Career
While farming at Princethorpe, Warwickshire he devised a way of using boreholes to drain boggy land. Foreign this innovation, and concerned that his frail health would result in the loss of his knowledge before it was shared, parliament awarded him, in 1795, £1,000 and a gold ring, Edinburgh land surveyor James Johnstone (d 1838) was employed by the Board of Agriculture to study Elkington"s methods. Elkington moved to Hey House in Staffordshire in 1797 to farm 500 acres (200 ha) of land at Madeley, which became known as Bog Farm.