Background to Enclosure. Why go to the effort of Enclosing the land?

An overview to Spondon in the Medieval period. Who owned Spondon at this time and what resources were there?

In the Early Modern period, there were a lot of land ownership disputes. This section covers how the disputes were resolved.

A map and description showing how the fields in Spondon prior to Enclosure.

To decide how the land was to be Enclosed, procedures and processes had to be defined.

A copy of the Spondon Enclosure Act 1789. It details the scope of what land is going to be Enclosed, who is responsible and how it will be achieved.

A summary of the Spondon Enclosure Act 1789.

A selection of notices that were publised to advertise public meetings.

After all the legal processes have completed, the results are published in the Award.

This map shows the ownership changes of each parcel of land listed in the Award.

After Enclosure, Spondon now had more farming land, with the Common Waste divided into The Leys, Waste and Moor. New highways were also created.

Enclosure did bring many benefits, but not everyone benefitted.

Land owners were obliged to pay land tax. This page shows how much was paid by each land owner throughut the years.

Transcriptions of the Duchy of Lancaster depositions.