The Evesham Custom is a distinctive form of customary
leasehold
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...
tenure used in the
market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or s ...
s of
Evesham
Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Evesha ...
,
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
. It is the most well-known of a
number of former local practises, such as the
Ulster Custom
Tenant-right is a term in the common law system expressing the right to compensation which a tenant has, either by custom or by law, against his landlord for improvements at the termination of his tenancy.
In England, it was governed for the most ...
[''Journal of Proceedings of the Agricultural Economics Society'', v1-10, 122] and North Lincolnshire Custom.
[Currie, ''The Economic Theory of Agricultural Land Tenure'', p.77] The underlying principle of such customs was that the tenant could be granted compensation for any improvements they made to the land they leased, since the
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
did not provide any such protection.
Principles
![Greenhouses, Bretforton - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Greenhouses%2C_Bretforton_-_geograph.org.uk_-_52650.jpg)
Local customs supplementary to the usual law of leases, such as the Evesham Custom, were seen as having existed over generations in particular areas, being defined as something "to which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary".
[ In the case of Evesham, the custom provided not only a lifetime security of tenure (in a period when market garden leases were generally from year to year, traditionally renewable at ]Michaelmas
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...
) and allowed certain improvements to be made without the landlord's permission, but also ensured that a tenant could be compensated through a system of personal bargaining.
A tenant of a market garden, or other land, under the Evesham Custom has the right to sell their tenancy if the landlord gives their approval, including the right to nominate the new tenant. The payment (known as the "ingoing")[Sparrow, T]
The Evesham Custom
accessed 27-07-16 made by the incoming tenant includes compensation for any improvements the outgoing tenant has made, such as the planting of fruit trees. The payment also includes a premium for receiving a tenancy offering lifetime security. The entire transaction is made between the outgoing and incoming tenant, with the landlord not involved beyond giving their approval. Furthermore, if the landlord does not accept the new tenant, they are obliged to compensate the outgoing tenant to ensure they did not suffer any financial loss.[
This "added value" had the effect of encouraging tenants to further improve their land, by ensuring that they could still realise the full value of the improvements they made if they ended their tenancy. Through this compensation payment and by giving security of tenure, the Custom also gave tenants confidence to invest in crops, like ]asparagus
Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
It was once classified in ...
, that took several years to reach maturity.[
From the larger landowner's perspective, the Custom removed from the landlord the trouble and expense of making improvements themselves and the need to negotiate the tenancies of many small garden plots. The Custom helped ensure that Evesham developed a flourishing market gardening industry by the late 19th century, with the price of the tenantright under the Custom often exceeding the freehold value of the land itself.][Sidwell, R.]
A Short History of Commercial Agriculture in the Vale of Evesham
, ''Vale of Evesham Historical Society Research Papers'', 1969, 2, 43-51
History
Evesham has a long history of market gardening activity, with some evidence that it was first popularised in the mid 17th century by the activities of a local landowner, Francis Bernadi (former Resident for the Republic of Genoa
The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the Lat ...
).[ By the early 19th century there were a number of gardeners and fruit growers in the Vale. The Custom first appeared in this period, though it was initially understood to be of the nature of a ]gentlemen's agreement
A gentlemen's agreement, or gentleman's agreement, is an informal and legally non-binding agreement between two or more parties. It is typically oral, but it may be written or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or th ...
and the landlord had no legal obligation to accept it.[ Pressure to formalise the customary rights of Evesham's market gardeners increased after an 1870s legal dispute between the owner of land near ]Evesham Abbey
Evesham Abbey was founded by Saint Egwin at Evesham in Worcestershire, England between 700 and 710 following an alleged vision of the Virgin Mary by a swineherd by the name of Eof.
According to the monastic history, Evesham came through the No ...
and his tenants, and the basic principles of the Custom were first set down by a special committee of the Vale of Evesham Agricultural Society in 1880.[Robinson, G. ''Late Victorian Agriculture in the Vale of Evesham'', 1976, p.18]
Although definite records of the Evesham Custom first appear in the early-mid 19th century, some commentators in the past have assumed that the rights originated from "some earlier epoch".[Martin, J. M. "The Social and Economic Origins of the Vale of Evesham Market Gardening Industry", ''The Agricultural History Review'', v.33 (1985), 46] The ruralist writer H. J. Massingham
Harold John Massingham (25 March 1888 – 22 August 1952) was a prolific British writer on ruralism, matters to do with the countryside and agriculture. He was also a published poet.
Life
Massingham was the son of the journalist H. W. Massingham ...
, who was familiar with the operation of the Custom, expressed a belief that the tenant rights of Evesham were a direct descendant of those of the "small masters" who from the early mediaeval period practised cultivation in open fields owned by the Abbey.[Massingham, H. J. "Cottagers" in ''Distributist Perspectives'', vII, 2008] Massingham commented that after the 1874 agricultural depression, the area's large landlords split their farms up and let smaller parcels of land to labourers who were protected by the survival of ancient customary rights and by the local influence of Joseph Arch
Joseph Arch (10 November 1826 – 12 February 1919) was an English trade unionist and politician, born in Barford, Warwickshire, who played a key role in unionising agricultural workers and in championing their welfare. Following their enfranc ...
.[ J. M. Martin has noted that an "archaic" form of life leasehold was practised in ]Pershore
Pershore is a market town in the Wychavon district in Worcestershire, England, on the banks of the River Avon. The town is part of the West Worcestershire parliamentary constituency. At the 2011 census, the population was 7,125. The town is ...
by the estates of the Duke of Westminster
Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...
, where wills of the 18th century spoke of a "tenant right of renewing", and that a similarly archaic form of copyhold
Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the man ...
tenure was found in Shipston-on-Stour
Shipston-on-Stour is a town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is located on the banks of the River Stour, south-southeast of Stratford-upon-Avon, 10 miles (16 km) north-northwest of Chipping Norto ...
on land belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
. Both had survived in areas where large estates had to manage many small tenancies, as in Evesham, and it is possible that a similar local tradition was the source of the rights enjoyed by the Vale of Evesham's market gardeners.[ Another view states that the Custom originated on a single small estate at the end of the ]Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
, and subsequently spread throughout the district.[Robinson, ''Agricultural Change'', 1988, p.108]
A certain amount of recognition was given by the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908, but the Evesham Custom was eventually given statutory expression in s.68 of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948
The Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 was an Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom by the Labour government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee. It provided tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on ...
, which granted tenant farmers security of tenure for life. There were proposals to abolish it in 1949, which generated protest from fruit growers and market gardeners, and which were not eventually followed through.[''The Fruit-Grower'', Nov 3 1949, 761] The rights continued under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...
, but on the introduction of the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995
The Agricultural Holdings Act 1995 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which applies to England and Wales. It is in force. The Act reformed and substantially deregulated the law relating to agricultural tenancies, and has had the ...
, it was required to create a special exclusion to ensure the continued working of the Evesham Custom, as otherwise an outgoing tenant would not be able to offer a tenancy to an incomer on equivalent terms and security.[Rodgers, C. ''Agricultural Law'', Bloomsbury, 2015, p. 67]
Present day
Although the number of market gardens in the Vale of Evesham has declined sharply since the mid 20th century, the Evesham Custom is still observed in tenancies. In 1995, at the reading of the Agricultural Tenancies Bill, the local MP Michael Spicer
William Michael Hardy Spicer, Baron Spicer, (22 January 1943 – 29 May 2019) was a British politician and life peer who was a Conservative member of the House of Lords from 2010 until 2019. He served as Member of Parliament for West Worcest ...
observed that there were still around 420 tenants potentially affected, and noted that they could expect to realise "ingoing" payments of £200-£300 an acre (at that time, 50% of the land's freehold value).[Agricultural Tenancies Bill]
/ref> As market gardening has further declined it has become more common for landlords to take over the land at the end of tenancies, and by the mid 2000s, there was evidence that solicitors employed by some landlords were attempting to avoid the traditional operation of the Custom by making minimal compensation payments to outgoing tenants.[Barnett, G. "Richard delves into threatened Custom", ''Evesham Journal'', 15 Jan 2004]
See also
*Market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or s ...
*Allotment (gardening)
An allotment (British English), or in North America, a community garden, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants, so forming a kitchen garden away from the residence of the user. Such plot ...
*Smallholding
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...
*History of English land law
The history of English land law can be traced back to Roman times. Throughout the Early Middle Ages, where England came under rule of post-Roman chieftains and Saxon monarchs, land was the dominant source of personal wealth. English land law ...
References
{{reflist
English property law
Land tenure
Urban agriculture
Gardening in the United Kingdom
Evesham
History of Worcestershire