Farm size

The BBCE also shows how the geography of farm sizes changed over time. Like other employers, workforce numbers were only requested for 1851-81, and again responses on workforce by sex and age were limited. Average farm sizes by workforce numbers increased over 1851-81, mainly in the area to the South and East of a line from the Humber to the Severn, and in East-Central Scotland, but decreased in uplands and Scottish Highland areas where more became own account farmers or relied on family labour. More detail is given in an Agricultural History Review paper. Over 1851-81 there was a decline and then recovery of employer numbers, and for farm entrepreneurs as a whole. Between 1851 and 1881 there was a small but important decrease in employer numbers compared to own account farmers.

The Atlas includes farm sizes as one of the sector mappings. This covers all agriculture rather than farming as a whole. The maps here give farmers only (I-CeM Occode 173).

[Source: farmers only (Occode 173), extended from The Age of Entrepreneurship Fig 5.4]

The census recorded farm workforces only for 1851-81. After this date farmer's entrepreneur status was recorded as employer or own account. For the whole period 1851-1911 in England and Wales all agricultural proprietors declined and then increased in numbers (farm, market gardening, fishing), with farming following the general trend. In Scotland the trends are more uncertain depending on how crofters were recorded in the census and how they are subsequently estimated as having proprietor status. The BBCE farm-size data is more complete for the larger farms than tables published by the census: see HMJ paper.

All agricultural proprietors (000s) [BBCE EA17 1: 1871 E&W estimated; 1911 Scotland adjusted from published]