eighteenth and nineteenth century saw the wealthy land owners of Monks Kirby deprive local people of their traditional access to common land. The Skipwith family, lords of Newbold Revel in the 1700s, extensively used their position as Members of Parliament to promote enclosure acts on behalf of their own family and friends, including the land at Stretton-under-Fosse. The most notorious incident in the Monks Kirby enclosure process happened in 1837 when the 7th Earl of Denbigh wanted to rent a large parcel of land, Pailton Pastures, from the other major landowner, Trinity College, Cambridge. This involved clearing the land of its sitting tenants. There were riots by Pailton residents. One particular very elderly tenant, Thomas Gubbins, stood in the way of the Earl and the College's plan. The Earl pursued the case until Gubbins - said to have been over 100 years old - was sent to prison where he soon died. This was scandalous even at the time: the county newspaper wrote, "We may well wonder what could have been the feelings of a plaintiff [ie the Earl of Denbigh] in a case such as this. Is he now satisfied?" Gubbins became known as the Pailton Martyr. The vicar of Monks Kirby - appointed by Trinity College, Cambridge - played an eager part in the prosecution of Gubbins. With the Church of England so clearly on the side of the powerful, it is unsurprising that many ordinary Monks Kirby residents turned to nonconformist churches from the 17th to the early 20th century. Nonconformity in the Parish dated back to the time of Oliver Cromwell and a Baptist congregation was established in 1817, its members initially suffering much persecution. The Baptist chapel was built at the end of Bell Lane, on the edge of the village, just outside the Earl of Denbigh's lands. It had 150 seats and was demolished around 1960. The 18th and 19th century enclosure process led to the establishment of larger, tenanted farms on the Denbigh, Newbold Revel and Trinity College, Cambridge lands: the distinctive Victorian farm buildings are a major feature of the rural landscape around Monks Kirby. The tenant farmers formed the dominant rural middle class in Monks Kirby society from the Victorian era to the mid twentieth century. The Monks Kirby Farmers Club Show was the major event of their year with hundreds of cows and horses exhibited and, at its peak in