BACK
TO MENU
DAILY
TELEGRAPH 30.8.03
I was a Commoner. I do not wish you to think that this means that I have
now become a Peer of the Realm. When I say that I was a commoner, I mean
that I once owned a property, which had Common Rights. These gave me 8
sheep 'gaits' (the right to graze 8 sheep) on a nearby Common. It also
involved me with things like estovers, pannage, and turbuary. These rights
are interesting and ancient and date back to Saxon times. Most of them
were destroyed by the Enclosures Acts of the C18 and C19, when, by various
Acts of Parliament, the Landowners were given the right to enclose Common
Land and plough it up to the greater glory of 'modern agriculture'; the
fattening of their wallets and the destruction of the ancient English Peasantry,
who could then be condemned as 'furnace fodder' for the burgeoning Industrial
Revolution:" The law will punish man or woman who steals a goose from
off the Common, But lets the greater felon loose, who steals the Common
from the goose." Over the years, I was involved with two cases of
law that involved commons. When I hunted in Wiltshire, there was a lovely
stretch of 1,000 acres of virgin downland - a place of rough grass, whin
bushes and foxes. This land was bought by an urban property company, who
planned to reclaim it for high agriculture. The hounds were warned off.
There were common rights on the land, which went with a nearby village.
The purchasers bought out all the rights bar one. Reg (let us call him)
was an old fashioned bachelor Yeoman who owned broad acres adjoining the
common. He was the only one to use it. His sheep were folded on turnips
every night and were the last flock I know to have worn the old sheep bells
round their necks. Every morning the ancient shepherd (Alf) with his dogs
and crook, would lead the sheep out to the down where he would wander with
them in the old way. Reg refused to sell his rights in spite of cajoling,
threats and offers of much fine gold - he had no heir, plenty of money
and no one was going to bugger him about. The property coy was euchred,
because, although they owned the land, they could not break the sod - this
belonged to the commoner. The owners went to court. For all the years I
was in the area, the case raged, climbing from one court to another, until
it reached the top, which gave judgement (with costs) in Reg's favour.
The property coy went bust.
The other case that involved me was in Yorkshire. On one hand was a
landowner, of whom I thought nothing (he had a bad eye and was a vulpicide)
and, on the other, a roguish sheep dealer, who amused me. I gave him
my gaits. In those 'airts' the rights went with the hearthstone of the
house. The dealer owned a smallholding up the dale. The house was ruined,
but the hearth stone was still there and on the basis of that and the
donations of 'gaits' from other commoners (the squire was neither loved
nor respected) he claimed the grazing rights over several thousands of
acres, a lot of which was also prime grouse moor. We had the 'Commons
Commissioner' a most tedious QC, brought in on that one and I think he
ruled in favour of the dealer. Commoners are properly jealous of their
rights - you interfere with them at your peril. Pannage, the right to
turn your pigs out to eat fallen acorns, is much prized in the New Forest.
When the pigs are out you tread delicately. There was an unfortunate
jogger, sweating his cheerless way through the forest, who got between
a pannaging sow and her litter. She bit him in the bum and serve him
right.
|
