ABSTRACT
The changes which have occurred throughout Wessex since 1914 have been so rapid and so revolutionary that it is possible here to do no more than draw attention to some of the most important and far-reaching developments before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Agriculture remained overwhelmingly the most important economic activity, but the return to arable farming during the war years 1914-1918 was merely a brief interlude in the long story of decline which was not finally halted until the Second World War. In Somerset, which had always had a greater concentration upon dairy farming, the proportion of permanent pasture was even higher and rose from 63 per cent in 1870 to 83 per cent by the 1930s. During the 1920s more and more estates were broken up and sold under the pressure of taxation, death duties and the low profits and rents from farming. One important inter-war development in dairy farming originated in Wiltshire.
