Problems of Enclosure

• Enclosure of (common) land and engrossing of peasants strips into fields were both serious problems during the sixteenth century.
• Enclosure usually meant peasants being thrown off the land or becoming landless labourers rather than tenants.
• Enclosures were usually undertaken to change land use from arable crop growing to pasturage for sheep.
• Landlords were meant to get official permission for such changes in land use.