Commons were once key parts of the manorial farming economy. In the open-field system, manorial tenants had the right to graze livestock on the common at the edge of the settlement, as well as the fallow-field and other open fields after harvest. Settlements on the edge of woods, moors, and fens could have rights over extensive commons and wastes. Neighbouring manors intercommoned some areas.
There was a huge variety in the type and customs of the commons of England, as determined by geography and local practice. For example, in the Peak District commons were often graded best, middle, and worst. For instance, in seventeenth century Castleton, Derbyshire there were said to be 732 acres of the best sort, 150 acres of the middling, and so much of the worst kind that inhabitants could not accurately estimate their extent or bounds.[1]
Common rights were crucial to the ability to survive on a small farm. In deeds, they are referred to as the ‘appurtenances’ of a property. The right to graze animals on the commons in summer was especially important. Rights varied between manors but were basically those of pasture (cattle, sheep, and horses), pannage (pigs), turbary (peat), estovers (wood), piscary (fish), and common in the soil (sand, stone, gravel etc.). Occasionally the jury of the manor courts recorded the customs of the manor and the rights that tenants could claim. Common rights were not common ownership. They are ‘best regarded in the same way as the right to use a footpath over somebody else’s land’.[2]
Manorial courts insisted that only tenants of ‘ancient enclosures’ have rights over the common, and that these were in direct proportion to the size of their landholding. This became a particularly important issue when agreeing compensation for loss of rights at enclosure. Manorial juries often found it was necessary to limit common rights to prevent the overstocking of the commons. Rights were therefore ‘stinted’ to so many ‘cow gates’ for instance, according to the size of the holding. Poor inhabitants of a manor usually had a different view of the common as seen by the manorial court and felt dispossessed by enclosure. The nature of common rights is still debated amongst historians.
Wanstead Flats, London © Joe Saunders.
The enclosure of commons occurred throughout the early modern period and into the nineteenth century, especially following Parliamentary drives for enclosure. More than a million hectares of commons survived however, mostly due to local protests and efforts of the Common Preservation Society.[3] For example, Wanstead Flats in East London, the southernmost part of Epping Forest, which was preserved following a campaign against enclosure in the 1870s. Grazing rights for cattle were exercised into the 1990s.
In urban areas commons today are mostly used for recreation. Though commons are still an integral part of the pastoral economy in rural areas. They are also valued as areas of nature conservation.
Records of commons can be found especially in manorial documents, held in local record offices.
References and Resources:
Information for this post was taken from the excellent David Hey (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (1996), 104-5.
Manors and their records - How-to History
A. Winchester, Common Land in Britain: A History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day (2024)
E.P. Thompson, Customs in Common (1991)
J.M. Neeson, Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700-1820 (1993)
W.G. Hoskins and L. Dudley Stamp, The Common Lands of England and Wales (1963)
Common land and village greens - GOV.UK
[1] David Hey (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (1996), 104-5.
[2] Ibid.
[3] For a discussion of common land in the present day, see A. Winchester, Common Land in Britain: A History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day (2024).
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