COMMONS STORIES

RECORDING THEHISTORY OF YOUR COMMON

This questionnaireis offered as a framework fororganising and reporting your historical findings. You may wish to use it to record your own personal recollections, or those of others, or to summarise those ofa wider community. Please feel free to download/adapt the form and toexpand those sections which are especially relevant to your common (please create as much additional space as you need after each question). Not all the questions may be relevant, but even a few basic answers to those which are will be a useful record for your common. For further information, please see . If you have any questions, or wish to send a completed questionnaire to the project, please contact: Building Commons Knowledge Project, Department of History, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YT(email:or.

Thank you!

NAME OF COMMON:

PARISH:

COUNTY:

CL NUMBER:

ACREAGE [please state whether acres or hectares]:

1. HOW WAS THE COMMON USED AND HOW HAS THE USE OF THE COMMON CHANGED?

Common land has been used for a wide variety of purposes across the centuries and its use has varied greatly from place to place, and time to time. What activities have taken place on this common?

1.1Grazing:

  • What typesof livestock have grazedthe commonin the past (please tick)?

Cattle Sheep Horses/ponies Pigs Geese

Other livestock (please state):orNone

  • How have numbers and types of animals grazing the common changed across time?
  • Whoexercised grazing rights or grazed the common in the past (please tick)?

Local farmers Local householders/cottagers

Lord of the manor/landowner People from further afield

Other (please state):

  • What types of animals graze the common today (please tick)?

Cattle Sheep Horses/ponies Pigs Geese

Other livestock (please state): or None

  • Ifthe common is no longer grazed by livestock, when did active grazing cease, and why?

1.2 Other resources:

  • What resources have been collected from off the commonin the past (please tick)?

Peat Bracken Gorse Sticks/firewood

Reeds/rushes Stone/soil/sand Berries/fruits/nuts

Other (please state):

  • Who took these resources from off the common?

Local farmers Local householders/cottagers

People from further afield Other (please state):

  • Are any still collected today? If not, when did their collection stop, and why?

1.3 Field sports (grouse shooting, wildfowling, fishing etc):

  • What field sports, if any, have occurred on the common?
  • Who were the sportsmen? Where did they come from?
  • Do any of these sports continue? If not, when and why did they cease?

1.4 Military use (training, trenches, radar stations etc):

  • What military activities, if any, have taken place on the common?
  • When were these undertaken, and by whom?
  • Have any military installations been built on the common? Please state:

1.5 Recreation(walking, rock climbing, paragliding, swimming, picnicking etc):

  • What recreational activities, if any, have occurred on the common (please list)?
  • Who took part in recreation (e.g. local residents, people from further afield, tourists)?
  • How has recreational use changed?

1.6 Social events(fairs, sports days, shows, games etc):

  • What types of social gatherings (whether organised or impromptu), if any,have taken place on the common?
  • Who took part in these activities, and where did they come from?
  • Do any continue? If not, when did they cease, and why?

1.7 ‘Outsiders’ and the Travelling community (such as Gypsies, Roma, Tinkers, New Age Travellers, the homeless etc):

  • Which, if any, travelling groups/individuals visited or stayedon the common in the past?
  • Do these visits continue? If not, when did they cease, and why?

1.8 Other usesand user groups(such as specific industries, mines & quarries, utilities, educational purposes etc – please state):

Further comments on Section 1:

2. HOW WAS USE OF THE COMMON REGULATED?

Many commons had traditional rules governing livestock and other resources. Did this common have rules and if so, what were they? What institutions (manor courts, commoners’ associations, graziers’ meetings etc) were involved in making and enforcing rules?

2.1 Common rules:

  • How were numbers of livestock regulated?
  • Were there seasonal restrictions on grazing (a ‘closed season’, for example?)? Was a herdsman employed?
  • Were there rules governing exploitation of other resources (e.g. peat, bracken, sticks etc)? What were these?

2.2 Institutions:

Which of the following institutionshave been involved in drawing up the rules regulating the use of the common? Please tick, and provide a rough outline of the period when they were involved in regulating the common(some may continue to be involved today).

Manor court Period: ______

Parish council/other parochial body Period: ______

Commoners’/graziers’ association/committee/meeting Period: ______

Board of ‘conservators’ with statutory powers Period: ______

Informal arrangements (e.g. no formal body in charge)? Period: ______

Other (please state):Period: ______

Further comments on Section 2:

3. HOW HAS THE COMMON ITSELF CHANGED?

Environments change over time, though sometimes the rate of change is imperceptibly slow. How do local people perceive the rate and nature of change on the common? How has the vegetation, appearance and condition of the common changed?

3.1 Vegetation:

  • Has the vegetation of the common changed in living memory? If so, in what way(s)?
  • In your opinion, have ecological conditions deteriorated, improved or stayed the same (please tick)?

Deteriorated Improved Stayed the same

3.2‘Infrastructure’:

Which of the following features are there on this common (please tick)?

Roads Footpaths Cycle-ways Lighting

Recreational areas (e.g. playgrounds, pitches) Pools/ponds

Sheepfolds Washfolds Shelters/huts

Stores/barns CattlegridsShooting structures

Way/boundary markersArchaeological sites (e.g. cairns, circles)

Military structures Reservoirs Mines/quarries

Other infrastructure (please state):

  • Do you know when they were built? Who built them, and why? Are they still in use?

3.3 Looking to the future:

  • How do you think the common will change in the future?
  • Do you think the common will be in a better or worse condition in, say, twenty years time?

Further comments on Section 3:

4. SOURCES

There are a variety of ways in which the answers given above may have been compiled – for example, through conversations and/or consulting documentsand published works. It is helpful to know which sources proved useful to you.

4.1 Oral sources and local memory:

Were the above questions answered using (please tick thosewhich seem appropriate)

  • your own memories and knowledge?
  • memories and knowledge gathered through personal conversations/interviews with others?
  • memories and knowledge gathered through community discussions/meetings?

4.2 Historical documents:

If you have consulted historical documents, it would be helpful to know the major ones used. Please list these below, with any information you think helpful/appropriate (if a document was in private hands, you may wish to simply note that it was ‘Private’):

4.3 Published works:

Finally, please list the major published works (books, studies, papers etc) you have found useful incompiling your answers:

SUBMITTED BY (NAME OF RESPONDENT AND/OR COMPILER):

DATE:

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