Commoners' Corner No.3

First published in the Yateley Society Newsletter in April 1996

Why does Yateley have common land?

I always tell people that our common rights go back to the time of Alfred the Great, who was Lord of the Manor of Crondall which then contained the small settlement from which modern Yateley has developed. Strictly speaking I should say that our rights go back to "time immemorial" which in law is 1189. You will by now understand that common land originated in the time of thanes and serfs and obtained its current legal status in the time of barons and villeins. No wonder modern lawyers and planners think the whole thing is anachronistic.

Common land has its roots in the feudal manorial system which was the basis of the English economy. Each manor was supposed to be self-sufficient. The Statute of Merton of 1236 placed a basic obligation on lords of the manor to provide land for the ordinary people to graze their animals, collect their firewood, cut their beanpoles, dig the gravel for their yards, and dig peat for their own fires. The land so provided was of course the worst in the manor and is still called "waste of the manor". Following so closely behind Magna Carta, the Statute of Merton was a democratic way of providing subsistence for every householder in the land through his or her own efforts.

Far from scoffing at this system like modern lawyers and planners, I think we could well learn something very fundamental about our own society from studying the way the manorial system aided the poor, whether you favour the welfare state or Thatcherism. Yateley people were very lucky that their manor was quickly added (in 976) to the portfolio of manors supporting the old monastery at Winchester. Crondall was specifically designated to support the Prior and monks, rather than the Bishop. Crondall Manor existed for a millennium until the feudal system stopped on 1st January 1926. The manor survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries and was redesignated to support the Dean and Chapter. Eventually the holdings of the church were reorganised and the Lords of the Manor became the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

Their successors, the Church Commissioners, virtually gave (with two exceptions) most of the commonland in Yateley to Yateley Parish Council in 1951. The Parish Council kept Yateley Green but passed on 470 acres of common to Hampshire County Council. Yateley Common is a single tract of land but by the 1950s the Church Commissioners did not own the common to the west of old Vigo Lane, which then ran through the middle of what is now Blackbushe Airport terminal building. That western part was sold to Lord Calthorpe in 1891. In early part of World War 2 this land was requisitioned under wartime emergency powers. Blackbushe was derequistioned and returned to common in 1960. To the south of the A30 the Currie family had purchased the common land from the Commissioners and was transferred to the War Department when they purchased the whole of the Minley Manor estate in 1936. The common is now in MOD use. It is all common land registered under the 1965 Commons Registration Act. The same act registered the common rights of twenty three commoners.

Famous Commoners

This quarter I should like to mention two famous military Yateley Commoners. Air Chief Marshall Sir William MacDonald was appropriately enough one of the wartime commanders of RAF Hartfordbridge (Blackbushe to us). Despite this, he was a staunch supporter of his common rights and the registration of Yateley Common, including Blackbushe. A near neighbour of Sir William's on Cricket Hill was General R Llewellyn Brown. General Brown was latterly Director General of the Ordnance Survey. His sister started Yateley Industries, and he did the Yateley Society great honour by becoming one of our first Vice Presidents. It was a great pleasure to attend Commoners meetings which such gentlemen, and to have their support.

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