Village History
Written Summer 2000
A Village of Two Halves
A Village of Two Halves
H ave you ever looked at a road map of Goxhill?
There is the little squiggly bit where the houses
are with the road from Barrow to East Halton
running along the bottom and then there are the
long straight roads of the Marsh, which take up far more
space than the village. Why were these big wide straight
roads built? They do not take us to other villages and only
provide access to the houses and farms. Well of course as
with so many things about our village we have to turn to the
inclosure of the village for an answer.
Before Inclosure there were four big fields these were called
the Mill field the Hallands field the Horsegate field and
Chapel field but in addition there were extensive grazing
areas in the Marshes. The Neatgangs together with the West
and East Marsh and the Salt Marsh were badly drained but
they provided excellent summer grazing land. The area of
arable land and the area of grazing land were almost equal.
Goxhill was a village of two halves and the nature of the
land in each half was quite different.
Because there were no boundary fences and cattle could
wander as they wished they had to be tended (Local word
“Tented”) and were driven out to these areas to graze and
brought in to small-inclosed fields at night. Many of the
more wealthy people living at the South end of the village
who had a large share of the land had their own inclosures
at the North end. This cut down the distance that the cattle
had to walk each day.
It can be seen from this that although the arable fields and
the grazing lands were separate the whole village operated
as an integrated system. Now the idea of inclosure was to
improve the land and the agricultural methods used upon it
and thus to make more money from it. The last thing that
the Great and Good wished to do was to separate the Arable
from the Grazing land and thereby to destroy this productive
system.
It was therefore decided that when the land was divided up
and allotted to the recipients that the commissioners who
were appointed to do the work should not only allocate the
land according to the Quantity or number of acres to which
each person was entitled but also according to the Quality
and the position or Situation. The words “Quality Quantity
and Situation” are used several times in the Act and Award
and because of this consideration each person was awarded
several separate pieces of land. Only a small number of
pieces of land of more than 100 acres were awarded and all
of the major recipients had several pieces at different locations
in the arable fields and grazing lands.
This caused a problem because everyone needed access to
his or her own land and to be able to travel from one piece
to another without passing over the land belonging to other
people. Not only people with ploughs and farm carts but
animals also had to go from farmstead to fields so that good
hedges and roads wide enough for cattle to be driven were
required.
To solve this problem Public and Private roads were
awarded. That is land was allocated for use as Public roads
Private roads and Foot roads (footpaths) from the total area
available before the remainder was divided between the
recipients. The width of each road was set out in the Act
and responsibility for Hedges and Ditches and their maintenance
and upkeep was also laid down.
The width of these roads seems excessive to us when we
view them from the narrow strip of Tarmac upon which we
drive. Take away the hard surface and add some mud and
ruts together with the daily passage of a lot of animals and
even 60 feet of available space might not suffice for unhindered
passage. Then comes the clever bit, the maintenance
and upkeep of the roads was to be the responsibility of the
Surveyors of the Highways. They had to Auction the Herbage
of the roads on Easter Monday every year to the highest
bidder for the “Bating of Geldings and Mares only which
shall not be put on before sunrise or stay after sunset” The
income from this was to be expended upon the upkeep of
the roads. The wide roadsides were not to be wasted.
Our neighbours at East Halton had no such problems They
had only a narrow coastal margin of grazing land and many
people had only one large piece of ground allotted to them
so that a big road network was not needed. Barrow on the
other hand had a similar division of arable and pastureland
to Goxhill and a network of roads was laid out. The coming
of the Railway and the growth of New Holland in the Ox-
Marsh gave a modern purpose to these roads, which would
otherwise look very much like ours.
Land drainage and management have improved the quality
of the fields that were once only used for grazing. The importance
of animals and arable crops to the farmers of the
village has changed over the years. Within living memory
milk, which was taken each day to the railway station, provided
a very important part of farm income. Today very few
animals other than horses are to be found in the village. The
appearance, to those of us who are not farmers, of the fields
to the North of the village is not much different from those
to the South. Although much of the land is now cultivated
some pieces have never been ploughed since they were inclosed.
Maurice Brawn
There is the little squiggly bit where the houses
are with the road from Barrow to East Halton
running along the bottom and then there are the
long straight roads of the Marsh, which take up far more
space than the village. Why were these big wide straight
roads built? They do not take us to other villages and only
provide access to the houses and farms. Well of course as
with so many things about our village we have to turn to the
inclosure of the village for an answer.
Before Inclosure there were four big fields these were called
the Mill field the Hallands field the Horsegate field and
Chapel field but in addition there were extensive grazing
areas in the Marshes. The Neatgangs together with the West
and East Marsh and the Salt Marsh were badly drained but
they provided excellent summer grazing land. The area of
arable land and the area of grazing land were almost equal.
Goxhill was a village of two halves and the nature of the
land in each half was quite different.
Because there were no boundary fences and cattle could
wander as they wished they had to be tended (Local word
“Tented”) and were driven out to these areas to graze and
brought in to small-inclosed fields at night. Many of the
more wealthy people living at the South end of the village
who had a large share of the land had their own inclosures
at the North end. This cut down the distance that the cattle
had to walk each day.
It can be seen from this that although the arable fields and
the grazing lands were separate the whole village operated
as an integrated system. Now the idea of inclosure was to
improve the land and the agricultural methods used upon it
and thus to make more money from it. The last thing that
the Great and Good wished to do was to separate the Arable
from the Grazing land and thereby to destroy this productive
system.
It was therefore decided that when the land was divided up
and allotted to the recipients that the commissioners who
were appointed to do the work should not only allocate the
land according to the Quantity or number of acres to which
each person was entitled but also according to the Quality
and the position or Situation. The words “Quality Quantity
and Situation” are used several times in the Act and Award
and because of this consideration each person was awarded
several separate pieces of land. Only a small number of
pieces of land of more than 100 acres were awarded and all
of the major recipients had several pieces at different locations
in the arable fields and grazing lands.
This caused a problem because everyone needed access to
his or her own land and to be able to travel from one piece
to another without passing over the land belonging to other
people. Not only people with ploughs and farm carts but
animals also had to go from farmstead to fields so that good
hedges and roads wide enough for cattle to be driven were
required.
To solve this problem Public and Private roads were
awarded. That is land was allocated for use as Public roads
Private roads and Foot roads (footpaths) from the total area
available before the remainder was divided between the
recipients. The width of each road was set out in the Act
and responsibility for Hedges and Ditches and their maintenance
and upkeep was also laid down.
The width of these roads seems excessive to us when we
view them from the narrow strip of Tarmac upon which we
drive. Take away the hard surface and add some mud and
ruts together with the daily passage of a lot of animals and
even 60 feet of available space might not suffice for unhindered
passage. Then comes the clever bit, the maintenance
and upkeep of the roads was to be the responsibility of the
Surveyors of the Highways. They had to Auction the Herbage
of the roads on Easter Monday every year to the highest
bidder for the “Bating of Geldings and Mares only which
shall not be put on before sunrise or stay after sunset” The
income from this was to be expended upon the upkeep of
the roads. The wide roadsides were not to be wasted.
Our neighbours at East Halton had no such problems They
had only a narrow coastal margin of grazing land and many
people had only one large piece of ground allotted to them
so that a big road network was not needed. Barrow on the
other hand had a similar division of arable and pastureland
to Goxhill and a network of roads was laid out. The coming
of the Railway and the growth of New Holland in the Ox-
Marsh gave a modern purpose to these roads, which would
otherwise look very much like ours.
Land drainage and management have improved the quality
of the fields that were once only used for grazing. The importance
of animals and arable crops to the farmers of the
village has changed over the years. Within living memory
milk, which was taken each day to the railway station, provided
a very important part of farm income. Today very few
animals other than horses are to be found in the village. The
appearance, to those of us who are not farmers, of the fields
to the North of the village is not much different from those
to the South. Although much of the land is now cultivated
some pieces have never been ploughed since they were inclosed.
Maurice Brawn