The Agricultural Revolution

Medieval Agriculture methods

18th Century Farming Methods

Who lives in the Manor?

1. The nobility• Nobility, or Peers (Dukes, Earls, Marquesses, Viscounts, Barons) =

about 1,000 people, or 0.2% of the population. • Male peers have an automatic seat in government in the House of

Lords

A peer and peeress in the eighteenth century

A noble residence

2. The Landed Gentry

• Are known as ‘Gentlemen’ (or, ‘Mr’)• There were only about 20,000 landed gentlemen in England in the

eighteenth century• They are represented in the House of Commons (they were not

nobility)• By 1800, this group owned about 33% of the cultivated land in Britain

A landed Gentleman and Gentlewoman in the 18th century

A typical residence of the landed Gentry, 18th century

Who works in the fields?

Tenant Farmers

Tenant Farmers• Rent a house and the right to farm the Landlord’s land• Give a proportion of their profit to the Landlord as rent• Keep the rest for their own profit

Cottagers

Cottagers• Generally rent no rights to farm land, only a very small cottage from

the Landlord.• Use the common land to feed themselves.

Innovation 1: The four-field system

Innovation no. 2: Selective Breeding

The Leicester Longwool

Bakewell’s Shorthorn cow

Innovation no. 3: New technology

Jethro Tull’s Seed Drill, 1762

The Enclosure Act 1773

The Industrial Revolution

Who makes stuff?

Who buys stuff?

Manufacture before the Industrial Revolution• The lower classes usually made their own clothes and objects.• Women and children spent significant time making and repairing

objects and clothes.• Specialist objects (shoes, hats, clocks, farm implements) were made

by specialist tradesmen.• Unnecessary, luxury objects were rare, and mostly bought by the rich.• Until the eighteenth century, even the upper classes had relatively

few objects and clothes.

Industrial Revolution: Change no. 1Simple machines

The Spinning Jenny 1764

Industrial Revolution change no. 2Steam power

James Watt’s Steam Engine 1784

Lancashire Coal Mines

Industrial Revolution Change no. 3Transport

The Steam Engine

Roads in 1720

1740

1770

Industrial Revolution Change no. 4Urban life

Manchester during the Industrial Revolution

Terraced housing in Northern England

Women’s factory

Industrial Revolution Change no. 5A new social class: the middle class