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| Pocklington Parish Open Fields |
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In 1756, Pocklington – in common with about half of the East Riding townships – was farmed under the open field system. There were six open fields, in which the inhabitants held strips of land, and the common to the south of the town. These fields were farmed in common, the owners of the strips would decide when the land was to be ploughed, the harvest gathered in, and when they would be available for grazing. In that year an act of Parliament was obtained authorising the enclosure of the township. Under the act, Commissioners were appointed to divide up the land, lay out roads and arrange the drainage. The result was contained in an Award, one copy of which was deposited with the Clerk of the Peace and is now held by the County Record Office. James Powell, a Pocklington solicitor who died in 1848, made an indexed copy of the Award, which is now held by Harrowells, Solicitors, Pocklington. Enclosure maps exist for Holme on Spalding Moor (1774), Goodmanham (1775), Barmby Moor (1783), East Cottingwith (1774), Market Weighton (1776), Ellerton (1810) and Bielby (1817), but not for earlier Awards. Since Pocklington was an early enclosure there is no map with the Award, nor is there any reference to one in the Award. If the Commissioners used a working map, it has not survived. However, from the textual description of each award in the Pocklington copy – read in relation to ancient field names, the owners’ names of adjacent awards, and by comparing the allotted acreage with early Ordnance Survey maps (1854 6 ̈ to a mile & 1892 1/2,500) – one can attempt to work out the location of individual enclosed fields. In some areas (e.g. between The Balk and Burnby Lane), this is relatively straight forward and can be resolved with a high degree of confidence; but in others (e.g. the whole Chapel Hill area), information is very sparse, has been subject to later changes and even an educated guess is unlikely to be reliable. This present enclosure map for Pocklington is an initial attempt to depict the various enclosure fields and allotments, based on the available information. Within the enclosure fields, subsequent sub-divisions are overlaid (dashed yellow lines) as shown on the 1892 Ordnance Survey maps. It is interesting to note from the satellite imagery that, although most of the post-enclosure fences and hedges have since been grubbed out, in many places crop rotation still follows the late-1800 sub-field layout, even today.
To view the full-scale map, please click on the 'View fullscreen' link. Zoom into the map and scrolling as required to read the data.
Acknowledgements: Roger Bellingham for all the spadework in deducing the location of allotments. John Nottingham for preparing the graphics. Messrs Powell and Young, Solicitors, Pocklington, for the copy of the original Award. The East Riding of Yorkshire Archives and Record Service for the OS map data. |
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