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Making Good Land from Bad: The Drainage of West Lancashire, c. 1650–1850

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

ANDREW GRITT
ANDREW GRITT*
Affiliation:
Department of Humanities, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK
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Abstract

This article investigates the changing administrative context of drainage in south-west Lancashire from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Successive schemes managed by Commissions of Sewers, piecemeal reclamation and private agreement were characterised by primitive technology, under-investment and poor management. Consequently, their achievements were limited. Large scale drainage schemes under the control of single individuals or powerful syndicates enjoyed greater success, but to coordinate drainage across an ecosystem that went beyond estate boundaries required state intervention in the form of an Act of Parliament of 1779. After some initial success the drainage commissioners found themselves immersed in legal wranglings with landowners and maintenance of the drainage system largely fell into abeyance. It was not until the landlords provided the administrative and financial resources to invest in technological solutions in the 1840s that the land achieved its full potential. It is argued that drainage of this land, resulting in its transformation from some of the worst land in the country to some of the best, was a major contributor not only to the agricultural success of the region, but also to Lancashire's industrial success.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , April 2008 , pp. 1 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

Notes

1. Some of the notable contributions to this literature include H. C. Darby, The Changing Fenland (Cambridge, 1983); H. C. Darby, The Draining of the Fens (Cambridge, 1968); Peter Edwards, ‘Competition for Land, Common Rights and Drainage in the Weald Moors (Shropshire): The Cherrington and Meeson Disputes, 1576–1612’, in R. W. Hoyle, ed., People, Landscape and Alternative Agriculture: Essays for Joan Thirsk (Exeter, 2004); L. E. Harris, Vermuyden and the Fens: A Study of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and the Great Level (London, 1953); R. W. Hoyle, ‘Disafforestation and Drainage: The Crown as Entrepreneur?’ in R. W. Hoyle, ed., The Estates of the English Crown, 1558–1640 (Cambridge, 1992); Keith Lindley, Fenland Riots and the English Revolution (London, 1982); J. R. Ravensdale, Liable to Floods: Village Landscape on the Edge of the Fens, AD 450–1850 (London, 1974); Christopher Taylor, The Cambridgeshire Landscape (London, 1973); S. Wade-Martins and T. Williamson, The Roots of Change: Farming and the Landscape in East Anglia, c. 1700–1870 (Exeter, 1999); M. Williams, ‘The Draining and Reclamation of the Somerset Levels’, Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers), 33, 1963, 163–79; M. Williams, The Draining of the Somerset Levels (Cambridge, 1970).

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12. Celia Fiennes, Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (Stroud, 1995).

13. Daniel Defoe, A Tour through England and Wales Divided into Circuits or Journeys (London, 1962).

14. Dudley Stamp, The Land of Britain, p. 141.

15. Rawstorne, L., Some Remarks on Lancashire Farming, and on Various Subjects Connected with the Agriculture of the Country: With a Few Suggestions for Remedying Some of its Defects (London, 1843), pp. 5–6.Google Scholar

16. Millward, R., Lancashire: An Illustrated Essay on the History of the Landscape (London, 1955), pp. 50–8.Google Scholar Comprehensive archaeological surveys of these wetlands have been published as: Cowell, R. and Innes, J., The Wetlands of Merseyside (Lancaster, 1994);Google ScholarHall, D., Wells, C. and Huckerby, E., The Wetlands of Greater Manchester (Lancaster, 1995);Google ScholarMiddleton, R., Tooley, M. and Innes, J., The Wetlands of South West Lancashire (Lancaster, 2001);Google ScholarMiddleton, R., Wells, C. and Huckerby, E., The Wetlands of North Lancashire (Lancaster, 1995).Google Scholar

17. Holt, General View, p. 86.

18. 19 Geo. III, ch. 33.

19. All primary sources are located in the Lancashire Record Office unless stated otherwise. QSP/3/10 Jos. Tompson, Sephton, to Capt. Alex Tompson, 16th July 1648.

20. W. Shannon, ‘Boundary Disputes and Enclosure by Approvement: The Lancashire Mosslands in the Early Modern Period’, Society for Landscape Studies Newsletter, Spring/Summer 2006, 7–8; DDIn 55/8; DDIn 55/9; DDin 55/44; DDIn 55/51–2; DDIN 23/41; DDIN 45/6; DDIN 58/7; DDIN 60/8; DDIN 66/9; P/1–82.

21. Hale and Coney, Martin Mere, pp. 98–124.

22. J. M. Virgoe, ‘Thomas Fleetwood’.

23. DDM 5/1–5 Molyneux estate contract books, 1649–1697.

24. DDM 7/91 Altcar court book.

25. Holt, General View, pp. 46–7.

26. Holt, General View, p. 223.

27. See for instance DDIn 53/101 Supervisors’ orders to scour ditches etc., 24th April 1713; DDM 7/23 Altcar court book, 14th May 1800; DDM 7/35 Altcar court book, 16th June 1812; DDM 7/60 Altcar court book, 3rd October 1826; DDM 7/91 Altcar court book.

28. DDBl 46/30 Articles of agreement, 1712.

29. DDIn 53/100 Articles of Agreement, 10th April 1713.

30. Maddock, ‘Alt Level’, 63.

31. DDIn 14/6 Robert Blundell to Mr Tompson, 15th March 1649/50.

32. DDIn 4/2 Order of Commission of Sewers at Sephton, 6th May 1696.

33. DDIn 4/4 Agreement, 7th July 1698.

34. Maddock, ‘Alt Level’, 89.

35. DDBl 31/6–7; DDVl 46/30; DDHe 71/2; DDD 142; DDCl 682.

36. F. Tyrer, ed., The Great Diurnal of Nicholas Blundell of Little Crosby, Lancashire, 1702–1728, 3 vols., (Liverpool, 1968–72). See entries for 10th April 1723, 6th May 1724 and 28th November 1726. See also Maddock, ‘Alt Level’, 85.

37. Maddock, ‘Alt Level’, 92

38. Maddock, ‘Alt Level’, 85.

39. Hale and Coney, Martin Mere.

40. L. Weatherill, The Account Book of Richard Latham, 1724–1767 (Oxford 1990), xviii; Coney, ‘Fish, Fowl and Fen’, 51–64; Hale and Coney, Martin Mere, pp. 98–124

41. Coney, ‘Fish, Fowl and Fen’, 54; Virgoe, ‘Thomas Fleetwood’; 6 & 7 Will. and Mar. ch. 15. An Act for Ratifying a Certain Indenture of Lease of Martin Mere (1694).

42. Millward, Lancashire, 52.

43. Coney, ‘Fish, Fowl and Fen’, 54–62.

44. Virgoe, ‘Thomas Fleetwood’

45. Ashmore, O., Industrial Archaeology of Lancashire (Newton Abbott, 1969), p. 322.Google Scholar

46. DDSc 78/3 The Drainage of Martin Mere, 1788; M. Duggan, A History of Scarisbrick (1996), pp. 29–33.

47. Millward, Lancashire, p. 52.

48. Holt, General View, p. 104.

49. Millward, Lancashire, p. 58; Holt, General View, p. 95. See also DDHe 77/97–99

50. Holt, General View, pp. 99–102

51. Holt, General View, pp. 102; 105

52. Millward, Lancashire, 52–3; DDHe 77/99; Collins, H., Lancashire Plain and Seaboard (London, 1953), p. 28Google Scholar

53. Wilbraham Bootle was a local landowner in Melling and was also a member of the parliamentary Committee to which the bill was referred.

54. J. of the House of Commons, xxxvii (27th January 1779), 84.

55. J. of the House of Commons, xxxvii (25th February 1779), 172.

56. J. of the House of Commons, xxxvii (22nd March 1779), 282.

57. 19 Geo. III, ch. 33. An Act for Draining, Improving and Preserving the Low Lands in the Parishes of Altcar, Sefton, Halsall and Walton upon the Hill (1779).

58. 19 Geo. III. ch. 33. An Act for Draining . . . Altcar

59. J. of the House of Commons, xxxvii (22nd March 1779), 282. In 1815, there were 283 occupiers of the low lands covered by the Act. E. Littledale, Abstract of an Act of Parliament . . . and some facts (taken principally from the minute books of the proceedings of the commissioners) showing the commencement and progress of the works up to the present period (Liverpool, 1850), p. 98.

60. The surviving minute books are in the Lancashire Record Office, CSA 5–8.

61. Littledale, Abstract, p. 40.

62. Littledale, Abstract, pp. 40–41.

63. Littledale, Abstract, p. 59.

64. Littledale, Abstract, p. 156.

65. Littledale, Abstract, p. 96. Emphasis in original.

66. Littledale, Abstract, p. 48.

67. Littledale, Abstract, p. 49.

68. Littledale, Abstract, pp. 55–6

69. Littledale, Abstract, p. 60.

70. Littledale, Abstract, p. 62.

71. 19 Geo. III. ch. 33. An act for draining . . . Altcar

72. Littledale, Abstract, pp. 64–5.

73. Littledale, Abstract, p. 65.

74. Littledale, Abstract, p. 71.

75. Littledale, Abstract, p. 76.

76. DDM 2/14 Henry Blundell, Ince, to the clerk to the Commissioners, 26th October 1798.

77. CSA 21 Mr Stanistreet's remarks on the Alt drainage [1801].

78. CSA 5 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners.

79. CSA 5 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners; Littledale, Abstract, p. 89.

80. CSA 5 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners; Littledale, Abstract, pp. 88–9.

81. CSA 5 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners; Littledale, Abstract, pp. 89–90.

82. CSA 5 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners; Littledale, Abstract, p. 91.

83. CSA 6 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners; Littledale, Abstract, 100.

84. CSA 6 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners; Littledale, Abstract, p. 110.

85. CSA 6 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners. Emphasis in original.

86. CSA 6 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners.

87. CSA 6 Minute book of the Alt Drainage commissioners; Littledale, Abstract, p. 104.

88. DDM 6/16 William Eaton Hall, Holly Cottage, Mill Lane, to the Earl of Sefton, London, 8th May 1840. See also DDM 6/18 William Eaton Hall, Holly Cottage, Mill Lane, to the Earl of Sefton, London, 16th May 1840.

89. DDM 6/26 William Eaton Hall, Croxteth, to the Earl of Sefton, 30th May 1840.

90. DDM 6/32 William Eaton Hall, Croxteth, to the Earl of Sefton, 12th June 1840.

91. DDM 6/50 William Eaton Hall, Croxteth, to the Earl of Sefton, 4th August 1841.

92. DDM 6/62 P. Hardwick, Russell Square, to the Earl of Sefton, 18th December 1841; DDM 6/61 Chris Bavin, Sefton house, to the Earl of Sefton, 13th November 1841; DDM 6/67 J. Locking, Sleaford, to Mr Bavin, 29th January 1842.

93. DDM 6/61 Chris Bavin, Sefton house, to the Earl of Sefton, 13th November 1841.

94. DDM 6/66 Henry Adcock, Newton-in-the-Willows, to the Earl of Sefton, 28th January 1842; DDM 6/68 Henry Adcock, Northwich, to the Earl of Sefton, 8th February 1842; DDM 6/69 Henry Adcock, Winstanley, to the Earl of Sefton, 24th February 1842; DDM 6/73 William Eaton Hall, Croxteth, to the Earl of Sefton, 31st May 1842; DDM 6/74 William Eaton Hall, Mill Lane, to the Earl of Sefton, 29th May 1842; DDM 6/75 William Eaton Hall, Mill Lane, to the Earl of Sefton, 19th June 1842; DDM 6/76 William Eaton Hall, Mill Lane, to the Earl of Sefton, 7th June 1842; DDM 6/77 William Eaton Hall, Mill Lane, to the Earl of Sefton, 12 June 1842.

95. DDM 6/81 William Eaton Hall, Croxteth, to the Earl of Sefton, 20th April 1843.

96. DDM 6/79 William Eaton Hall, Croxteth, to the Earl of Sefton, 6th April 1843.

97. DDM 8/83 William Eaton Hall, Croxteth, to the Earl of Sefton, 29th April 1843.

98. DDM 6/150 R. Ledger, Knotty Ash, to the Earl of Sefton, 18th May 1846.

99. Mutch, Rural Life in South-West Lancashire; Scola, Feeding the Victorian City

100. Mutch put forward the theory that until the coming of the railways, the agriculture of south-west Lancashire was backward and inefficient and that there was a period of dramatic transformation in the middle decades of the nineteenth century.

101. Robinson, ‘The Extent of Farm Underdrainage’, 84.