Monument record MDR11723 - Oxcroft Estate, Bolsover, Old Bolsover

In February 1936 Derbyshire County Council bought Oxcroft farm, a farm of 399 acres, which they proceeded to divide into 40 smallholdings. The County Council leased the estate the same year to the Land Settlement Association (LSA). The LSA was an initiative designed to give unemployed men and their families in depressed parts of the country the chance to make a living from the land. It established similar estates in other parts of the country, although the Oxcroft Settlement was the only project of its kind in Derbyshire, and one of only two in England initiated by a county council. At Oxcroft the LSA erected glasshouses and meal houses on the holdings and adapted some of the existing farm buildings. By March 1939 all 40 holdings had been developed, on which 37 families had been settled, with 20 men in training. Each holding had a semi-detached, three-bedroom house, with a piggery. Each tenant was allotted 5 acres, of which 1 acre was initially used to grow top and soft fruit and 2 acres was given over to market gardening. The other main activity was pig farming, with each household having two sows and 30 baconers. The remaining land was retained as a 'central farm' or 'estate service depot' managed by the estate manager. The original aim of the scheme was disrupted with the outbreak of the Second World War when the emphasis switched from resettling the unemployed to maximising food output. Tenancies were given to men with a farming background, although the stock of pigs and poultry had to be greatly reduced because of the shortage of feeding stuffs. In addition the number of tenancies was reduced to 26, so that both the land and the glasshouses could be divided among the remaining occupiers to compensate them for loss of income from livestock. (1, 2)