FC/LA/2-4 were transferred from the Modern Records section of the record office in 1994. The records of the Smallholdings Committee date from 1912-1917.
The committee was set up in 1907, in advance of the Smallholdings and Allotments Act 1908, with a view to enabling would-be farmers to establish themselves in agriculture. By 1914 the committee had purchased 1,017 acres of land. the Land Settlement Act of 1919, entitling ex-servicemen to obtain a smallholding, caused the committee to expand its land holdings to 3,098 acres by 1926, when a new Smallholdings and Allotment Act gave central government more control over the establishment of smallholdings in exchange for the underwriting of certain losses.