East Yorkshire Landed Estates

EAST YORKSHIRE LANDED ESTATES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY In recent years historians have become increasingly interested in the development, organisation and management of the great English landed estates. Yet even preliminary surveys of particular areas are scarce. The East Riding affords particular attractions for such an examination. In 1873 the "New Domesday" Return reported that 706,683 acres in the Riding (excluding 4,049 acres of commons and wastes) were owned by 19,576 individuals and instit- utions. Of the estimated gross rental of £2,032,195, the Return showed that £752,985 was received by 15,012 owners of less than one acre, whose total property amounted to only 5,398 acres. The remaining 701,285 acres, with an annual value of £1,279,209, belonged to 4,564 owners. Such proprietors possessed anything from minute freeholds to vast estates. East Yorkshire was in fact proportionately more "aristocratic" than the other Ridings. At the top ofitslandowninghierarchytwelvefamilies,each owningoverten thousand acres, had a total acreage of 213,606 acres with an estimated rental of £267,445; and the three largest owners received £101,781 from 87,519 acres.