The land market, 1880-1925: A reappraisal reappraised

Agricultural History Review

Volumn 55, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 289-300

  Thompson, Michael ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 37149000305     PISSN: 00021490     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (33)

1. John Beckett and Michael Turner, 'End of the Old Order? F. M. L. Thompson, the Land Question, and the burden of ownership in England, c.1880-1925', AgHR 55 (2007), pp. 269-88.
2. F. M. L. Thompson, English landed society in the nineteenth century (1963), p. 332.
3. The Times, which had always had a keen eye for estate sales, reported on the feverish activity, for example, on 22 Mar., 29 Mar., 15 May, 30 and 31 Dec., 1919, 19 May 1920,15 Oct. and 31 Dec. 1921.
4. Estates Gazette (hereafter EG), 2 Jan. 1892, p. 5,
5. quoted in F. M. L. Thompson, "The land market in the nineteenth century,' Oxford Economic Paper 9 (1957),
6. repr. in W. E. Minchinton (ed.), Essays in Agrarian History (2 vols, 1968), II, p. 44.
7. Norton, Trist, and Gilbert, A century of land values,' The Times, 20 Apr. 1889, p. 11.
8. Thompson, English landed society, p. 332
9. (the sale of at least 8,600 acres of the Longleat estate between 1919 and 1921 was not reported in the Estates Gazette).
10. S. G. Sturmey, 'Owner-farming in England and Wales, 1900-1950', Manchester School 23 (1955),
11. repr. in Minchinton (ed.), Essays in Agrarian History, II, pp. 281-306.
12. Ibid., Table I, p. 287.
13. Beckett and Turner, 'End of the old order?', pp. 279-80.
14. Sturmey, 'Owner-farming', p. 294.
15. Thompson, English landed society, pp. 321-5.
16. Mary S. Lovell, The Mitford Girls (2001, 2002 edn), pp. 38-44.
17. Sturmey, 'Owner-farming', pp. 295-6.
18. EG, 30 Dec. 1922, p. 923 for the Albury estate sale; 22 Sept. 1923, p. 371 for the Portman estate sale; 29 Oct. 1927, p. 589 for the Normanton sale, 2 July 1927, p. 15, 9 July 1927, p. 51, and 13 Aug. 1927, p. 223 for the Rutland sale. Major sales recorded in the EG in 1924 include a further sale to 117 tenants, by Portman, 7 June, p. 825; the sale of 2300 acres in Lincolnshire to tenants by Tyrwhitt Drake, 22 Mar., p. 393; the sale of 1700 acres in Cheshire to tenants by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, 6 Sept., p. 313; 3600 acres in Warwickshire by Lord Middleton, 8 Nov., p. 643; and 3500 acres in Oxfordshire by Lord Harcourt, 6 Sept., p. 325. In 1925 sales included 11,000 acres in Derbyshire to tenants by Lord Howard of Glossop, 7 Feb., p. 193; 5092 acres at Bedale, Yorks, sold by Sir William C. Gray in 'a remarkable instance of combination by the tenants', 1 Aug., p. 156; 5000 acres in Lancashire by the Earl of Derby, 30 May, p. 801; and 2054 acres in Oxfordshire by Lord Redesdale, 26 Sept., pp. 419, 428.
19. H. J. Habakkuk, Marriage, debt, and the estates system. English Landownership, 1650-1950 (1994), p. 691,
20. for Nail Cain, Samuel Waring, Joseph Watson, and Herbert Smith. F. M. L. Thompson, Gentrification and the enterprise culture (2001), p. 71 for Amos Nelson, App. 3 for Alfred Mond, App. 4 (ii) for George Johnston, Herbert Leon.
21. Beckett and Turner, 'End of the old order?', p. 287, for Leverhulme. EG, 21 Feb. 1922, p. 89, for Cowdray.
22. Kelly's Northamptonshire (1920 edn), p. 23 for Wimborne.
23. Kelly's Directories for Berkshire (1911 and 1928 edns); for Devon (1906 and 1926 edns); for Gloucestershire (1906 and 1931 edns); for Hampshire (1907 and 1923 edns); for Northamptonshire (1903, 1920 and 1928 edns).
24. Column 7, transfers in single-owner parishes to owner-farmers = 12% of the total area of single-owner parishes in the five counties: applied to England as a whole that would equal 1.15m acres. Since single-owner parishes formed 30% of the total area of the five counties, and the five counties were 14% of the area of England, the upper estimate would be 165,000 acres × 3.3 × 7 = 3.8m acres. The 6.3m acres transferred to owner-occupiers between 1914 and 1927 related to England and Wales, and there is no readily accessible means of removing the Welsh element from this figure.
25. Some of them were established landowners adding to their estates, for example Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson and Lord Stalbridge in Berkshire, Sir Wilfrid Peek and Lord Mildmay in Devon, Sir B. M. Eyres-Monsell and Sir H. Ingram in Gloucestershire, Viscounts Woolmer and Peel in Hampshire, and Edward Scawen Wyndham and Sir George Reresby Sitwell in Northamptonshire. Others were 'new men', for example Sir Edward Mauger Iliffe (later created Lord Iliffe), press baron and owner of Kelly's Directories, and Sir Robert James Black, banker, in Berkshire, Sir Raymond Beck, Lloyds underwriter, and Sir Trehawke Kekewich, lawyer, in Devon, Lord Dulverton, tobacco manufacturer, and Samuel Vestey, meat importer and retailer, in Gloucestershire, Sir Charles Greenway, Anglo-Persian Oil, and Sir Heath Harrison, Liverpool shipowner, in Hampshire, and Sir P. S. Stott, architect, and Sir Charles Kenneth Murchison, stockbroker and politician, in Northamptonshire.
26. Since the 5m acres going to owner-farmers relates to England and Wales, the figure for England alone must have been somewhat smaller, although as noted before, at present there is no way of disaggregating the Welsh element.
27. Beckett and Turner, 'End of the Old Order?', p. 281.
28. Thompson, English landed society, p. 319.
29. Dr David Brown has kindly shown me advance information from his contribution to A. D. M. Phillips and C. B. Phillips (eds), A Staffordshire Atlas (forthcoming). Ten of the 37 large estates in Staffordshire were either partly or completely sold in 1919-21.
30. Kelly's Directories for Berkshire (1888 edn), for Devon (1888 edn), for Gloucestershire (1897 edn), and for Northamptonshire (1894 edn), in addition to those cited in n.16. These editions are clearly not ideal for capturing changes confined to the years 1896-9.
31. Roy Douglas, Land, people, and politics. A history of the Land Question in the United Kingdom, 1878-1952 (1976), pp. 175-82.
32. There are many sources for the 1873 figures: they are usefully presented in the County Tables provided by J. Bateman, in G. C. Brodrick, English land and landlords (1881), pp. 173-83
33. for English counties, and p. 187 for a summary table for England and Wales. More accurate figures, based on the 1883 version of Bateman's revisions, can be calculated from Thompson, English landed society, Tables II, IV, and V.