ABSTRACT
Constructing the countryside discussed how the local distribution of property rights, and particularly the private ownership of land, remain crucial factors influencing the patterns and processes of rural development. The general national trend throughout the twentieth century was a shift from a landlord-tenant system of agricultural land tenure to one of owner-occupation, partly fuelled by reforms of tenure and taxation law which systematically worked against the interests of landed capital. Even so, there has been a considerable lag in changes to property relations. Constructing the countryside suggested that:
One of the key characteristics of landowners throughout British history has been their ability to defend and then to adapt their interests in response to changing economic and social circumstances. This means that, at the local level at least, they have often been able to maintain a not inconsiderable presence, even if changes in the manner in which property rights are held and their extent have been profound. There remains a surprising degree of continuity in family ownership, the relatively closed landowning oligarchy of the 1890s having been replaced by a larger but still powerful group, consisting mainly of owner-occupying farmers (including many former landlords) in the 1990s.
