Common land


Common land is collective land in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person who has a right in, or over, common land jointly with another or others is usually called a commoner.
In Great Britain, common land or former common land is usually referred to as a common; for instance, Clapham Common and Mungrisdale Common. Due to enclosure, the extent of common land is now much reduced from the hundreds of square kilometres that existed until the 17th century, but a considerable amount of common land still exists, particularly in upland areas. There are over 8,000 registered commons in England alone.

Origins

Originally in medieval England the common was an integral part of the manor, and was thus part of the estate held by the lord of the manor under a grant from the Crown or a superior peer. This manorial system, founded on feudalism, granted rights of land use to different classes. These could be appurtenant rights whose ownership attached to tenancies of particular plots of land held within a manor. A commoner would be the person who, for the time being, was the occupier of a particular plot of land. Most land with appurtenant commons rights is adjacent to the common. Other rights of common were said to be in gross, that is, they were unconnected with tenure of land. This was more usual in regions where commons were more extensive, such as in the high ground of Northern England or in the Fens, but also included many village greens across England and Wales.
Historically manorial courts defined the details of many of the rights of common allowed to manorial tenants, and such rights formed part of the copyhold tenancy whose terms were defined in the manorial court roll.
Example rights of common are:
  • Pasture. Right to pasture cattle, horses, sheep or other animals on the common land. The most widespread right.
  • Piscary. Right to fish.
  • Turbary. Right to take sods of turf for fuel.
  • Common in the Soil. This is a general term used for rights to extract minerals such as sands, gravels, marl, walling stone and lime from common land.
  • Mast or pannage. Right to turn out pigs for a period in autumn to eat mast.
  • Estovers. Right to take sufficient wood for the commoner's house or holding; usually limited to smaller trees, bushes and fallen branches.
On most commons, rights of pasture and pannage for each commoner are tightly defined by number and type of animal, and by the time of year when certain rights could be exercised. For example, the occupier of a particular cottage might be allowed to graze fifteen cattle, four horses, ponies or donkeys, and fifty geese, whilst the numbers allowed for their neighbours would probably be different. On some commons, the rights are not limited by numbers, and instead a marking fee is paid each year for each animal turned out. However, if excessive use was made of the common, for example, in overgrazing, a common would be stinted, that is, a limit would be put on the number of animals each commoner was allowed to graze. These regulations were responsive to demographic and economic pressure. Thus rather than let a common become degraded, access was restricted even further.
The lord of the manor must only exercise his rights so far as to leave a "sufficiency" of resource for commoners. This was at issue in 1889 when the lord of the manor and owner of Banstead Downs and Heath, a Mr Hartopp, excavated gravel and threatened to reduce the available pasture. The meaning of sufficiency was challenged in court, expert witnesses stated that the grazing capacity was 1,200 animals, the commoners rights totalled 1,440 animals, and 600 animals were normally turned out. It was decided sufficiency was whether enough grazing would be available for all the animals that could be turned out. The judgment was that "The Lord is bound to leave pasture enough to satisfy the commoners rights whether such rights are to be exercised or not". Commoners also have the right to "peaceful enjoyment" of their rights, so that they cannot be hindered by the lord of the manor. This was first proposed in 1500 and became case law in 1827.

Types of common

Pasture commons

commons are those where the primary right is to pasture livestock. In the uplands, they are largely moorland, on the coast they may be salt marsh, sand dunes or cliffs, and on inland lowlands they may be downland, grassland, heathland or wood pasture, depending on the soil and history. These habitats are often of very high nature conservation value, because of their very long continuity of management extending in some cases over many hundreds of years. In the past, most pasture commons would have been grazed by mixtures of cattle, sheep and ponies. The modern survival of grazing on pasture commons over the past century is uneven.
The use of hefting – the characteristic of some breeds of sheep for example, keeping to a certain heft throughout their lives – allows different farmers in an extensive landscape such as moorland to graze different areas without the need for fences while maintaining their effective individual interest in them, as each ewe remains on her particular area. Lambs usually learn their heft from their mothers. Also known as 'hoofing' in some areas like North Yorkshire. This ability to keep sheep from straying without fences is still an important factor in sheep farming on the extensive common land in upland areas.

Arable and haymeadow commons

Surviving commons are almost all pasture, but in earlier times, arable farming and haymaking were significant, with strips of land in the common arable fields and common haymeadows assigned annually by lot. When not in use for those purposes, such commons were grazed. Examples include the common arable fields around the village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire, and a common meadow at North Meadow, Cricklade.

Lammas rights

Lammas rights entitled commoners to pasture following the harvest, between Lammas day, 12 August, to 6 April, even if they did not have other rights to the land. Such rights sometimes had the effect of preventing enclosure and building development on agricultural land.

Enclosure and decline

Most of the medieval common land of England was lost due to enclosure. In English social and economic history, enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land formerly held in the open field system. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be land for the use of commoners. In England and Wales the term is also used for the process that ended the ancient system of arable farming in open fields. Under enclosure, such land is fenced and deeded or entitled to one or more owners. The process of enclosure began to be a widespread feature of the English agricultural landscape during the 16th century. By the 19th century, unenclosed commons had become largely restricted to large areas of rough pasture in mountainous areas and to relatively small residual parcels of land in the lowlands.
Enclosure could be accomplished by buying the ground rights and all common rights to accomplish exclusive rights of use, which increased the value of the land. The other method was by passing laws causing or forcing enclosure, such as Parliamentary enclosure. The latter process of enclosure was sometimes accompanied by force, resistance, and bloodshed, and remains among the most controversial areas of agricultural and economic history in England.
Enclosure is considered one of the causes of the British Agricultural Revolution. Enclosed land was under control of the farmer who was free to adopt better farming practices. There was widespread agreement in contemporary accounts that profit making opportunities were better with enclosed land. Following enclosure, crop yields and livestock output increased while at the same time productivity increased enough to create a surplus of labour. The increased labour supply is considered one of the factors facilitating the Industrial Revolution.
Following the era of enclosure, there was relatively little common land remaining of value although some residual commoners remained until the end of the Second World War. By that time lowland commons had become neglected because the commoners were able to find better-paid work in other sectors of the economy. As a result they largely stopped exercising their rights; relatively few commoners exist today.

Modern use

Much common land is still used for its original purpose. The right to graze domestic stock is by far the most extensive commoners right registered, and its ongoing use contributes significantly to agricultural and rural economies. Rights to graze sheep are registered on 53% of the Welsh and 16% of the English commons. Cattle are registered on 35% of Welsh and 20% of English commons, whilst horses and ponies are registered on 27% of Welsh and 13% of English commons. In some cases rights to graze goats, geese and ducks are registered, whilst in others the type of livestock is not specified. These figures relate to the number of common land units, and due to discrepancies in the registers and large numbers of small commons with no rights in England, the apparent distinction between Wales and England may be exaggerated.
Today, despite the diverse legal and historical origins of commons, they are managed through a community of users, comprising those who hold rights together with the owner of the soil. Such communities generally require joint working to integrate all interests, with formal or informal controls and collaborative understandings, often coupled with strong social traditions and local identity.
However, 26% of commons in Wales, and as many as 65% in England, have no common rights shown on the registers. Such areas are derived from wastes of manors, where rights probably existed formerly. When such open habitats are no longer grazed they revert to scrub and then dense woodland, losing the grassy or heathland vegetation which may have occupied the land continuously for many centuries. In 2007, Ashdown Forest, the Sussex heathland which was the setting for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, became the centre of a dispute between some local residents and the forest's governing body, the Board of Conservators, which is responsible for administering the forest's 24 km2 of common land. The conservators wished to restore the forest's landscape to one that predominantly consisted of heathland—its defining characteristic until the mid-twentieth century, but something that was in danger of being lost after the Second World War as a result of the advance of woodland into traditional heathland areas when, as one commentator stated:
The conservators were forced to intervene to stem the invasion of trees, scrub and bracken that threatened the ecologically precious heathlands, cutting down saplings, removing scrub and mowing the bracken. Some residents complained that the results looked like a First World War battle field. This is not a problem restricted to this common, but according to Jonathan Brown writing in the Independent on 21 April 2007 "similar debates are raging between locals and the authorities at other heathland areas in the New Forest and Surrey".
In 2008 the Foundation for Common Land was created in the UK to try to enhance the understanding and protection of commons.