|
The Parliamentary Enclosure movement was a long and gradual process over several centuries, which sought to fulfil the needs of agriculture by enclosing (fencing off) the commons, heath and waste-land, and any remaining open land from the medieval field system. The enclosure within each parish was affected by a local committee authorised by an Act of Parliament, who with the aid of surveyors divided and re-allocated the land. The three main periods of change were in the early 13th century, the 16th century, and finally the late 18th and early 19th century. The last period completed the pattern of the enclosed countryside familiar to us today.
Before 1853 both Loxton Common and the land known as the 'waste' on Loxton Hill to the north of the village was common land, where the villagers could graze their sheep and cattle. Loxton Hill was enclosed in 1853 and the hill was divided into fields for the main landowners and the villagers lost their 'rights of common' and could not graze their animals there. As compensation the parish was given a very rough and rocky portion; namely the poorest of the land at the south eastern edge of the hill, as a 'recreational allotment' and as a place for villagers to hang washing out to dry. This area of land still exists, now known as the Parish Acre and is still the responsibility of the parish council.
There was a quarry on part of the Parish Acre that was probably there before the enclosure took place. Next to the quarry there was a lime kiln belonging to the Manor, which had been there for at least the previous fifty years. In 1855 Erasmus Galton removed the lime kiln and exchanged the land it stood on for another small part of the recreation land. Quarrying on the land was continued by the villagers and in 1862 it resulted in the discovery of the caves.
In 1877 the Parish Officers cautioned James Capel who repaired the roads in Loxton. He had apparently quarried a dangerous hole in the recreation ground for the sole purpose of selling the rock. It was decided, that he would no longer be employed to repair the roads in Loxton. However it seems that no one else could be found to do the job because in 1885 he was paid £7 for repairing eighty yards of the Loxton road and £5 10s for forty yards in Christon.
For information or comments contact marion@loxtonsomerset.org.uk  or please drop a note in the visitors' book just to let us know that you have called. If you have an interest in the site and would like to be kept informed of any future additions, amendments etc., please subscribe to our mailing list by entering your e-mail address in the box on the homepage. You can always choose to unsubcribe later by making the necessary amendment to the selection and entering the e-mail address that you wish removed.
|
next