| Description | Contains an artificially created collection of miscellaneous original and copy enclosure awards, maps and related records. These types of documents are also available in other collections, for example some parish and estate collections. Many enclosure awards were also enrolled in the East Riding Register of Deeds (reference RDB) and some with the Clerk of the Peace (reference QDB). Please see staff for further information.
The enclosure of open fields and commons took place from medieval times. This was done initially by private agreement and then also by private acts of Parliament. General Enclosure Acts passed in 1801, 1836 and 1845 made the process easier. The majority of surviving records come from the age of Parliamentary enclosure c.1750-1850. The awards produced in this period generally include a surveyed map of the area concerned and a detailed schedule setting out the land owners. The awards may also contain information about public and private roads and paths, ditches and drains, hedges and boundaries.
Additional details and a more comprehensive listing are available in a 'Handlist of East Riding Enclosure Awards' by Vanessa Neave (Attic Press, Beverley, 1971) and 'Yorkshire Enclosure Awards' by Barbara English (University of Hull, 1985). Background information and a list of enclosure records for England is available in 'A Domesday of English Enclosure Acts and Awards' by W E Tate and M E Turner (Reading, 1978).
Dates Given. An estimated date, generally based on the date of the award, has been given in [--] for original records which are undated. The dates of copies given in [--] relate to the date of the original records rather than the date the copies were made. If the date of the original document was not given in the copy then an estimated date has been given in [--] again usually based on the date of the award. |