Starting in the reign of Elizabeth the first manorial lands were bundled together and managed by London financiers aiming to maximise the rents from their tenants. Over the next couple of centuries Sedbergh passed through various owners. By 1735 the landowner had built a wall over a mile long enclosing the top of Bluecaster fell, about 4 miles NE of Sedbergh. Prolonged disputes between a group of tenants and the landowner eventually ended in1741 at  the Assize Court at York where judgement was given that Bluecaster could not be enclosed, giving local farmers common rights to graze their stock on it.