Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and...

MAF 139

1919-1973

Records of the various Land and Land Use divisions with responsibility for land settlement, small holdings, and estate policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

The series deals with the administration of the Smallholdings Acts and the Improvement of Lands Act; the management of the ministry's estates and land settlement matters; the Smallholdings Advisory Council; smallholding estates, both those owned by the minister (which were set up after the First World War to provide livelihoods for ex-servicemen) and those run by the Land Settlement Association (LSA) after the ministry took over the freeholds from the LSA in 1948. Other topics covered in this series include rates, tithe annuities and their redemption, mortgages, lease conversion, copyhold and manorial rights and matters affecting smallholdings' equipment. Subjects covered by papers which were transferred from other series to LOY files upon creation of the series include legislation and policy on land improvement, allotments, commons and commonable rights, enclosures, recreation grounds and corn production.

Ministry of Labour files on its place in land settlement policy are in:

LOY files dealing with tithe rates and their extinguishment in the City of London are in

MAF 8

MAF 25

MAF 235

LOY files dealing with the work of the War Agricultural Executive Committees are in

MAF 48

Files in the LOY series may also be found in

MAF 53

LOY files covering the Ministry's responsibilities for the destruction of weeds are in:

LOY file series

Public Record(s)

English

327 files and volumes

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Topics

Manors

Tithes

Conflict

Pay and pensions

Food and drink

Fishing

Farming

Operations, battles and campaigns

1940

Between the wars Agricultural Committees were set up to help improve the depressed state of agriculture. These committees were superseded from 1939 to 1945 by War Agricultural Executive Committees, which dealt with every aspect of land cultivation.

Under the Special Areas (Development and Improvement) Act 1934 the Commissioner for the Special Areas was empowered to develop the use of smallholdings to resettle unemployed workers. Accordingly, the Land Settlement Association was established in the same year to organise estates of smallholdings with individual commercial tenancies; in the first instance the association was funded by the commissioner and by private subscribers. After the Second World War the estates passed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the association was appointed the managing agency. It provides common services of supply and marketing on each estate.