Along the Moors - Lilleshall

Changing Landscapes

Crudgington Drive Was Completed As Part Of The Improvement Scheme

The effects of the agricultural improvements on the Weald Moors appear to have been instantaneous and rental values of land in the area doubled during the 1820s. Although the scheme was largely financed by Lord Stafford, his tenants played a vital role in ensuring the continued success of the programme, which relied heavily on an intensive maintenance regime to preserve the changes that had been made; flood gates that pounded up water in the drains during the summer months needed lifting every 14 days, while heavy rolling and dressing of the new pasture was also required. It seems Lilleshall tenants were contracted to undertake some of the drainage work itself and, in certain years (particularly when the local economy was depressed and labour could be hired cheaply) they were relieved of rent arrears in exchange for digging ditches.

Linear Woodland Was Planted To Protect New Pasture

While flooding was never completely eradicated on the moors, the changes that were made undoubtedly brought many economic benefits to the area. However, the same could not be said for its fragile ecosystem, which had already suffered greatly during the preceding centuries when peat deposits rapidly dwindled as the hydrology of the wetland habitat was completely altered by drainage work. That peat levels had suffered further was graphically demonstrated in the second half of the 1800s when, after many centuries of use as domestic fuel by moorland inhabitants, local peat was considered useless for the purpose.