Hearsall Common
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Hearsall Common is located in
Earlsdon Earlsdon is a residential suburb and electoral ward of Coventry, England. It lies approximately one mile to the southwest of Coventry City Centre. It is the birthplace of aviation pioneer Frank Whittle. Amenities Most shops and restaurants are ...
,
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
in the
West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
, central
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 b ...
. The common consists of a large grassy area with a smaller partly tarmacadamed area on one side of Hearsall Common Road, and a wooded nature reserve on the other side. It is free to enter and open to the public as of right, 24 hrs a day; however, after several years of residents complaining about itinerant or nomadic travellers using the common, an embankment was built alongside the roads to prevent vehicles from driving onto the common. The common has for a long time been host to circus and fairs. Previously it hosted the 'crock fair'. Hearsall Common has a long history of being common land going back to at least the thirteenth century. It was reassigned as recreation ground by a Coventry Corporation Act of 1927, along with other areas of common land in Coventry.


History

The first detailed survey of the
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 ...
and waste ground in and around Coventry was made in 1423. These areas have been important for centuries as common land for grazing animals. In the 18th century, when Coventry was much smaller than it is now, the eastern areas of Hearsall Common fell within Coventry's boundaries, while the western areas extended far beyond them. Hearsall Common, together with Coventry's other commons, Sowe, Whitley, Barras Heath and Radford, surrounded the city and constricted its growth. The city was the third or fourth most important city in the country during the medieval period, behind London, York and, arguably, Norwich, but the jealously guarded Freeman's rights to graze animals on the commons prevented the city from expanding into these areas and growing. This tight constraint on growth is thought to be the reason why Birmingham, which was just a village until the 17th century, became the large metropolis that is now with a population three times greater than that of Coventry. The Coventry Corporation Act of 1927 reassigned Whitley Common, Hearsall Common, Barras Heath, and Radford Common as recreation grounds, and ended all the remaining traditional commoning rights on waste ground in Coventry, and the "freemen" of the city, who had been allowed to have up to three animals grazing on these areas since 1833, received an annual sum of £100 as compensation. Twenty one acres of the common had been developed as sports pitches by 1954.


Uses

The section of Hearsall Common which is partly covered with rough grass and partly covered with
tarmac Tarmac may refer to: Engineered surfaces * Tarmacadam, a mainly historical tar-based material for macadamising road surfaces, patented in 1902 * Asphalt concrete, a macadamising material using asphalt instead of tar which has largely superseded ta ...
or gravel is used by fairs or circuses and their associated heavy vehicles. The
Moscow State Circus The title Moscow State Circus is used for a variety of circuses. Most commonly, it refers to one of the two circus buildings in Moscow, the " Circus Nikulin" (the old circus, featuring animal acts) and the "Bolshoi Circus" (the new circus, feat ...
, which gave performances for five days in November 2004, is one of many circuses that have visited the common over the years. The larger eastern section of the common is a large open area of mowed grass that attracts dog walkers, sunbathers, kite flyers. and local children to play football. On the north side of the road near to the woods there is a cycle speedway track that is used by Coventry Cycle Speedway Club https://web.archive.org/web/20100703052637/http://www.coventry-cycle-speedway.co.uk/ for competitions. At one point, the Earlsdon Festival moved temporarily from being based predominantly in Earlsdon Street to the common. The festival usually takes place on the May Day bank holiday weekend. After a lot of rain in the summer of 2007, the Donkey Derby which was scheduled to take place in the
War Memorial Park, Coventry The War Memorial Park is a large park of about 48.5 hectares in southern Coventry, England. The park was opened in July 1921 as a tribute to the 2,587 Coventrians who died between 1914 and 1918 fighting in the First World War. The landscaped ga ...
was held at Hearsall Common.


Frank Whittle

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for ...
, the aerospace engineer and jet pioneer, was born in
Earlsdon Earlsdon is a residential suburb and electoral ward of Coventry, England. It lies approximately one mile to the southwest of Coventry City Centre. It is the birthplace of aviation pioneer Frank Whittle. Amenities Most shops and restaurants are ...
, and the house in Newcombe Road that he grew up in, which has a commemorative plaque on it, is about half a mile from the common. He was apparently inspired to pursue a career in engineering after seeing an aircraft land on Hearsall Common in 1916, from which grew the
urban myth An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
that the aircraft blew his hat off and this in particular inspired him, as a young boy, to become involved in
aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...
. A plaque on the common alludes to this story.


Gallery

Image:Hearsall common BMX 18o07.JPG, The cycle speedway track Image:Hearsall common by road 8g07.JPG, Hearsall Common (view to the east) Image:Plaque hearsall common 8g07.JPG, The plaque commemorating Frank Whittle's inspiration Image:Hearsall common tarmac and road 18o07.JPG, Hearsall Common (partly tarmacked area on the other side of the road)


References


External links

{{Commons category, Hearsall Common
Coventry & Warwickshire website
Parks in Coventry