1992.

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                             ENCLOSURE AWARDS

INTRODUCTION

This leaflet explains how enclosures came about and indicates which records
relating to enclosures are likely to be found in the Public Record Office
and which elsewhere.

The term 'enclosure' describes a number of changes in the pattern of
landholding which first appeared in the Middle Ages:

a.    The consolidation of plots of land formerly distributed over the
      shared open fields into compact blocks, linked together and
      surrounded by hedges or fences and gates.

b.    The expansion of estates by large landowners who combined several
      farmsteads and removed the farmhouses on them.  This was sometimes
      termed 'engrossing'.

c.    The occupation of commons by large landowners who restricted or
      denied the rights of other farmers.

Any or all of these changes might be described as an enclosure.  In the
16th century especially they were often associated with a shift from arable
to pasture-land; later they were associated with the more general
agricultural improvements often referred to as the Agricultural Revolution.

W. E. Tate, "The English Village Community and the Enclosure Movements"
(Gollancz, 1967) is a good general introduction to the subject of
enclosures.


HOW ENCLOSURES WERE EFFECTED

Privately
~~~~~~~~~
Enclosures of common lands, pastures and manorial wastes were made from a
very early period, sometimes arbitrarily and sometimes by agreement.  Many
of the earliest enclosures have left no record and such records as have
survived must normally be sought in private manorial and estate records.

By decree enrolled in the courts of equity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From at least the middle of the sixteenth century it became common to
effect enclosures, whether by agreement or not, by decree of the courts of
equity, particularly the Chancery and the Exchequer.  There is no list of
enclosures effected by this means and the arrangement of the records and
the means of reference to them in the PRO are such that it is virtually
impossible to trace any such decree without some preliminary information,
which must include at least the names of the parties to the action.  These
records are described and used by Maurice Beresford, 'Habitation versus
Improvement' in "Essays in the Economic and Social History of Tudor and
Stuart England in Honour of R H Tawney" (Cambridge, 1961), pp. 40-69.
Anyone interested in enclosures of the Tudor period will also find Dr Joan
Thirsk's "Tudor Enclosures" (Historical Association Pamphlet G.41, 1959)
of interest.


By Act of Parliament
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later it became more usual to effect enclosures by Private Act of
Parliament.  There were a few such acts in the seventeenth century, some
being confirmations of enclosures effected by decree; but it was not until
the latter part of the eighteenth century that they became common.  Before
1801, when the first of a series of general enclosure acts was passed, each
enclosure was authorised by a specific Act of Parliament.  Such acts were
initiated by a petition - usually from the larger landowners - giving
details of the lands which they wished to be enclosed.  After the passage
of the bill through Parliament, the ordinances of the enclosure act were
put into effect by an ad hoc commission, which, after investigating and
surveying the land, made a legally binding _enclosure award_, allotting the
various plots of land. The surviving records of enclosure commissions are
usually preserved locally: see Maurice Beresford's article on their minutes
in the "Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research" vol.XXI pp. 59-69
and W. E. Tate, 'Some Unexplored Records of the Enclosure Movement' in
"English Historical Review", vol. LVII, pp.250-63.  W. E. Tate, "The
English Village Community and the Enclosure Movements" (Gollancz, 1967)
gives a detailed account of the process of parliamentary enclosure.  A
Parliamentary Return of Enclosure Acts was made in 1914 (House of Commons
Sessional Papers, 1914 (399), lxvii, 325), arranged alphabetically under
counties and specifying the parishes affected.  The majority of enclosure
acts were not printed officially, and where privately printed versions
cannot be traced it is necessary to consult the original Acts in the House
of Lords Record Office (House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW, Tel. [phone])
by arrangement with the Clerk of the Records.


ENCLOSURE AWARDS

For the actual details of the enclosures which these acts authorised, it
is necessary to consult the enclosure awards made under the acts by the
Enclosure Commissioners.  These awards may be divided into three classes:

    a.  those made before the General Inclosure Act 1801 (41 Geo. III
    c. 109) came into force.

The places of deposit of awards made prior to 1801 can be discovered only
by an examination of the authorising Acts themselves.  Some awards were
enrolled in the courts of record at Westminster and are now in the Public
Record Office; others were deposited or enrolled with clerks of the peace
and are now in the appropriate local record office.  Others were deposited
with the incumbents or churchwardens of the parishes concerned.

    b.  those made under various acts passed between 1801 and 1845, when
    the General Inclosure Act 1845 (8 and 9 Vict. c. 118) came into force.

Awards made between 1801 and 1845 were, in the absence of other provision
in the authorising act, to be enrolled in a court of record or with clerks
of the peace.  The General Inclosure Act 1836 (6 and 7 Wm. IV c. 115)
provided for enclosure by agreement without the preliminary of an Act of
Parliament.  Awards under this act were enrolled with clerks of the peace.

    c.  those made since 1845, under the provisions of the 1845 and
    subsequent acts.

Original awards made under the 1845 and subsequent acts were retained by
the Enclosure Commissioners for England and Wales established by the 1845
Act and their successors, the Land Commissioners (1882-1889), the Board of
Agriculture (1889-1919) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (from
1919).  In 1938 they were transferred to the Public Record Office, where
they are preserved among the records of that Ministry (MAF 1).  Copies of
these awards were deposited with clerks of the peace and also with
churchwardens.


HOW TO LOOK FOR AN ENCLOSURE AWARD

Locally
~~~~~~~
The best place to begin to look for an enclosure award is usually the
appropriate local record office.  The most useful and comprehensive list
of awards held locally, indicating the appropriate repository, the date of
the award and of the Act of Parliament under which it was made, and whether
a map is attached to the award, is W. E. Tate, "A Domesday of English
Enclosure Acts and Awards" (Reading, 1978).  Tate also indicates whether
an award is known to have been enrolled centrally, but does not give Public
Record Office references to such enrolments.

A Parliamentary Return of Inclosure Awards deposited or enrolled with
clerks of the peace was made in 1904 (House of Commons Sessional Papers,
1904 (50), lxxviii, 545).  These awards are now generally available for
inspection in local record offices.

Awards deposited with incumbents or churchwardens may have remained in
parish chests or have passed into the custody of parish or district
councils or of some other local authority.  Awards may also be preserved
locally among estate and manorial records o