The Common Land And Commoners Of Ashdown Forest
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The Common Land And Commoners Of Ashdown Forest
The common land of Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, England, a former royal hunting forest created soon after the Norman conquest of England, covers some 6,400 acres (). The map of the common land today largely dates back to 1693, when more than half the medieval Forest was taken into private hands, with the remainder being set aside as common land. The latter is today administered by a Board of Conservators. It is entirely open for public access (subject to various byelaws) and it is the largest area of its kind in South East England. The Forest's common land The common land of Ashdown Forest consists of specific areas of Forest, registered under the Commons Registration Act 1965, which only those who possess particular rights of common — commoners — are entitled to use and exploit in certain specified ways. The common land is owned by the Lord of the Manor of Duddleswell (which, since 1988, has been the Ashdown Forest Trust, an agent of East Sussex County Council). Since 1885, t ...
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Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated some south of London in the county of East Sussex, England. Rising to an elevation of above sea level, its heights provide expansive vistas across the heavily wooded hills of the Weald to the chalk escarpments of the North Downs and South Downs on the horizon. Ashdown Forest's origins lie as a medieval hunting forest created soon after the Norman conquest of England. By 1283 the forest was fenced in by a ''pale'' enclosing an area of some . Thirty-four ''gates'' and ''hatches'' in the pale, still remembered in place names such as Chuck Hatch and Chelwood Gate, allowed local people to enter to graze their livestock, collect firewood, and cut heather and bracken for animal bedding. The forest continued to be used by the monarchy and nobility for hunting into Tudor times, including notably Henry VIII, who had a hunting lodg ...
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East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Sussex is the city of Brighton and Hove. History East Sussex is part of the historic county of Sussex, which has its roots in the ancient kingdom of the South Saxons, who established themselves there in the 5th century AD, after the departure of the Romans. Archaeological remains are plentiful, especially in the upland areas. The area's position on the coast has also meant that there were many invaders, including the Romans and later the Normans. Earlier industries have included fishing, iron-making, and the wool trade, all of which have declined, or been lost completely. Governance Sussex was historically sub-divided into six rapes. From the 12th century the three eastern rapes together and the three western rapes together had separ ...
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ...
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Norman Conquest Of England
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror. William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne. Edward died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada invaded northern England in September 1066 and was victorious at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September, but Godwinson's army defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Three days later on 28 September, William's invasion force of thousands of men and hundreds of ships landed at Pevensey in Sussex in southern England. Harold march ...
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Common Land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has a right in, or over, common land jointly with another or others is usually called a commoner. In the New Forest, the New Forest Commoner is recognised as a minority cultural identity as well as an agricultural vocation, and members of this community are referred to as Commoners. In Great Britain, common land or former common land is usually referred to as a common; for instance, Clapham Common and Mungrisdale Common. Due to enclosure, the extent of common land is now much reduced from the millions of acres that existed until the 17th century, but a considerable amount of common land still exists, particularly in upland areas. There are over 8,000 registered commons in England alone. Origins Originally in medieval England the co ...
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South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex. Major towns and cities in the region include Brighton and Hove, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Portsmouth, Slough, Reading, Berkshire, Reading and Oxford. South East England is the third largest region of England, with an area of 19,096 km2 (7,373 sq mi), and is also the most populous with a total population of over eight and a half million (2011). The region contains seven legally city status in the United Kingdom, chartered cities: Brighton and Hove, Canterbury, Chichester, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester. The region's close proximity to London and connections to several national motorways have le ...
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Commons Registration Act 1965
The Commons Registration Act 1965 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom enacted in 1965 that concerns the registration of rights to common land, town greens, and village greens in England and Wales. The legislation under the Harold Wilson government made reference to the ''Land Registration Act 1925'' and '' Land Registration Act 1936''. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and the Commons Act 2006, which gave new opportunities to register greens, amended the act. Registrations and Losses In the late 1960s, following the enactment of the Commons Registration Act 1965, the Open Spaces Society worked hard to register common land and common rights, in the three years allowed by the Act. However, still many commons were lost through failure to register them. The Act has reduced the historical rights of households that did not register under the Act. For example, villages in Wolvercote north of Oxford used to have grazing rights on Wolvercote Common. However, since the ...
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East Sussex County Council
East Sussex County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex. East Sussex is divided into five local government districts. Three are larger, rural, districts (from west to east: Lewes; Wealden; and Rother). The other two, Eastbourne and Hastings, are mainly urban areas. The rural districts are subdivided into civil parishes. The County Council meets at East Sussex County Hall, the authority's headquarters; there are a number of other administrative buildings located throughout the county. History Sussex was historically divided into six sub-divisions known as rapes. From the 12th century the three eastern rapes and the three western rapes had separate quarter sessions: the county town of the three eastern rapes was Lewes. This position was formalised by Parliament in 1865, and the two parts were made into administrative counties, each with distinct elected county councils, in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888. Within East Sussex the ...
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Duchy Of Lancaster
The Duchy of Lancaster is the private estate of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the sovereign. The estate consists of a portfolio of lands, properties and assets held in trust for the sovereign and is administered separately from the Crown Estate. The duchy consists of of land holdings (including rural estates and farmland), urban developments, historic buildings and some commercial properties across England and Wales, particularly in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Liberty of the Savoy, Savoy Estate in London. The Duchy of Lancaster is one of two duchies in England, royal duchies: the other is the Duchy of Cornwall, which provides income to the Duke of Cornwall, a title which is traditionally held by the Prince of Wales. As of the financial year ending 31 March 2022, the estate was valued at £652.8 mill ...
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Pannage
Pannage (also referred to as ''Eichelmast'' or ''Eckerich'' in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia) is the practice of releasing livestock-domestic pig, pigs in a forest, so that they can feed on fallen acorns, beechmast, Sweet Chestnut, chestnuts or other Nut (fruit), nuts. Historically, it was a right or privilege granted to local people on common land or in royal forests.H. R. Loyn, ''Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest'', 2nd ed. 1991:369. Pannage had two very useful purposes in Middle Ages, Medieval times: in Domestic pig#Rooting, rooting around looking for nuts, they also turned the soil and broke it. Pig-rooting prevented soil compaction and released nutrients for plant growth. It was also fattened pigs for slaughter. Especially in the eastern shires of England, pannage was so prominent a value in the economic importance of woodland that it was often employed, as in ''Domesday Book'' (1086), as a measurement. Customarily ...
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Turbary
Turbary is the ancient right to cut turf, or peat, for fuel on a particular area of bog. The word may also be used to describe the associated piece of bog or peatland and, by extension, the material extracted from the turbary. Turbary rights, which are more fully expressed legally as ''common of turbary'', are often associated with commonage, or, in some cases, rights over another person's land. Turbary was not always an unpaid right (easement), but, at least in Ireland, regulations governed the price that could be charged. Turf was widely used as fuel for cooking and domestic heating but also for commercial purposes such as evaporating brine to produce salt. The right to take peat was particularly important in areas where firewood was scarce. The right to collect firewood was protected by estovers. In the New Forest of southern England, a particular right of turbary belongs not to an individual person, dwelling or plot of land, but to a particular hearth and chimney. Ecology In ...
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