Enclosure in Stotfold

Until 1851 much of the land in Stotfold lay, not in fields surrounded by hedges, but in great unenclosed open (or common) fields in which the individual freeholders land was scattered in small strips and intermingled with those of his neighbour. There were over 1,500 of these strips. This system restricted the introduction of improvements in agriculture, as the consent of the other strip holders was needed before innovations in the rotation of crops and so on were introduced. For this and other reasons, during the late 18th century a movement for enclosure, that is, the abolition of the strip system and the substitution of the present enclosed fields, occurred throughout much of England. 

In Bedfordshire the movement reached its height during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Stotfold was not enclosed until 1851, making it one of the last ten parishes in the county to be affected.