Editing Enclosure (section)

==History==
{{see also|Economy of England in the Middle Ages}}
After [[William the Conqueror|William I]] invaded and conquered England in 1066, he distributed its land amongst 180 [[baron]]s, who held it as his [[tenant in chief|tenants in chief]], establishing a [[feudal system]]. However he promised the English people that he would keep the laws of [[Edward the Confessor]]. Thus commoners were still able to exercise their ancient customary rights.{{sfn|Monbiot|1995}}{{sfn|Mulholland|2015}} The original contract bound the people who occupied the land to provide some form of service. This later evolved into a financial agreement that avoided or replaced the service.{{sfn|Cahill|2002|p=397}}

Following the introduction of the feudal system, there was an increase in the economic growth and urban expansion of the country.{{sfn|Bauer et al.|1996|pages=106–107}} In the 13th century, successful Lords did very well financially, while the peasants faced with ever increasing costs did not, and their landholding dwindled.{{sfn|Prestwich|2007|pages=454–457}} After outbreaks of the [[Black Death]] in the middle of the 14th century however, there was a major decline in population and crop yields.{{sfn|Bauer et al.|1996|pages=106–107}} The decline in population left the surviving farm workers in great demand.{{sfn|Cartwright|1994|pages=32–46}} Landowners faced the choice of raising wages to compete for workers or letting their lands go unused. Wages for labourers rose and translated into [[inflation]] across the economy. The ensuing difficulties in hiring labour has been seen as causing the abandonment of land and the demise of the feudal system, although some historians have suggested that the effects of the Black Death may have only sped up an already on-going process.{{sfn|Hatcher|1994|pages=3–35}}

From as early as the 12th century agricultural land had been enclosed.{{sfn|UK Parliament|2021}} However, the history of enclosure in England is different from region to region.{{sfn|Thirsk|1958|p=4}} Parts of south-east England (notably sections of [[Essex]] and [[Kent]]) retained the pre-Roman [[Celtic field]] system of farming in small enclosed fields. Similarly in much of west and north-west England, fields were either never open, or were enclosed early. The primary area of field management, known as the "[[open field system]]," was in the lowland areas of England in a broad band from [[Yorkshire]] and [[Lincolnshire]] diagonally across England to the south, taking in parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, large areas of the Midlands, and most of south central England.{{sfn|Hooke|1988|pages=121–131}}