Welcome to New Landscapes

New Landscapes was a New Opportunities Fund project undertaken at the Royal Berkshire Archives, formerly the Berkshire Record Office, and completed in 2004. It made use of the digital technologies available at the time to provide access to historic manuscript maps and documents online. The maps and land awards on this site show the process of enclosing the common fields of the county of Berkshire between 1738 and 1883.

Explore the links to find out more about enclosure, to search the documents available on this site, or view digital images of the documents themselves.

Understanding Enclosure

Learning about enclosure
What it is and how it happened >>

The processes of enclosure
The procedures that lead to a Parliamentary enclosure >>

Enclosure in Berkshire
What was enclosed and where >>

Mapmakers
The surveyors who drew Berkshire's new landscape >>

Studying Enclosure

Help with studying enclosure
Introduction >>

What am I looking at?
How to read an award >>
How to read a map >>

What will I find?
Typical things you might like to find about >>

What else is there?
Bibliography >>

Interested in new research?
The Impact of Enclosure >>
Englefield: a case study >>