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Huntingdonshire Archives Reference 1322

The Inclosure or Enclosure Acts were a series of Acts of Parliament which enclosed open fields and common land in the country. Enclosure did away with the medieval strip system by joining the strips together to make larger units of land, which could be fenced or hedged off from the next person’s land. In this way a farmer had his land in one place which was more practical and gave him greater independence. This was good for the farmers but not for the local people whose previous rights such as cultivation, cutting hay, grazing animals or use of other resources such as small timber, fish, and turf were taken away.

Inclosure Acts for small areas had been passed sporadically since the 12th century but the majority were passed between 1750 and 1860. Prior to about 1740 villages were generally enclosed by agreement. This was when the main owners of the land made a private agreement to join their strips together and this may have involved buying some strips from the small farmers to get rid of any possible opposition. If the land in a village was owned by one or two people, enclosure by agreement was relatively straightforward, but if a number of smaller landowners opposed enclosure by agreement an Act of Parliament had to be obtained. This became the accepted procedure after 1750 as it meant that the whole of the village (including common land, wasteland, meadows and open fields) could be dealt with at the same time, allowing for any opposition to be heard and each enclosure had proper legal documentation and certification.

Attached to the Wistow Inclosure Map of 1832 is a sheaf of papers stating that the survey was carried out by:

Martin Nockolds of Stanstead in the County of Essex Gentleman of the Commissioner appointed by an Act of Parliament made and passed in the Eleventh year in the reign of His late Majesty King George the Fourth intituled “An Act for Inclosing Lands in the Parish of Wistow in the County of Huntingdon and for extinguishing the Tithes in the said Parish.”

These papers give a key to the references in the map with descriptions of the lands and tenements; tenures (e.g. freehold), quantity of land in acres, yearly corn rents or sums of money and quantity of wheat in bushels.

The following photographs of the 1832 Inclosure map and papers are published with the permission of David Walker.

1832 Map – Village Centre

1832 Map – Village and Surrounds

1832 Map – Martin Nickolds Statement

1832 Map – Details of ownership

1832 Map – Details of public places

by Althea Walker

December 2011

Huntingdonshire Archives Reference LR20/362

The original Wistow maps held at Huntingdon Records Office are very large and show the whole of the manor including the surrounding countryside with the names of the land owners right down to individual fields.

In the top left hand corner of the 1617 map there is an inscription describing the purpose of the map, or the PLOTT as it is called, and interestingly in 1617 our small village was referred to as the TOWNE.

In 1617 the fields seem to be divided into furlongs with some very descriptive names. Many of the names are geographical or refer to landmarks e.g. Bridge Furlonge, Brown Bridge Furlonge, Broc Furlonge, Church Furlonge, Town Side Furlonge, Copdich Furlong, Conduite Furlonge, White Cross Furlonge and Farr Little Hills Furlonge. Others describe the type of land or what grew there e.g. Upper and Middle Stoney Landes, North and South Clayhill, Water Lande, Hemplande Balke Furlong, Berrie Woods Furlonge and Berrie Side Furlonge. Other names of note are Twelve Shillinges meadowe, Upper and Long Larke Landes and Buttes Furlonge.

All of which give us clues to historic Wistow. Buttes Furlonge would have been where archery practice was undertaken, Twelve Shillinges meadowe was the worth of that meadow at some point in time, the land called Clayhill was the obvious choice when the Wistow brick works needed to be sited and probably there were once two bridges across the brook, one of which was brown.

By 1832 the fields have mostly lost their individual names and are generally labelled with the name of the land owner. (See the item on The Original Inclosure Map of Wistow 1832).

The following map photographs are published with the permission of David Walker

1617 Map - Narrative

1617 Map - Village Centre

1617 Map - Village and Surrounds

by Althea Walker

December 2011