Manuscripts and Special Collections
Ma S 16 : Report of Mr Thomas Huskinson recommending enclosure of Laxton, 1862
It is quite melancholy to see so fine a Property as this, capable of being made one of the best Estates in the district, comparatively unproductive and left subject to rights and usages so ancient and barbarous that their origin is lost in antiquity, and so adverse to improvement that the only two cases now remaining in the Midland Counties are Laxton and Eakring.
As it is impossible this state of things can long continue under the present facilities for Inclosure, I may add some particulars of the probable cost of Inclosure, and the results to be expected from it.
Lord Manvers is the Owner of 627 acres of Open Fields. I assume that upon Inclosure this would be divided into Fields of 20 acres each, and that three additional Farmsteads would have to be built upon it.
There would be the cost of Drainage though that is not strictly an expense incident to inclosure, as whether inclosed or uninclosed the Land requires and would pay for Drainage. I shall add the Drainage however because it is necessary and must follow upon Inclosure.
The estimated expense would stand thus:
| Inclosing 627 acres in 20 acre Fields, cost of Posts, Rails, Quick & Labour, 30s/- per acre | £ 940 |
| Cost of 3 Farm Houses & Buildings capable of occupying 250 acres each | 3600 |
| Expenses of Inclosure including Surveys, Award, Commissioners & Valuers Exp[ense], 12s/- per acre | 380 |
| Cost of making Occupation Roads from the Public Roads to the three Farm Steads say | 500 |
