The enclosure movement of 1700 to 1850 was mainly the Midlands, East Anglia and Central Southern England. Enclosures had been occuring in rural England since the Medieval period.

Traditional farming involved farmers cultivating several strips in different fields. Crops of wheat and barley were sown in annual rotation with the land left fallow every third year to recover. Villagers shared a 'common' with the right to collect peat, timber and fodder and to graze their animals.

Fallow land and sowing seed by scattering were wasteful. The absence of hedges meant stock disease spread. Disease and lack of winter fodder meant poor cattle. Innovation was retarded because all changes needed common assent.

The strips of the open fields were fenced to make larger compact units of land. Before about 1750, most villages were enclosed by agreement, many a little at a time. This may have involved buying some strips from the small farmers to get rid of any possible opposition.

Between 1750 and 1850 there were approximately 4,000 Enclosure Acts of Parliament. It allowed the whole of the village to be enclosed at the same time, commons, waste land, meadows and open fields. High cereal prices motivated farmers to enclose land in order to produce more - and landlords could charge tenants higher rents. A series of poor harvests around 1800 led to widespread enclosure with even marginal waste land being enclosed.

Enclosure usually required more labour - building fences, digging ditches, constructing roads and new farmhouses. With more land under cultivation, more labour was need to to plough, sow, hoe and harvest the crops. More stockmen, dairymen and shepherds were needed.