Enclosure fencing off common land and handing it to private landowners has been going on in England since the 1200s. It increased substantially in the Tudor period, and then again with the ...

Enclosure was the radical change to the countryside which replaced the open field system of farming. Instead of open land there were fields with fences or hedges round them. The techniques for ...

Originally, enclosures of land took place through informal agreement. But during the 17th century the practice developed of obtaining authorisation by an Act of Parliament. Initiatives to enclose came ...