Agriculture in the county

Great forces were at work changing the face of this country between 1750 and 1832. Even in Bedfordshire currents were stirring in the land market. The agrarian revolution was well under way. The prolonged hostilities on the continent found some echo in rural life, if only a faint one. In common with those in the rest of the country Bedfordshire worthies found the times difficult, their rents high, their taxes soaring, their food scarce and dear, and the poor law vicious. There were loud allegations of the decline in morals and the improvidence of the poor, though this was also the time of the revivalist movements and the humanitarian work of the Wesleys, the Howards, the Wilberforces and the Whitbreads.

The problem of the small property owner in his relationship to the owner of the great estate and the lesser squirearchy was acute. Consolidation and amplification of smaller properties find expression in the increasing numbers of private enclosure acts. Towards the close, however, the interest centres no longer on the yeoman but on the farm hand and small tenant farmer, the former of whom is, in bad years, likely to become a charge on the parish, and whose fortunes are the subject of imposing government reports and enquiries.

The term “allotment” is heard in 1750 and 1830, but its connotation has changed. For the late eighteenth century proprietors the burning questions were their rights in the event of enclosure, their private agreements as to exchanging lands and tenements, the raising of loans in time of need by mortgaging their property, and the commutation of tithes ; whilst the post-war generation were more concerned with leases, prices, the poor law rates and proximity to raw materials, lines of communication and centres of industry which would provide opportunities for a quick return on capital invested.