Monument record 4639/12 - Morbourner Farm

{1} Unlocated.

{2} Northamptonshire (63 examples recorded to date, gazetteer in NMR, Swindon).
Northamptonshire was a county dominated by large estates. Nearly a third of the area was in estates of over 10,000 acres and there were 38 owners of more than 3,000 acres in 1871. However, according to Caird, ‘many of them have no interest in their farms beyond the annual rent they receive, know nothing of the management of land themselves and do not employ an agent who does.’ As a result ‘their tenants, from deficient buildings and want of drainage are incapacitated from doing justice to their farms’. There were of course exceptions to this general picture. The Spencers of Althorpe were well known for their interest in improvements, the third Earl Spencer being the first President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. The Duke of Grafton was also influential, and in the 1830s erected well-planned sets of buildings on several of his farms. G.A.Dean was responsible for a set of buildings at Milton in the 1850s. The layout provided four open yards and one long bullock shed for tying stock. His book influenced the layout of Warren Farm, Aynho, built in 1848-52 for the Cartwright estate and dominated by its tall chimney.

<1> Bond A., 1995, Thematic Survey of Planned and Model Farms: Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Gazetteer). SNN63075.

<2> Wade Martins S., 2002, The English Model Farm: Building the Agricultural Ideal, 1700 -1914, p.216 (part checked) (Book). SNN102219.

Record last edited

Dec 20 2007 11:15AM