Agricultural History Review, Volume 41 Part 2 (1993), pp. 137–154

The focus of this study is waste land enclosure in south-west Lancashire and particularly its impact on the social structure of one village, Croston. It takes the view that northern rural communities, especially in the pre-industrial period, have largely escaped the attention of historians. It borrows from the wider context of a shift of emphasis in enclosure history towards the significance of waste and common in the enclosure process as a whole. Further, this article takes the view that, until recently, we have underestimated the presence and tenacity of a mainly subsistence stratum in rural communities, the strength of their attachment to rights of commoning, and the depth of popular opposition everywhere to the erosion of those rights through the enclosure process. Villagers in west Lancashire did not possess an immunity from that process. Their experience deserves as much attention as communities in the traditional rural heartlands of the midlands and southern counties. This is a small contribution towards correcting the balance. 

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