inspired by land enclosure

I have been reading a book about Land Enclosures in the North West, starting from the eighteenth century and continuing into the mid nineteenth century. The details are fascinating. Each parish or district had to present a bill to parliament, having surveyed land previously unfenced, and used commonly by members of the parish. The land had to be divided out in such a way that everyone was given a fair portion of land. (Or were they?) Some agreements involved stipulations as to the height and width of the stone walls. In some areas, hawthorn hedges were planted, in which case, sheep and goats were excluded for a number of years until the hedges were established. Fruit trees and, in some cases, oak trees were incorporated into the hedges at given intervals. The procedure took years, and in some cases, decades to complete.

We went for a walk in Kirby Steven, and saw ancient layered hedges and stone walls covered in white lichen. My Blip clearly shows the result of the surveyor's straight ruler, and shadows indicating where further boundaries have since been dismantled, or allowed to deteriorate.

Social history embedded into the landscape.