Warping was the former practice of letting turbid river water flood onto agricultural land, so that its suspended sediment could form a layer, before letting the water drain away. In this way poor soils were covered with fertile fine silt (or warp), and their rentable value was increased.
Warping was costly as specially made sluice gates had to be built, and embankments with sloping sides had to be constructed around the fields in order to contain the water. Water was allowed into the embanked fields, during the spring tides, through these gates, and when the tide was at its height, the gates were closed. As the tide ebbed, the water was allowed to escape slowly back into the river, having deposited most of its mud on the surface on the enclosure in which it had been penned. The result was a perfectly flat field, and if warping was carried out, during the several spring tides, for two or three years, a layer of fertile silt of perhaps a metre or more, would have been laid down.[1] As the process was expensive it was generally the prerogative of wealthy landowners and could only practically be carried out where the land to be improved was in a few hands, and agreement could be reached to share the costs.
The first reliable report of warping seems to come in the 1730s from Rawcliffe, which is near the confluences of the Ouse with the Aire and the Don, where a small farmer called Barker used the technique. A few years later in 1743 Richard Jennings, from the neighbouring village of Airmyn, was warping on a greater scale.[2]
Warping was particularly suited to the Humberhead Levels, as the high tides of the rivers Trent and Ouse, when combined with the adjacent low land situation of the fields to be warped, made the practicalities of the process relatively simple.[3] Warping was also carried out in the Somerset Levels from about 1780.[4]
In Lincolnshire, to the east of the river Trent, it may be that warping was last used on Brumby West Common near Scunthorpe in 1867.[5] The technique was last employed to the west of the river at Medge Hall, Crowle just before the First World War.[6]
^G. Rennie, et al, General View of the Agriculture of the West Riding of Yorkshire (1793), p.166; A. Young, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Lincoln (1799), pp.276-7
^J. C. Loudon, An Encyclopædia of Agriculture (1831), p.332
^ T. M. Smith, ‘Warping and parliamentary enclosure: the example of north-west Lindsey, Lincolnshire’, Agricultural History Review, 62:1 (2014), pp.83-97/Link
^Vide for example: M. Williams, The Draining of the Somerset Levels (Cambridge,1970), pp.176-7
^Stamford Mercury, 12 July 1867 quoted in R. E. Armstrong (ed.), An Industrial Island: A History of Scunthorpe (Scunthorpe, 1981), p.20; Lincolnshire Archives Office: Brumby inclosure award 119
^V. Cory, Hatfield and Axholme - An Historical Review (Ely,1985), p.99
and 27 Related for: Warping in agriculture information
warping’ in Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. 5 (1845), pp. 398–405 Link M. Lillie, ‘Alluvium and warpingin the Humberhead Levels’ in R...
Look up warp, warped, or warpingin Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Warp, warped or warping may refer to: WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher...
location of one of the first reliable reports of the practice of warpinginagriculturein the 1730s. This was the temporary flooding of fields so as to...
Operation Warp Speed (OWS) was a public–private partnership initiated by the United States government to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing...
the warping business to Makin Durham, who was another great exponent of warping. He had built Durham's Warping Drain eastwards from the River Don in 1856...
Secretary of Agriculture)". United States Senate. Retrieved 30 May 2022. "PN889 – Nomination of Stephen Alexander Vaden for Department of Agriculture, 115th...
on Agriculture (simplified Chinese: 农政全书; traditional Chinese: 農政全書), or Complete Book of Agricultural Management, or Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, is...
television sitcom Petticoat Junction. There were 74 episodes in black-and-white and 148 in color. During its first four years, Petticoat Junction was a...
the change in direction – was done with roll control using wing-warping. The principles remained the same when ailerons superseded wing-warping. With their...
Wheeler Dealers is a British television series. In each episode the presenters save an old and repairable vehicle, by repairing or otherwise improving...
expands and contracts with changes in humidity, the picture has experienced some warping. In response to warping and swelling experienced during its...
Development of Agriculture (ADA) is a system for counting years forward from 8000 BCE, making 2024 the year 10024 ADA. It was developed in feminist thealogy...
Warp Drive is a short street in Sterling, Virginia, United States. Originally named Steeplechase Drive, it is located in an industrial park off Atlantic...
activities of two prominent academic centers delineates animal agriculture industry entrenchment in academia through support of industry-supported research and...
attaching stem continued to grow. Knots materially affect cracking and warping, ease in working, and cleavability of timber. They are defects which weaken...
years in office: one in 2017, six in 2018, eight in 2019, twelve in 2020, and 116 in January 2021. Trump issued 94 commutations: one in 2017, four in 2018...
flights due to a time-warping force-field generated by the secret "geometric" power of chitin. He was granted a Russian patent in 1993 on a device containing...
considering Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, retired Admiral James Stavridis, and Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado. In discussing her potential...
rotting and warping, and has traditionally been used for rural construction in the northwestern regions of Russia (especially for roofing, in the form of...
The original Puretic power block was driven by an endless rope from the warping head of a winch. Nowadays, power blocks are usually driven by hydraulic...
documentary television series produced by WGBH Boston for PBS. Many of the programs in this list were not originally produced for PBS, but were acquired from other...
several stages in order to produce the final product. Traditionally the processes of dyeing (during the yarn, fabric, or garment stage), warping, sizing, attaching...
The Huarpes or Warpes are an indigenous people of Argentina, living in the Cuyo region. Some scholars assume that in the Huarpe language, this word means...
or silk fabric that has a vertical warp and a horizontal weft. Nowadays, the name refers to a strong material in a plain weave of any fiber or blend...
remainder often characterized as "the elite" or "the establishment" in contrast. In response to the rise of Trump, there has arisen a Never Trump movement...
agriculturein western Eurasia, as inferred from sediment cores extracted from the Albano and Nemi lakes. The presence of cannabis pollen grains in sediments...
under-utilised. Seasoning is relatively simple — planks dry without cracking or warping and are resistant to fungal infection. The tough five-grooved seeds were...
Global Information