Class, Identities and Landscapes
Enclosures and Public Access
I.
Enclosure Movements in England:
–Proceeded in two phases:
•i. the early modern period, i.e. 1500s and 1600s.
•ii. The beginning of the industrial revolution and scientific agriculture.
•Complex phenomena that are widely debated by historians.
•However, the final result was that about 50% of lands were enclosed in
the
first phase and about 21% were enclosed in the second phase.
•It also marked the changing rural relationships, from ones based on
community access and tenancy rights and obligations between lords and
tenants to ones more purely marked by private property rights.
•Enclosures were pretty well completed by the middle of the 19 th century.
II.
Industrial Revolution in England and the Emergence of the
‘Working Class’.
–Industrial revolution occurred from c. 1760 to 1820.
–Absorbed large numbers of dispossessed tenants.
–Conditions in the new mill towns were considered miserable, crowded,
and unsanitary by many.
III.
Early Nineteenth Century: Reform or Revolution?
–Given these massive changes, there was also large-scale discontent.
–Only aristocrats and those with substantial property were able to vote.
–Various social movements tried to change the political structure,
including extending the franchise to all adult male citizens.
IV. Social Movements of the Nineteenth Century
•Levellers, Diggers and Chartism
–i. Levellers: began during the Civil War in the late 1600s, they wanted all
adult males to be able to vote and were against the enclosures.
–ii. Diggers: Emerged out of the Diggers, they used ‘radical’ action of
farming enclosed land.
–iii. Chartists: Included both of the above, but were much broader:
•Chartism emerged as an important social movement in the northern
industrial centres.
•It was against elite culture, focused on social reform and improvement and
demanded universal suffrage, (excluding women).
V. Social Movements and Occupations of Space
•Mass Demonstrations:
–Took place on town commons and sometimes on recently enclosed land.
–Chartist
demonstrations drew up to 100,000 people in Manchester and
London.
–Used revolutionary imagery from the French Revolution, e.g. ‘bonnets
rouges’.
–Drew equations between slavery in the West Indies and ‘wage slavery’,
arguing for the abolition of both.
–E.g. the Peterloo massacre of 1831.
–Led to fears of revolution among the elites.
–The 1832 Reform Bill gave the franchise to all those who owned property
worth 10 pounds or more, i.e. the middle classes.
•From this point on, the disenfranchised working class emerged as a
distinct social entity with a strong consciousness of its subaltern position.
However, the Reform Bill also dampened middle-class enthusiasm for
revolution and reform.
VI. Social Reform and Rights of Access to the Countryside
•Throughout the Victorian period, social reform work continued,
particularly in the northern industrial cities.
•Focused on gaining the right to vote, a shorter working day, and on rights
of access to the countryside.
•Temperance movements and ‘rambling societies’ often worked together.
•Reformers argued that the urban centres were sites of moral decay, where
the working classes only had drink, pubbing and other ‘dubious’ pleasures
as recreation.
•Footpath preservation societies, rambling societies and working men’s
associations all argued for increased public access to ‘nature’ walks and
recreation as a means of raising the moral fibre and morale of the working
classes.
•First groups formed included the Manchester Association for the
Preservation of Ancient Footpaths, a non-conforming group that was
successful in getting the Duke of Devonshire to re-open a major footpath in
the Peak District.
VII. Class Skirmishes in the Peak District
•Commons around the industrial towns were also disappearing due to real
estate and railway expansion.
•Access to the Peak’s moors had been denied under the pretext that they
were needed for grouse hunting.
•Multiple, often violent skirmishes between ramblers and gamekeepers
occurred in the Peak area through the later nineteenth century, with the
former demanding open access to the ‘public’.
•Sometimes involved poaching, which could be punished by transportation
or imprisonment, even the death penalty if a poacher resisted arrest, yet it
was seen as a ‘common’ right by most people.
•In the 1920s, the Socialist-led Sheffield Ramblers association staged a
number of trespasses of enclosed land. This led to national attention and
prison sentences. However, this added fuel to the fire, and Rambling
associations increased in their popularity and membership.
•What was at stake, was who was considered a full citizen, in terms of
having any access to open spaces.
–It is arguable that the working classes, without voting rights and confined
to very small spaces, were not fully national citizens in the nineteenth
century.
VIII. The Emergence of National Public Parks
•The struggles of the ramblers’ associations led ultimately to the creation
of public parks in England.
•In 1929, after the intentional trespassing of the various Rambling
associations, the National Park Committee was set up by the government
to study issues of public access.
•1949 The national Parks and Access to the Countryside Act was passed
under a Labour government.
•1951 Designation of the Lake District, Peak District, Dartmoor, and
Snowdonia National Parks with public access allowed.