UK Countryside history - 1400 AD
The prolific growth of three centuries that ended around 1300 AD was followed by a century of collapse. The great famine of 1315-22 and the plague of 1348-50 (known as the black death) decimated the population and altered the face of agriculture. Both events affected the whole of Northern Europe and had a profound impact on both social structure and the countryside.
- Population
The cumulative effects of the great famine and black death reduced the UK
population in a short period of time by 50 % to around 3 million people.
Entire communities were lost and population levels did not reach those of
1300 until some three centuries later. Many of the new towns and villages
that had formed in the preceding centuries were abandoned and remain unoccupied
today.
- Crops
During the great famine arable crop yields fell dramatically as periods
of prolonged wet weather prevented harvest and spoiled quality. Fodder crops
were affected too, with much hay being lost or even left uncut. Prices soared
and large parts of the peasant population suffered malnutrition.
After the black death the much reduced demand for grain lead to marginal
arable land being converted to pasture or reverting to scrub, woodland and
moor. Although the area of arable declined it did not shrink as much as
the population collapse so that food supplies increased relatively, and
grain prices began to fall back. Flax became re-established in the UK having
been largely absent since Roman times and although its cloth was of poor
quality it had a place in the growing textile industry.
- Livestock
The poor weather of the great famine reduced hay making and led to the premature
culling of livestock. Many peasants sold their oxen (at deeply discounted
prices) only to find this increased the difficulty of ploughing the following
season and subsequent harvests were therefore affected. Periodic bouts of
livestock disease affected the cattle and sheep populations as well.
After the black death sheep farming and wool production remained the main
pastoral activity but patterns of taste changed and wool exports were reduced
by war. Increasingly the wool clip was utilised at home in the fast growing
textile industry, largely based in towns near fast flowing streams that
ran the mills. While wool exports declined, exports of cloth increased.
Out in the fields an increase in the use of the horse brought about higher
ploughing workrates and assisted in the production of grain from a reduced
workforce.
- Farming Systems
Following the great famine and the black death there was a profound change
in farming systems. With a decimated population, peasants who had been bound
to their lords suddenly found that they were able to leave for better terms
elsewhere. The lords who now found it difficult to find sufficient workers
gave up their role as direct producers becoming landlords letting their
land out to farmers and tenants who became the main driving force behind
change in the countryside typically consolidating their holdings, specialising
and building their own homes. As the consolidation of farms began so the
practice of enclosing land followed and a new chapter in the development
of the countryside began.
- Woodland & Hedges
The immediate consequence of the collapse of the population was a withdrawal
of agriculture from many marginal farming lands. Within a decade, scrub
encroachment had replaced previously cultivated and grazed ground and new
woodlands formed, many of which remain as ancient semi-natural woodland
today. After this initial increase the area of woodland remained broadly
stable until about 1850 AD. The practice of enclosure also saw the start
of a process that would continue through several centuries creating tens
of thousands of miles of new hedgerow.
- Social Economy
Economic activity in the fourteenth century was already in decline by the
time of the great famine. Taxation was on the increase and coupled with
higher food prices, poverty was widespread. There was a big increase in
crime and through disease and malnutrition around half a million people
lost their lives prematurely.
Although the affects of the black death were catastrophic they provided
new opportunities for the survivors, in particular the poor. Peasants were
able to get better paid jobs, married later and in particular had less children.
They were also liberated from their family and geographic ties as the availability
of work provided social mobility. With the liberation of the lower classes
the elite responded with controls and taxes and this created tension. In
1381 the effects of socio economic change were seen in the peasants revolt,
a frustrated response to another poll tax rise. Feudal society was under
pressure and increasingly peasants were able to negotiate free contracts
with their lords rather than living a life of servitude. Farmers, the new
force in the countryside paid rents to the lords, specialised and enclosed
fields. Enclosure was also practiced by the peasants themselves who collectively
agreed to the rearrangements of their holdings in the search for efficiency.
By 1400 economic activity was again picking up but it would be three centuries
before the population returned to levels of 1300 AD.
- Climate
By 1290 the warm conditions of the early medieval period had given way to
cooler conditions with the period 1315 -22 representing much wetter and
colder conditions. Tree ring analysis suggests that a natural disaster somewhere
in the world had a profound affect on weather conditions over the whole
of Northern Europe. The climate remained colder than today until about 1375
when conditions stabilised.
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