Great Hill Bottom Husborne Crawley

Great Hill Bottom shown in green

In 1970 Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service staff carried out research on a number of fields belonging to Woburn Experimental Farm in Husborne Crawley. This seems to have been prompted by an enquiry from The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Plant Pathology Laboratory about Workhouse Field.

Research on Great Hill Bottom [CRT130HusborneCrawley2] revealed that it first appeared as a field separate from Great Hill about 1850 [R1/229]. Cropping books forming part of the estate archive of the Duke of Bedford [R4/209, 215, 223 and 229] show that in 1866 the field comprised 7 acres, 1 rood, 35 poles. Its cropping was as follows:

• 1866: ½ wheat and ½ beans;
• 1867: ½ clover and ½ wheat;
• 1868: ½ wheat and ½ fallow;
• 1869: ½ beans and ½ barley;
• 1870: fallow and clover;
• 1871: clover;
• 1872: wheat;
• 1873: fallow;
• 1874: barley;
• 1875: beans;
• 1876: oats;
• 1877: fallow;
• 1878: barley;
• 1879: oats;
• 1880: fallow;
• 1881: barley;
• 1882: peas;
• 1883-1884: oats;
• 1885: fallow;
• 1886-1887: experimental uses;
• 1888: roots and experimental uses;
• 1889-1892: experimental uses;
• 1893-1898: clover;
• 1899: clover mown;
• 1900: clover grazed;
• 1901-1902: clover mown;
• 1903: clover grazed;
• 1904: clover mown;
• 1905: clover grazed;
• 1906-1907: clover mown;
• 1908: clover grazed;
• 1909: clover mown.