How Enclosure shaped Oxfordshire's landscape - Banbury talk

The Banbury Historical Society lecture will be on Thursday, (December 14) at 7.30 pm when Deborah Hayter speaks about How Enclosure shaped Oxfordshire’s Landscape.

We take private property for granted today but in the past, vast areas were used communally, particularly for grazing, and over the centuries a gradual process of enclosure and privatisation of land has given us the hedged landscape of fields that we see around us today.

There was a hectic period of enclosure by Parliamentary Act in the late 18th century which drastically changed the surroundings of many local villages which were still farming using the medieval open fields.

Deborah Hayter is a tutor at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education and has taught taught many courses there. She is often asked to speak to local history societies. She is first and foremost a landscape historian, looking to answer the question ‘why do places look like they do?’, but she has also taught courses on village history and on the history of poor relief, which is a particular interest.

Lectures take place in the Education Studio of Banbury Museum, but it will also be possible for people to watch this at home, by signing in with Simon Townsend ([email protected]). Non-members are very welcome: they can receive one lecture free but will then be invited to pay per screening, or to join the society.