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CommonersCorner1995_09

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years ago

Commoners' Corner no 1

What are common rights?

The Society has several members who have common rights. So I thought it would be a good idea to keep in touch with them via a regular slot in the Society's newsletter. I hope this may also prove interesting to other members.

There are two main tracts of common land in Yateley parish over which commoners have rights: Yateley Common (CL24) and, despite its name, Yateley Green (CL27). The two reference numbers are those in the Common Land register kept by Hampshire County Council pursuant to the Commons Registration Act 1965. The two tracts of common land have two separate sets of commoners, whose rights are also registered by Hampshire County Council in the rights section.

Some properties such as Monteagle House have rights over both Yateley Common and Yateley Green, and some, such as Brookfield House, only have rights over Yateley Green. Most people only know of grazing rights, but there are others. The right of estovers enables the commoner to take small branches and sticks for his own use either for fuel or for repair of his fences or buildings. The right of turbary is the right to cut turf for fuel for the commoner's own house. Piscary is the right to fish in ponds, streams and rivers, again for the commoner's own consumption in his household, and not for resale. It must be stressed that, although the land is common land, only commoners registered to use these rights can use them. For instance members of the public might have to pay for a fishing permit to fish alongside a commoner fishing for free.

News items

The County Council has been trying to sort out who are now the owners of registered properties in Yateley. Elizabeth and I have agreed to help the Commons Registration Officer to sort out who now owns what, which properties exist on which land, and to help commoners who may still be struggling with apportionment problems to get themselves onto the register. Even the phrase "get themselves onto the register" is a bit of a story. The 1965 Commons Registration Act provided for the registration of the names and addresses of the then existing commoners and their rights.

This simple sentence in itself took about ten years to be accomplished in Yateley after a reputed expenditure of £100,000 in legal fees, and the arrest and appearance in court of Daphne Kirkpatrick, now our Vice President. There was even in another case, fisticuffs at Little Vigo. Another registered commoner well known to Society members was Tom Dodd who appeared on Ester Rantzen after his cottage at Silver Fox Farm on Blackbushe was bulldozed "mysteriously". Tom's wife Doreen still defends her corner.

The nice lady at the Castle and I had a little giggle this morning since the 1965 Act did not cater for the fact that commoners sell their properties, sometimes tidily to a single owner and sometimes to several owners, such as did J.E. Cobbett. Sometimes, like Gordon Dickinson at Yateley House (the old egg farm on Firgrove), they sell their property for housing estates. Sometimes they split a single holding into three such as at Heatherside, or at Windy Ridge, subject of a planning application in today's Courier. Since the 1965 Act only provided for a register for the originally registered commoners any change of ownership can only legally be written onto the registers in pencil.

There seems to be no law saying that commoners should update their entry (in pencil) in the registers, but if you don't, your rights may get struck off through a technicality of which you are unaware. If you are a new owner of a house with common rights, proud of your stake in Yateley's history, ready to stoke your yuletide fire with sticks collected from the common "by hook or by crook", please get in touch with Elizabeth and me. Likewise if you are a not-so-common member of the Society and you know of any commoners please ask them to get in touch. Elizabeth and I are going to have to bang on doors, and I estimate there are now about one hundred!

 

 

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