Canwick (Lincolnshire) and Melbourn (Cambridgeshire) in Comparative Perspective within the Open-Closed Village Model

Abstract

Canwick Hall, near Lincoln, was the seat of the Sibthorps from 1730 to 1940. They represented the city in Parliament over several generations. The evolution of their estate village is seen here in contrast to the open village of Melbourn, in the context of the open-closed village model, and in comparison with two other estates of similar size and value (the Sneyds' estate at Keele, Staffordshire and the Fawkeses' estate at Farnley in Wharfedale). The Sibthorps were a ten thousand-acre and ten thousand pounds-a-year family for most of the nineteenth century, but the amount of attention they paid to Canwick varied considerably, depending on the individual circumstances and preferences of a succession of life-tenants.