The word ‘common’ appears so frequently in the history of the countryside, that its true meaning can sometimes be obscured. Here the word is used in three contexts. The ‘commoners’ of a manor were those who were entitled to exercise a legal ‘right of common’ over certain lands in the manor known as ‘commonable […]
Nobody quite knew quite how common rights had arisen. It wasn’t until the 16th century that that question was even considered, although most authorities agreed that their first appearance had been so long ago that it was, ‘’from time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary’, or, as we […]
For over a thousand years a particular way of living prevailed in many areas of the country. It was introduced to this country, it is believed, by the Anglo-Saxon’s and it appears to have been a revolutionary way of living. The system they introduced must have been small in scope […]
A history of the commons: the courts. Debates over the historical origins of rights of common were one thing but the legal system had to take a pragmatic view of their legal status and that view had to confirm to their wider understanding of the law. Thus it came to […]
For many centuries the manor was almost completely self-sufficient. The lands of few manors provided iron ore, coal or other minerals but in most other respects the land offered the villager pretty much all of the essentials of life. To access all the bounty of the land though the villagers […]
The grasslands of the manor were the second source of grass in the manor. In arable producing areas they were in relatively short supply and despite their very obvious importance to the farmers it appears that little attention was paid to them until the 16th century. The plants that lived […]
A gentleman of my acquaintance remembers, as a child, being sent by his mother to collect firewood from the ‘common’. At the beginning of the second world war, with coal in short supply, firewood was still needed to cook the family’s food and heat the family home. Of course by […]
Two words crop up repeatedly in any discussion of of common right; they are appendant and appurtenant. You might be forgiven for wondering what the differences between them were when the dictionary says of them both that they ‘appendages’ of some other thing. Yet differences there were and they are […]
Origins There is much that remains unanswered about COPA. It was considered so old that nobody knew when it had first been granted, an indication one would have thought that it had existed long before the conquest. Legally it was said to have originated ‘beyond [before] the time of legal memory’, or as it […]
Appurtenant rights covered a wider range of produce than appendant rights and these will be discussed in later posts; our main concern in this post being common of pasture appurtenant. The right to graze animals on the waste and commonable grasslands of the manor. This was probably the oldest of […]
John Martin of Evershot 