 Very few had an open field system of agriculture so Enclosure Acts were rarer than in other parts of England.The seventeenth century saw a major acceleration in the reclaiming of marginal waste land and in the eighteenth century forward looking landlords attempted to improve their lands using drainage schemes and fertilisation measures.In the 19th century railways were built from Pickering to Whitby (1836), Middlesbrough to Whitby (1868) and Scarborough to Whitby (1884).