Great Hill Bottom Husborne Crawley

Great Hill Bottom shown in green

In 1970 Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service staff carried out research on a number of fields belonging to Woburn Experimental Farm| in Husborne Crawley. This seems to have been prompted by an enquiry from The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Plant Pathology Laboratory about Workhouse Field|.

Research on Great Hill Bottom [CRT130HusborneCrawley2] revealed that it first appeared as a field separate from Great Hill about 1850 [R1/229]. Cropping books forming part of the estate archive of the Duke of Bedford [R4/209, 215, 223 and 229] show that in 1866 the field comprised 7 acres, 1 rood, 35 poles. Its cropping was as follows:

• 1866: ½ wheat and ½ beans;
• 1867: ½ clover and ½ wheat;
• 1868: ½ wheat and ½ fallow;
• 1869: ½ beans and ½ barley;
• 1870: fallow and clover;
• 1871: clover;
• 1872: wheat;
• 1873: fallow;
• 1874: barley;
• 1875: beans;
• 1876: oats;
• 1877: fallow;
• 1878: barley;
• 1879: oats;
• 1880: fallow;
• 1881: barley;
• 1882: peas;
• 1883-1884: oats;
• 1885: fallow;
• 1886-1887: experimental uses;
• 1888: roots and experimental uses;
• 1889-1892: experimental uses;
• 1893-1898: clover;
• 1899: clover mown;
• 1900: clover grazed;
• 1901-1902: clover mown;
• 1903: clover grazed;
• 1904: clover mown;
• 1905: clover grazed;
• 1906-1907: clover mown;
• 1908: clover grazed;
• 1909: clover mown.