Farming on Exmoor in the 19th and 20th centuries

A traditional Exmoor farmyard

As elsewhere farming on Exmoor has changed enormously in the last 300 years. Attempts to produce arable crops have been virtually abandoned. There have been many expensive attempts at improvement, often with government encouragement, through ploughing, liming and fertilising moorland. Now Exmoor is classed as an environmentally sensitive area and it is thought to desirable to maintain the 'wild' heather moors.