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Land Ownership of Wiltshire in 1873

In 1873 a survey of England and Wales was undertaken to establish the percentage of the population that were property owners. The motivation seems mainly to try and allay fears created by the press about the country being owned by a very small few.

The table below is extracted from the returns for Wiltshire and the numbers have been rounded.

One may wonder why something as general as the land ownership of the county has any relevance to the history of Burbage. The answer lies in the last row. This shows that 2 people owned between them nearly 10% of the county. The largest landowner was the Earl of Pembroke with 39,600 acres but following close behind was the Marquis of Ailesbury with 37,993 acres. This was a time when these two families held great political power over the rural parts of the county but that was soon to change as the eventual 4th Marquis of Ailesbury began to squander the family fortunes with first the Yorkshire estates being sold and then Wiltshire estates being offered for sale to clear his debts. Although the latter never came to fruition during his lifetime his spending had serious effects on the management of the Savernake Estate and the family fortunes never fully recovered.

By 1873 an agricultural depression had hit the non-dairy farmer and it would last until the outbreak of WW1. With the protectionist laws gone and the new worlds being able to supply food cheaper than we could (does this ring a bell - CAP, EU subsidies, set-aside etc) land ownership was no longer the licence to print money that it once was with falling prices forcing down rents and so reducing the incomes of the landed class. For those whose families had survived for centuries solely on the agricultural incomes from their estates it was a time to adapt or struggle.

The fortunes of the two big Wiltshire landowners during this telling time could not have been more different. The Pembrokes still live in Wilton House and still have a large estate. However for the Ailesburys the writing was on the wall as soon as the Tottenham House project had started in the 1820s while the early death of the 4th Marquis, in 1894, probably did not come soon enough. Only then did the estate receive firm leadership but it was too late. With the building of the current house (described by a later marquis as a "white elephant") the Ailesburys financially over stretched themselves, so much so that in July 1832 a trustee was appointed to administer affairs and try to balance the books. Part of this involved cutting back on the maintenance and repairs of estate properties. In 1840 annual farm rental agreements were replaced by new 8 or 12 year leases to encourage tenants to do their own maintenance and those who refused to sign them were told to quit. But things did not drastically improve. A survey in 1867 reported that the estate had "bad farmers, the good ones having gone elsewhere". Commenting on the situation in the late 1890s the Victoria History of Wiltshire said "Wilton was then a model of good, if over-capitalized, management, while Savernake was an example of neglect."

With the fall in rent revenues and the onslaught of Land Tax and Death Duties it became impossible to maintain the old ways. For example between 1863 - 67 the net income of the estate had been £20,252 per annum and the spending on repairs £10,528 per annum (a sum still inadequate to overcome years of neglect) but by 1895 - 99 net income had fallen to £11,130 and the repair outlay to £4834 per annum. As can be seen, by the 1890s the farms had become run down through lack of investment and many years of under-investment was paying its toll. It was a downward spiral which the succeeding Marquises (men of some considerable business acumen) where unable to halt. Most of the Wiltshire estates were sold in the late 1920s and 30s with the majority of the remainder passing to the Crown Commissioners in 1951.

For Burbage the effect of these sales must have been profound. From the 18th century the Ailesbury family (and their predecessors) had been buying up lands to add to their ancient holdings. By 1840 of the 3183 acres of the parish only just over 300 acres where not owned by the Ailesburys. But of that 300 acres, 40 were Prebendal Glebe (which was leased to the Ailesburys), 8.5 was the Vicar's Glebe, 18 belonged to the Kennet and Avon Canal (having been sold to them by the Ailesburys), 89 belonged to Miss Clarke and would be soon purchased by the Ailesburys, 83 belonged to Major Blundy and would follow a similar fate leaving only the 66 acres of the Gaisford Estate as the only major "independent" landowner. When this came up for sale in 1913 the Savernake Estate bought two of its fields. These were probably their last land acquisitions in the parish.

The rest of the "independents" were mainly made up of houses and gardens and it is worth noting that the Three Horse Shoes, The New Inn / Bullfinch and the Red Lion were never part of the Savernake Estate. So even though some would return home after a hard days toil to a hearth they owned, such was the dominance of the Ailesburys (or more accurately their agent) in the parish that they really controlled the local economy and so it would be unwise to upset them. They may not be able to evict you but they could make it very difficult for you to get work or ply your trade. With the coming of the railways in the 1860s things were beginning to change. At last an independent employer! And by 1891 a considerable employer. But where did these railway workers live? Is it not strange that in a village where there were 2 passenger and 2 goods stations, several signal boxes and umpteen porters and waymen that neither railway company built a row of railway cottages like the B&HER did at sleepy Bedwyn? The answer probably lies in the fact that they did not need to as by this time many of the good people of Burbage were leaving to find their fortunes elsewhere and there were plenty of empty cottages for the railwaymen to occupy. Their rent would have provided welcome additional income for the Savernake Estate.

The sell-offs must have come as a shock to a parish which had become accustomed to life under a single dominant landowner. The outer farms went first in 1929 and were bought at auction by their sitting tenants (Goldenlands, Southgrove, Kinwardstone). Then the unwanted housing stock in the village went in the early 1930s. After WW2, in about 1950, there was a plan to auction off the rest of the farms up to the railway line but instead a deal was struck with the Crown Commissioners and the whole lot was transferred to their ownership where it still is today. Interestingly the Marquis had planned to give Martinsell Hill to the National Trust but it too passed to the Crown who still own it. It would be interesting to know who makes the better landlord - an aristocratic family with a vested interest in the good running of the farms or a QANGO whose sole interface is outsourced to a "posh" estate agency in Marlborough.

Today, those who live in an ex-Savernake Estate house and would like to trace the history of their house will probably find that their deeds start at about 1929. Any earlier documents will prove difficult to find - even if they exist.

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