: A South Yorkshre Estate n the Late Nneteenth Century By T. W. BEASTALL ~ examnaton of Lord Scarbrough's estate on the borders of Yorkshre and Nottnghamshre s perhaps helpful n throwng lght on the hazards of estate management and farmng n the late nneteenth century. Here was an estate of 5,866 acres n I862, some 18 mles from Sheffeld and IO mles from Doncaster and Rotherham, stuated on magnesum lmestone n a regon of temperate clmate. The prncpal holdngs, 21 n number n 1862, were of medum sze, the largest 400 acres, the smallest IOO acres. Yorkshre tenant-rght customs were observed and the prncpal occupers, who pad tthe and rate charges, followed a four-course rotaton under the terms of ther annual leases. The two landlords of the perod, the nnth earl and the tenth earl, who nherted the property n 1884, were resdent, mprovng landlords whose concern for the welfare of the tenantry was unmstakable. If the advantages enjoyedby Lancashre dary farmers, stuated near a ralway to a growng ndustral town, were absent on ths estate, yet so were the dsadvantages of the Lncolnshre tenants of the Earls of Scarbrough who, as wheat growers, had to contend wth heavy clay sols. The Yorkshre property seems remarkable for ts lack of specal advantages or dffcultes. Perhaps ts fortunes suggest what may have been happenng on htherto unnvestgated estates of smlar sze, locaton, and structure. 1 The reacton to prevalng trends n agrculture can be examned n a number of ways, but three methods are especally helpful. Changes n the total acreage of the estate can be traced, together wth changes n farm sze, feld layouts, and land utlzaton. Then movements of rents and arrears can be nvestgated. Fnally, actvty whch affects 'n hand' acreages, buldng, dranng, and repar can be examned. Recommendatons made by a land valuer who surveyed the estate n 1862 led 1 The estate records of the Earls of Scarbrough for the late nneteenth century are n the Munment Room at Sandbeck Park, near Rotherham, Yorkshre. The prncpal records used n ths artcle were () Surveys of the estate: Gee E.M.S. 37, 1813; Downes E.M.S. 41,, 1845; Vessey E.M.S. 45, 1862; S. C. Jones E.M.S. 47, I896; () Farm rentals, 186o-19oo: E.M.R. 32-40,2; () Farm agreements, tenant-rght awards, and the farm applcatons book, 1862-1889; (v) Estate account books: E.M.A. 85-92; (v) Improvement accounts: E.M.B.A. 2,2; (v) Dranng accounts: E.M.A. 78; (v) Land Improvement Company Works: E.M.A. 83,1- I7; (v) Letter Books, 186o-19oo. 40 I }
:!!!J A SOUTH YORKSHIRE ESTATE,. I860-I9OO 41 to the buyng up of the "nlyng" felds of other landowners to add to the "compactness" of the estate and to allow ratonalzed feld layouts. The acreages acqured for these reasons were small; less than 300 acres were added before 1872, but the tmng of the purchases and the tone of the negotatons leadng up to them suggest a desre to ncrease the acreage, to consoldate the property, and to add to rural amentes by protectng shootng rghts. Ths was succeeded by a defnte dsnclnaton to buy land from about 872 untl 1899 when a mnng lease was beng dscussed wth a local ron and coal company. From 1862 to I872 Lord Scarbrough's agent, realzng the competton for land n the dstrct, advsed offers n 1868 of 7 an acre for good agrcultural land on the lmestone. Exchanges of land were a feature of these years. In 1868 Lord Scarbrough was wllng to sacrfce 15 acres n an exchange nvolvng 700 acres wth two other owners n order to establsh two rng-fence farms where prevously there had been an area of confused feld boundares separatng the property of three owners and fve occupers. Ths useful reorganzaton produced a Io per cent ncrease of rent from the area affected by the exchange. It was durng ths perod of enterprse that the prncpal holdngs were reduced n number from 2I to 17 and ther average feld szes rased from I to 14 acres. Attempts were made to enclose and dran the 78 swampy acres of Maltby Common n order to add to the "compactness" of the estate, but the scheme was lost n 1879 largely through the opposton of Rotherham and Sheffeld. Ths was one of the last sgns of a desre to ncrease the acreage for ts agrcultural worth. After x 872 a number of small local landowners, not owner-occupers, approached Lord Scarbrough to buy ther land. Ther offers were nvarably declned. In 1884, for example, 465 acres ncludng a house and farm buldngs lyng close to the estate were offered, but the agent commented "... there are so many dffcultes now n lettng land at a far rent that Lord Scarbrough does not feel nclned at present to ncrease hs acreage." After 9oo, however, untl the sgnng of the mnng lease n 19o4, the agent began to make approaches to neghbourng propretors to sell. In some cases they were wllng to do so and the land thus added was sometmes at a dstance from the estate, of doubtful agrcultural value, and had to be let as "separate takes" to the sttng tenants at a very low return. It was estmated, by the agent, that land whose agrcultural value was 24 per acre would fetch oo per acre once knowledge of the mnng lease became general. Subsequent land auctons n the dstrct support ths estmate. There was lttle chance of ntegratng these newly acqured acreages wth the rest of the estate, and ther purchase reversed the polcy of consoldaton whch had been pursued from 1862 to 1872. By 19oo, t seems, the clams of agrculture could not expect to come frst on ths estate. After all, 2 j
42 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW as the agent had wrtten n 1892 when 24 acres were beng offered to Lord Scarbrough, f purchase were made then the prce would have to be "... very low--landed property at the present beng a most unproftable nvestment." Was agrculture "a most unproftable nvestment" for the tenant farmers? Judgng by the fluctuatons n rents and arrears, the tenants' vews on farmng seem to have corresponded wth those of ther landlord on landownng. From 1860 to 1875 there was a tendency for rents to rse as farm layouts were made more ratonal and as dranage schemes were completed. Rarely dd rents stand at more than IO per cent n arrears after ether of the h-annual rent days n May and November. In 1878, however, 25 per cent of the total was outstandng when the accounts were drawn up. At the next rent day, n 1879, 3 per cent of the rental was unpad whle at the second rent-day n that year 50 per cent was stll outstandng and the frst rent day of 188o saw 67 per cent of the rental unpad. Ths was the hghest level touched by arrears snce 1822. These arrears were not caused by the falure of a few leadng tenants to pay on tme; they resulted from most tenants payng off only a small proporton of the rent due from them. As rents were pad at a rent-day dnner and the agent usually noted down reactons at these meetngs, we are provded wth somethng amountng to a report on what was n effect a conference between management and tenantry. From 1875 the tenants had been expressng anxety about ther prospects, but t was not untl 1878 and 1879 that they fell nto serous arrears of rent. In 1879 a return of o per cent of the half-year's rent was made to the tenants, and later n that year permanent rent reductons amountng to 13 per cent of the rental were made. In 1885 a return of 33 per cent was made on the half-year's rent, probably to mark the successon of the tenth Earl n 1884, but from then on selectve rent reductons were made to encourage those tenants wth captal and skll to retan ther holdngs. Tenants whose management was faulty were refused reductons. Arrears fell to IO per cent of the rental and fluctuated about ths fgure for the rest of the century. Between 1862 and 9oo, the annual value per acre of holdngs n the 3oo-4oo-acre group fell by 6s. I d. per acre. Holdngs n the 2oo-3oo-acre group lost on average 4 s. Id. per acre and those between oo and 2oo acres lost only IS. 2d. per acre. Two holdngs of 288 and 211 acres respectvely, stuated on the estate's heavest land where clay overlad the lmestone, lost 8s. 6d. per acre n value n ths perod. Perhaps the most strkng ndcaton of dffculty ll these years s the apparent breakdown of contnuty of occupaton by the leadng tenant famles. Tenances were annual and could be termnated each Candlemas. Between 1862 and 19o 5 on the 17 prncpal holdngs there were 57 changes of occupaton. On average, each farm changed hands three tmes n a perod of 43 years. In only four E~ : t!:
A SOUTH YORKSHIRE ESTATE, C. 86o-19oo 43 cases dd sons take over from ther fathers, and none of them remaned longer than ten years after dong so. Ths falure to mantan contnuty of occupaton s n contrast to the precedng 4 years and to the succeedng 6o, for between 19o0 and 1914 a number of famles moved on to the estate and "put ther roots down." Many of them were stll there n 1965. Not one of the occupyng famles of a prncpal holdng n 1862 occuped the same farm n 19o 5. The reasons for these changes were not clear n many cases, but there s no evdence to suggest that they were the work of evctng landlords; on the contrary, changes of tenancy were strenuously ressted where the agent and the landlord felt the occuper had the ablty to make the farm pay. In 28 out of the 57 changes, debt, bad management, and straned relatons wth the landlord led to the end of the tenancy. In I cases death ended the tenancy, retrement accounted for four changes, and n one case emgraton to Tasmana ended the occupaton. Where a tenant left n debt, the landlord could recoup hs arrears from the outgoer's tenant-rght award. It s possble that the prevalng "heavy" Yorkshre tenant-rght custom, whch favoured the outgoer, encouraged tenants to leave n search of smaller farms. Perhaps they preferred to leave wth ther substantal award rather than reman and fall nto serous debt. The custom does seem to have deterred applcants for farms after about 1875 when the landlord had to take n hand two farms for a few years untl tenants were found and when he had to gve fnancal help to two ncomng tenants wth ther farm valuatons. Bad seasons and low prces were blamed by the agent for the dffculty n securng good tenants, not the heavy tenant-rght custom, for ths had not proved an obstacle to ncomers n the 185 o's and 186o's when there had been usually three or four applcants for the larger holdngs. In 1876 the agent wrote "... ths season wll gve farmers a severe shakng throughout the country.., and t wll be very desrable to prevent changes." In 1879, when urgng the need to make a o per cent rent return, he observed, "I am qute sure somethng ought to be done to create confdence or we shall have a lot of bad farms thrown on our hands whch wll not let." To support hs suggeston he ponted out that two local landlords were makng IO per cent returns and two reputable Lncolnshre land agents had nformed hm that "... every large landowner n Lncolnshre s returnng IO per cent and n some cases more." In 88o, however, the agent was optmstc enough to wrte "I have great hopes now that the bad tmes are over..." Rent reductons to some tenants were stl! necessary, though only the more deservng receved them. One occuper was refused help because hs management was bad and hs land was "full of twtch and altogether unft to grow anythng." The nne occupers who were asssted n 1885 were told "... t must be /
44 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW clearly understood.., that ths abatement s made to meet the present depressed state of agrcultural matters and must be dscontnued n the event of a general mprovement takng place." By 1892 the agent reported "All pad up and there was no feelng expressed askng for a reducton of rent-- the general mpresson was that Your Lordshp had met them far as to rent and they must look to some other source to mprove matters." There was lttle evdence of any change n farmng practce to meet the dffcultes. Pecemeal converson of arable to pasture went on between 1886 and 1894, but the total area tackled over the whole estate was only 325 acres. The "n hand" acreage vared as two occupatons were farmed by the landlord to restore them to good heart n the 188o's. Even then they were mpossble to let wthout help to the ncomer wth the valuaton for unexhausted mprovements. In x 887 the Home Farm was splt up between two occupers who were wllng to accept more land. The pattern of expendture on dranng shows that a hgh proporton was spent on parkland and the Home Farm between 1868 and r875, whle from I875 to I880 a renewed effort was made and ths tme tenanted land receved most attenton. From 188o to I884 about 9 acres a year were tackled for the most part on farms where the lmestone was overlad wth clay and where cuttng was expensve at the rate of IO an acre. As wth dranng, the expendture on buldngs was greatest between 1862 and 1875. Durng these years the Hall at Sandbeck was enlarged, a chapel was bult, new Home Farm buldngs were fnshed, a vcarage was provded n the parsh of Maltby, mprovements to farmhouses were made, and cottages were bult for estate workers and farm labourers. Much of ths actvty was to make good past neglect, but by comparson wth the years 1875-I9OO ths was a perod f not of enterprse then at least of energetc restoraton of the fabrc of the estate. After 875 lttle was attempted n the way of buldng and nothng more spectacular was undertaken than the layng of water supples to the farms from the sprngs on the estate. J L I / : / HUDLESTON, N. A., Hstory of Malton and Norton, G. A. Pnder & Son, Scarborough, 1962. xv+22o pp. MCEWAN, GRANT, Between the Red and the Rockes. Unversty of Toronto Press (Reprnt), 1964. v+3oo pp. ISs. Books Receved PAARLBERG, DON, Amercan I;arm Polcy. John Wley & Sons, London & New York. x+376 pp. 55s. RIDGE, MARTIN, Ignatus Donnelly, the Portrat of a Poltcan. Unversty of Chcago Press, 1962. x+428 pp. $7.95.