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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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common land
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There are many places in Britain where a motorist still drives over a cattle grid to enter a 'common' on which cows or sheep are grazing. These open spaces are what survive from centuries of struggle between landlord and tenant. Under the early medieval *open-field system, the local people held in common the right to graze cattle, catch fish or collect wood and peat on any land not under cultivation.
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Powerful lords of the manor in Norman times began to claim that the lord actually owned the common land, while the peasants had only specific rights to use it. An inevitable next step was for the lord to attempt to frustrate these rights by physically enclosing his land. Beginning in the 13C, *enclosure reached a peak in the 18–19C (the fences adding excitement to the new British passion for *hunting), until steps were taken to prevent it in the Enclosure Act of 1852 and the Commons Act of 1876.
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Even today commons remain frequently under threat, from development and other demands, in spite of the supposedly final Commons Registration Act of 1965. The Commons Preservation Society, Britain's oldest conservation group (founded 1865), has been in the forefront of the ongoing campaign; it now calls itself the Open Spaces Society.
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