Enclosure refers to the historical process — most famously in England between the 1500s and 1800s — by which land that had been held and used in common was fenced off and turned into private property.
Enclosure dispossessed countless people who had relied on common land, concentrating ownership and making access to land a matter of wealth. It is a vivid illustration of why Unitism treats the value of land as a shared inheritance rather than a private prize.