Rylstone Project

Enclosure Award of January 21st 1772 for Rylstone

 

The 'Enclosure Acts' or 'Awards' were a series of acts of parliament which enclosed what had been open fields or common land in the country, creating legal property rights on land which had previously been considered to be common. The acts caused massive hardship to villagers who no longer had land to farm or graze their stock.

 

The particular act for Rylstone divided up the 'cattle-gates' on the four stinted pastures belonging to Rylstone township.  These were: Bark, North Moor, Longhill and Garforth Close.

 

The Enclosure in Rylstone divided the fields into areas allotted to proprietors and areas allotted to roads as follows:

 

                          Allotted to proprietors         Allotted to roads                   Total

                                  

                                    a.        r.       p.                a.      r.      p.              a.       r.        p.

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Bark                           222       2     28                6       1     24            229       0       12     

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North Moor                373       3     36               11      0      3               38       3       39

 

Longhill                     151       3       0                 0      0      0             151       3         0

 

Garforth Close            11        0      7                 0      0      0               11        0        7

 

a.=acres    r.= rods   p.=perches

 

Prior to the Enclosure Award, the stinted pastures had the following cattle-gates.

 

Bark                                86

North Moor                    161

Longhill                           45

Garforth Close                  4

    

This note is from the records of Richard Harland by personal communication.

The Enclosure Award for Rylstone is held at The North Yorkshire County Archives at Northallerton.

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