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Rise of Capitalism & IndustryPost-Medieval
From the 18th century onwards there was a period of radical change in the landscape as the increase in capitalism brought new demands and opportunities to the manufacture, trade and consumption of goods. People started to move to the growing cities, and technological progress and efficiency gained greater importance. Trade value increasingly defined and influenced relations between people, objects and land, which were seen as commodities. Manufacturing industries depended on rural resources such as agriculture, stone and woodlands. This dramatically altered the relationship which landlords had with tenant farmers as the former believed traditional land use to be a barrier to efficiency. Finding Clues
Landowners radically altered agriculture through mechanisation, new stock-breeding, ‘model’ farms and enclosure. Enclosure was carried out either through an Act of Parliament submitted by the landowner or by private agreement. Most of the region’s commons were enclosed and many of the walled landscapes we are familiar with today were created. These enclosure period fields can be seen today by their regularity and ruler-straight walls.
In areas with villages and open fields, such as the limestone plateau, it is the extensive areas of heath beyond the open fields which were enclosed. In areas like the Upper Derwent it was the moorlands. Some moorlands were enclosed for grouse shooting which was becoming more popular with landowners. Many field barns were built at the newly created fields a long way from farmsteads and for use by people such as miner-farmers who did not have extensive farmstead buildings.
At the same time transport was improved to connect the burgeoning cities with each other, with sources of raw materials and with ports. Turnpike roads were first created in the early 18th century, their number was radically increased in the second half of the 18th century and the network was improved with new roads and diversions that were easier to use in winter in the early 19th century. They replaced the pack-horse routes which had developed over time as rights of way across commons and which were usually unsuitable for carts and coaches.
Canals began to replace roads for long-distance transport from the late 18th century but none were built across the hilly land of the Peaks. The region was crossed by the next major transport innovation - railways. The Cromford and High Peak Railway of 1830 was one of the earliest in the country.
Much of the Peak District had extensive industry, with the extraction of lead and coal, stone quarrying, lime production and cotton/silk milling. In the 18th century steam-powered pumps were introduced to lift water out of lead mines. Engine houses became common sites in the landscape and the deepest shafts reached over 300m. Richard Arkwright had built the first cotton mills in Derbyshire at Cromford followed by others at Cressbrook, Ashbourne, Bakewell, Wirksworth and Matlock Bath. Competitors built mills at Litton, Calver, Bamford and Edale. The building of mills at Glossop, New Mills, Marple and Stalybridge transformed these places into industrial towns. Urbanisation was largely restricted to these locations while on the edges of the region the industrial cities of Sheffield and Manchester grew dramatically. Chatsworth and Lyme Park were the only landscape parks in the 18th century Peak District. Haddon and Hassop Parks were developed in the 19th century when there was a revived interest in the picturesqueness of the region.
The Peak District also began to be commonly visited as a tourist attraction. The Dukes of Devonshire developed Buxton as a spa in the late 18th century and Matlock Bath grew as a popular resort in the 19th century. Tourists also visited the area, viewing its scenery and visiting the ‘Wonders of the Peak’ which were featured in a volume published originally in 1636. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
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