What did enclosure mean for the tenant farmer?
The Enclosure Acts divided up the land which had previously been shared by the community. This effectively forced many small farmers off the land. To survive many had relied on the common land which they no longer had rights to. The acts made it necessary for all farmers to fence and or hedge their land. The small farmers who tended to get small plots of unproductive land could not afford to do this. Between 1747 and 1841 there was a great change in land use and field sizes. Much of the land which had been arable had reverted back to pasture by the end of the 19th century.
