Food shortages and skyrocketing prices occurred in England throughout the eighteenth and into the nineteenth centuries. These shortages were caused by wars and extreme weather events. Between 1790 and 1795 the price of food doubled. It doubled again over the following 5 years.
Severe weather events throughout the early 1800s led to food shortages. Hot dry summers in 1800 and 1801 resulted in poor crops. A drought in 1804 caused the 3 ponds in Muscliffe to dry out and the cattle had to be taken to the river to be watered. The barley that was harvested that year was only fit for cattle feed. The extreme poverty experienced by the villagers in Holdenhurst resulted in the poor rate being demanded 17 times in 1804.
The Poor Rate
In the 18th and 19th centuries if you were unable to work because of injury, sickness or old age you were reliant on receiving poor relief from the parish to survive. Poor relief was paid for out of the poor rate levied on all property. Between 1685 and 1829 the rate was one penny in the pound of the rateable value of land and was charged as many times in a year as was needed!
In the Bourne Heath area additional hardship resulted from The 1802 Christchurch Inclosure and the 1802 Canford Inclosure Acts. The 1802 Christchurch Inclosure Act and the subsequent Inclosure Commissioners Award of 1805 transferred the heathland of Holdenhurst into private ownership. Those living in the hamlets on the heath fearing the loss of grazing and ‘firing’ rights persuaded Farmer West of Muscliffe to raise a petition on their behalf. The petition was successful and 5 parcels of land totalling some 425 acres (5 acres per cottage) were placed in trust “in lieu of their Rights or pretended Rights or customs in cutting Turves” to ensure a continued supply of fuel. Over the years some of this land was taken e.g. for the railway and 50 acres for the cemetery but the remainder became the public spaces of Queen’s Park, King’s Park, Redhill Park, Seafield Gardens and Meyrick Park.
(Inclosure is the statutory and legal form of the word “enclosure” in reference to the inclosure of land. Enclosure is the process.)
1815 saw the end of militia service and led to 250,000 demobbed soldiers looking for work. This mass of unemployed men together with the introduction of mechanisation created severe economic problems throughout the country. Grain prices slumped and farmers cut wages.
Also in 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted, sending volcanic ash into the atmosphere and causing severe weather events around the globe. This resulted in the following year (1816) being ‘a year without summer’ with frosts, low temperatures and long periods of rain leading to crop failures.
“between 1824 and 1830, rural crime rates increased by 30 per cent–mainly poaching and food thefts. Pauperism, desperation and discontent were almost universal in agricultural areas.” Richard Brown,
In 1827 the Poor Rate in Holdenhurst was levied 48 times!
The bad winters and poor harvests of 1829 and 1830 were followed by an economic depression in the early 1830s and led to further rural unemployment and wage cuts.
Smuggling was a major industry in the Poole Bay area and provided a way for poorly paid agricultural labourers living in borderline poverty to supplement their earnings. A labourer earning on average 9s a week could earn 10s in one night working as a landsman unloading the boats and transporting the goods inland. The ‘Gentleman Smuggler’ Isaac Gulliver lived in Kinson where it has been said that everyone was involved in smuggling in some way. Isaac, who ‘retired’ in 1800 owned property around the area including at Ensbury. One of the routes from the coast inland passed through Redhill Common and when one of the old cob cottages was demolished a hiding place was discovered in the wall beneath a window sill.
