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 […]
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 […]
John Martin of Evershot 