The open-field world of Harrow

Before the enclosure acts, much of Harrow was farmed in open fields and shared commons. Around the foot of Harrow on the Hill, farmers held scattered strips in large unhedged fields. Beyond them lay commons and waste at Harrow Weald, Wealdstone, Pinner, Roxeth and Kenton. These were not empty spaces. They were working landscapes, grazed by cattle, sheep and geese, and cut for furze, wood and turf.

Village life depended on these shared resources. A cottager with common rights might keep a cow, a few pigs or a flock of geese. Farmers gathered fuel, repaired hedges with local timber and turned livestock onto the stubble after harvest. The system was not tidy, but it was flexible. It supported smallholders, labourers and widows who had little else.

Harrow’s open fields were farmed in strips, often separated from the farmstead. A farmer might hold land in several fields, which spread risk but made improvement difficult. One man’s strip could be ploughed while his neighbour’s was left fallow. Livestock had to be kept off until the harvest was in. Everyone had to agree on the same rhythm of sowing, reaping and grazing.

Why Parliament stepped in

Enclosure was not invented in the nineteenth century. Piecemeal enclosure had been going on for centuries, usually by agreement between landowners. But from the 1750s to the 1850s, Parliament passed thousands of private enclosure acts. Middlesex, including Harrow, felt the pressure keenly because London was growing fast. The capital wanted wheat, hay, milk, meat and vegetables, and it paid well for them.

Landowners and larger farmers argued that open fields and commons were wasteful. Strips were too small, fences were absent, and common rights stopped farmers from draining, liming or planting new crops. War with France pushed up food prices, making improvement profitable. Enclosure promised compact farms, clear boundaries and higher rents. For the poor, however, the promise was far less certain.

The Harrow and Pinner awards

The key moment for this area was the Harrow Enclosure Act of 1817. It covered Harrow Weald, Harrow Common and other waste lands in the parish. Pinner’s enclosure award followed in 1822. Commissioners were appointed to survey the parish, hear claims and divide the land. Their decisions were recorded in an award map and schedule, documents that local historians still use today.

The commissioners’ work was practical and far-reaching:

• Measuring and mapping every strip, common and piece of waste.
• Allotting land to the lord of the manor, tithe owners and those with legal common rights.
• Ordering new hedges, fences, gates, ditches and access roads.
• Recording the award so that ownership could be proved in future.

Land was not shared out equally. The largest allotments went to the main landowners and to the church as compensation for tithes. Small commoners sometimes received a plot, but only if they could prove a legal right. Customary use, however long-standing, counted for little without documentary evidence.

How farms were reshaped

After enclosure, farms grew larger and more compact. Scattered strips were consolidated into ring-fenced holdings. New farmhouses, barns and cart sheds appeared, often built on the newly enclosed land. Fields were bounded by hawthorn hedges, post-and-rail fences and ditches. Straight access roads replaced winding tracks across the open fields.

Farming itself changed. Landowners introduced four-course rotations of wheat, turnips, barley and clover. Turnips fed sheep in winter, and clover restored nitrogen to the soil. Dairy herds supplied London with milk, while hay and straw were carted to urban markets. On Harrow Weald, heavier clay soils were drained and limed. Farmers who could afford to invest did well; those who could not often sold up or became labourers.

The landscape became more private. Footpaths were diverted, gates were locked and commons were no longer open to all. For many villagers, the familiar freedom to roam, glean and graze was replaced by rules, rent and wages.

The cost to the poor

For cottagers and labourers, enclosure could be devastating. A cow on the common, a few geese or the right to cut furze might have been the difference between independence and poverty. When commons were divided, these small livelihoods often vanished. Some received an allotment, but it was frequently poor land, too small or too far from the village.

Poor rates rose in many enclosed parishes. Landless labourers depended on wages, and wages alone rarely covered a family. Some turned to poaching, which was punished harshly. Others moved to London or emigrated. Village life lost some of its shared character: the common had been a place for grazing, fuel gathering, cricket and gossip. After enclosure, it became a set of private fields.

There was resistance, too. Not everyone accepted the commissioners’ awards quietly. Fences were pulled down, gates left open and livestock driven onto private land. Such protests were usually local and short-lived, but they show that enclosure was contested, not welcomed by all.

What you can still see today

The enclosure landscape is still readable in Harrow. Walk beside Harrow Weald Common, along the edges of Pinner or through the remaining open spaces at Roxeth and Kenton. Look for long, straight hedgerows, ditches and field boundaries that follow the award maps. Many footpaths and minor roads began as enclosure access routes.

Allotments are another legacy. Some were set aside to compensate the poor for lost common rights, though they rarely replaced what was taken. Street names, farm names and the shape of modern housing estates often preserve older field boundaries. When the railways arrived and Harrow began to suburbanise, builders followed the lines laid down by the enclosure commissioners.

Enclosure made Harrow’s countryside more productive, but it also made it more unequal. Understanding that change helps explain how a parish of open fields and commons became the London borough we know today.