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Enclosure Farms

Many isolated farmsteads, surrounding White Peak villages, date to the 18th and 19th centuries.

Knotlow Farm near Monyash, an unassuming farmhouse with outbuildings behind was built after the commons of Monyash were enclosed in the second half of the 18th century

At this time the commons were enclosed to create the walled landscape of today and some farmers decided to move out of their villages and build new farmsteads on their newly acquired holdings.  Often, when they had managed to consolidate their land holding by exchange of allocated land with neighbours, it made sense to place the house and outbuildings within the farmland.  The decision to do this, placing the family at some distance from friends and neighbours, must sometimes have been traumatic and had significant impact on the village communities.  In some ways this was the beginning of the fragmentation of long-standing social bonds, a trend that has grown exponentially in the 20th century with the lessening of the numbers of people directly involved in farming and the influx of incomers into village communities.

For more information on this topic try the archive.

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