Warminster Museum Column: Preparing for the enclosure

William the Conqueror divided the land and gave full use of the divided sections to his loyal followers. This was shortly after the conquest.

The chosen man, at his death, would leave a will. This would normally benefit the oldest son, who would then pass on the estate to his oldest son. Not all men would have a living son when they themselves died, but it was important that the estate should remain with the family, so the inheritance could be passed to a grandson, via a deceased son, or via a daughter. It was important to go to any lengths to pass the estate to a male, because when a daughter married, her property would become the property of her husband, and the estate would no longer remain in the hands of the original family.

An estate need not be passed on as a single entity. It could be divided between daughters; parts could be willed to extended family members or to the church. It was seven hundred years after William had partitioned the land that enclosure was being considered. In that time, the original partitions had all become very complex patchworks.

The Thynne family at Longleat was the largest landowner in our area, but (as an example) the Middlecott family, living in Portway House, were the owners of the Portway Estate. No matter who owned the local land, the owner, and the tenants of the owner, still had common rights.

It was when enclosure was being considered that a big problem came to light. People had settled on a very sizable area of common land, and it had become a village community (now Warminster Common). It was probably due to the profusion of landlords that this had been allowed to happen, because nobody had a right to build a house on land held in common. (Although until 1588, if you could build a properly roofed house between sunrise and sunset in one day and have a fire burning in the hearth at sunset, the house would be allowed to stand.)

If the plan is to enclose all the common land, how should this settlement be dealt with?

Longleat decided that, if it could show that the Thynne family owned this land and that the settlers were their tenants, this would be to their great advantage. A message and an invitation was sent to the head of the household of every dwelling in the common. This message implied that His Lordship had overlooked his tenants on the common, he was very sorry about this, and he would like to get to know them better. He was inviting the head of every household to join him for a meal at the Bell Inn, where they could eat and drink as much as they liked, for a penny.

An invitation like this sounded like Christmas and birthdays combined, and most householders could hardly wait. No-one on the common would have had any idea that something called “enclosure” was being planned, but one man (let’s call him Tom) smelled a rat.

Tom might have met Harry on Fore Street. “Cor!” says Harry, “What do you reckon about this invite? I’ll show him how much I can eat and drink for a penny!”

“Yes”, says Tom, “it does sound very good. By the way Harry, do you pay rent to Longleat?”

“Rent?” says Harry, “Why should I pay rent on my own house? a course I don’t pay rent.”

“Then you are not their tenant – and his lordship has invited his tenants.”

“Yes, he slipped up there, didn’t he. Hahaha”

“Perhaps,” says Tom, “but if you go along you will agree with him that you are his tenant. There will be someone on the door, asking your name and where you live. He will say something like ‘we can’t have gatecrashes can we!’ then he will ask you for your penny. Longleat will know who you are, where you live, you will have paid them some money and the next thing you’ll find is that they are demanding rent and if you don’t pay it, they will kick you out of your own house. I tell you Harry, I’m not going.”

Harry is taken aback. “‘ere,” he says, “have you told Dick about this?”

“Yes” says Tom, “I’ve seen Dick. He’s not going.”

“Ah,” says Harry, “Ah, neither am I.”

It has been reported that only one person turned up for the big dinner. It may be pure coincidence, of course, but at the Enclosures only one small cottage in King Street was the property of Longleat.

The problem of the settlement on common land had to be solved, and it was decided that if the householder could show that the family had settled this property for more than 20 years, they would be regarded as the freeholder of their plot and they would become owner-occupiers. This new land ownership carried no other rights of common, so it was only their own plot that they now owned.

As far as the residents on the common were concerned, nothing had changed. They had believed that they already owned their property.

Nothing had changed? An awful lot had changed, and it was not to the benefit of the people of the common.