Survey

Abstract

From 1977 to 1979, Heather Clemenson conducted a sample survey of landowners listed in John Bateman's compilation of the Return of the Owners Land (1883/1971). Clemenson showed that more than 100 years after the Local Government Board published the Second Domesday census and despite their claims of near-extinction, half of her stratified sample of 500 ‘great English landowners’ continued to own their original estates and mansions. This article presents the findings of a reprise of her survey, which is reinforced with empiric data gathered from a case study of ‘Derwent’ in eastern Yorkshire in which narratives were obtained from a cross-section of residents of ‘closed’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘open’ villages in moorland, vale and wold villages including local landowners and other leading members of rural society. The findings reveal that nearly all of the landowners identified by Clemenson continue to own the surviving estates and indeed more than 40 per cent of the original sample of estates remain in the ownership of the same families identified by Bateman in 1873. Moreover, whilst the number of ‘great English landowners’ halved between 1873 and 1980, the area of land retained has only been reduced by a third. In addition, an extrapolation from the sample data reveals that 700 aristocratic landowners continue to own a tenth of the total land area of England. Whilst this acreage may appear small, it is larger than the combined estates in England of the Forestry Commission, the Ministry of Defence, the National Trust and the Crown Estate. Surviving landowners mainly attribute their survival to professional training in estate management and their commitment to modernisation. Moreover, management of estates is increasingly conferred on the most able and interested family members. Hence, title, ownership and management have become increasingly separated. The main instrument of estate survival remains ‘strict male primogeniture’ which may yet prove to be their undoing.