Inclosure (also spelled enclosure) refers to two distinct processes: firstly, the bringing into cultivation of unproductive land, such as fens or wastes; and secondly, the consolidation of scattered medieval strip holdings into large blocks. Both processes often went hand in hand. Small inclosures had been arranged privately between landowners for many years, but the period 1760-1820 saw many large-scale inclosures made by Acts of Parliament.
Parliamentary inclosure produced a great many records (acts, awards, maps, minutes and so on), and where these survive they offer a valuable and detailed insight into patterns of rural land holding. They are widely consulted today by researchers in rights of way, land ownership, agriculture, and property history. The best general introduction to how inclosure worked is W.E.Tate's The English Village Community and the Enclosure Movement (London 1967), which includes some references to Huntingdonshire parishes.
It is important when consulting an inclosure map or award to know whether the document is an original, an enrolled copy, or an unofficial copy. In theory, the original maps and awards were left with the parish itself to be kept in perpetuity, while copies were enrolled with the Clerk of the Peace. In practice, many Huntingdonshire parishes have lost their sets, while the Clerk's record-keeping was often inadequate, and his official copies were mixed up with unofficial copies of the various maps and awards. These unofficial copies do not have the same standing in law as the enrolled set. In the 1960s the core of the Clerk's collection was bound up into a single series of volumes, later deposited at the Record Office, where it is referred to as the "CCS" collection (for "County Clerk's safe"). It is important to realise that a CCS reference does not mean that the document is necessarily an enrolled copy. In addition to the CCS series, the Record Office has also received over the years some parish maps and awards (where they survive), and various unofficial ones made for landowners and lords of local manors.