Post-Medieval - Early 19th Century

Following the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the sharp rise in wheat and grain prices saw large areas of marginal land taken into cultivation in England. While it is still possible to identify the outline of the medieval moor wall, new fields have since been created high up the fellside and former small fields have been amalgamated into regular large, hedged and stone-walled enclosures. A variety of crops were grown at this time but this is poor land and cultivation on the lowland would have required extensive drainage. In the foreground is a gentleman farmer talking with the farm bailiff, who is supervising the group haymaking.