A Brief Chapter in the History of Land

Farming and smallholding practices have altered over the past century or so. Some changes have been subtle, others less so – and many brought about by technology and legislation. In a new monthly series, Jeremy Hobson outlines just a few of them.

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A century might seem a long time but when it comes to the evolution of farming, food production and habitat management, it is just one tiny chapter in a very long book.

School history taught many of us how the likes of Charles 'Turnip' Townsend, Jethro Tull and King George III (aka 'Farmer George') famously developed farming methods and hugely influenced the British Agricultural Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. Around the same period, Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke introduced scientific selective breeding for farm livestock.

Despite their forward thinking, none of these innovators and influencers' could have ever envisaged the situation where, several centuries later, some farmers and smallholders need to have second jobs; convert their outbuildings into holiday lets, turn their orchard into a glamping site in an effort to make farming pay. Those shepherds of old would no doubt be very surprised to see their traditional lambing huts nowadays being considered desirable accommodation for a romantic weekend break!