Agriculture by Professor John Beckett

Holywell Farm in Winkburn

Holywell Farm, Winkburn. The farmhouse was originally built c.1780; the outbuildings were rebuilt in the 1850s.

Structual

Standing Buildings

Farmsteads and buildings survive in many parts of the county, but have often been converted to alternative use, such as domestic accommodation. Particularly significant are the farm buildings in Laxton, where many of the farmers still live in and work from the village. Estate villages in the county include Kingston upon Soar and Budby, both of which still have a fine collection of surviving houses. For help with dating farm buildings see

Other surviving buildings include dovecotes, windmills and pinfolds:

Archaeological remains

The best example of a farming system surviving beyond its natural life is Laxton, where the visitors' centre provides information about the farming system, a guidebook and video, and routes for walks around the village.

Landscape

Post-harvest landscape on the edge of Hucknall

Gently undulating post-harvest landscape on the outskirts of Hucknall.

Much of the enclosed landscape of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries has been stripped away as hedges have been grubbed up during the last thirty or forty years to make way for intensive farming. Surviving hedgerows can, however, still be seen in many villages. For an example of how these can be used as historical sources:

Much of the county's ridge and furrow has now been ploughed out to enable modern farming methods to take place, but surviving examples can be seen where ploughing has not taken place since the eighteenth century, notably at Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, where the ridges are bisected by an enclosure road.

Studies of enclosure in Nottinghamshire include: