Farming to Halves: The Hidden History of Sharefarming in England from Medieval to Modern Times

Farming to halves is the English version of sharefarming, a system of letting land common in Europe and the New World, but thought not to have existed in England. Indeed Arthur Young claimed it was the point of difference between English and French agriculture, which explained the success of the former and failure of the latter. However, Young was mistaken: forms of sharefarming existed in all periods, at every level of society and across the length and breadth of the country. This discovery entirely alters our perceptions of English rural communities, the development of English agriculture and the relationships between landlords and tenants, and farmers in general. Sharefarming English style differed from that in Europe because it remained largely informal and rarely appears in documents. Even when it does appear, historians, misled by Arthur Young perhaps, have failed to recognize its significance. In this way, a stratum of farming life and activity has been lost. This book recovers that hidden history with far reaching and unexpected implications for our understanding of English rural life both in the past and present.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction Sharefarming in England: Theory and Practice Sharefarming Before 1500: a Hidden Practice Sharefarming Comes to Light: Early Modern Evidence Seventeenth-Century Case Studies: Farming to Halves on Four Norfolk Estates Sharefarming Disappears from the Documents in the Eighteenth Century Profit Sharing and Land Reform in the Nineteenth Century A Return to Halves in the Twentieth Century Sharefarming at the Turn of the 21st Century Conclusions Appendix I: A Survey of Sharefarming and its Variants in England Appendix II: Letting to Halves at East and West Rudham in 1693 Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
ELIZABETH GRIFFITHS spent four years sharefarming in New Zealand, before completing a PhD at the University of East Anglia in 1987. From 2003 to 2005 she worked with Dr Jane Whittle at Exeter on the household accounts of Lady Alice Le Strange, and then persuaded Prof. Mark Overton of the need for a research project on sharefarming in England. This book is the result. MARK OVERTON is Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Exeter, UK. He has published widely on the economic and social history of early modern England, and on agrarian history, including Agricultural Revolution in England: the Transformation of the Agrarian Economy, 1500-1800.

Review :
'Most refreshing and instructive, this book is quite special in drawing together past history with present-day discussions about agricultural policy. A most original book, historical at the outset but not confined to the historical past.' - Joan Thirsk, author of Alternative Agriculture. A History: From the Black Death to the Present Day