Page prepared by Peter Tipton, Yateley Commoner
If you own any of the properties listed below please come to the Yateley Society stand in the community marquee at May Fayre, Yateley Green on May Bank Holiday 5 May 2008
23 commoners were confirmed to have common rights by the High Court in the 1970s, and were duly recorded in the Register of Commons held by Hampshire County Council.
However this is the right answer to the wrong question. Properties have common rights. Persons only have common rights because they own the property. When those persons move, the new owners acquire the common rights to the property. So the Rights Section of the Registers is actually a list of properties. A major defect of the Commons Registration Act 1965 is that it did not require, or even allow, the Rights Section to be updated to record the names of current owners of those properties having common rights. Unless their solicitors made a search of the Commons Registers some property owners may not even know they have common rights. The Common Act 2006 will rectify this situation.
Of the properties confirmed as having common rights, many were owned jointly, or in common, by husbands and wives, so even the number 23 is confusing. Another confusion regarding the number 23 is that some families at the time of registration owned more than one property, some owned several. So the number of individual properties on the register is now far more than 23. When these properties were sold to different new owners, the number of commoners at first actually increased.
I shall list on this page all the 28 properties in Yateley which had common rights at the time of the Commons Commission's decision in 1975. Of course the names of some properties will have changed in the last 30 years. So if you know your property had one of these names 30 years ago please contact me.
| Name of Property | 1970s address | Postcode 2008 |
| Poor Row or Silver Fox Farm | ||
| Moulsham House | GU46 7PN | |
| Windy Ridge | Vigo Lane | GU46 6EP |
| Yateley House | GU46 6PY | |
| Five Acres | Cobbetts Lane | GU46 6AT |
| Heatherside | Reading Road | |
| Cricket Hill Cottage | GU46 6BA | |
| Cottage Farm | Cobbetts Lane | GU46 6AT |
| Wicks Field | Reading Road | |
| Brackens | Cricket Hill | GU46 6BD |
| The Old Cricketers | Cricket Hill | GU46 6BA |
| Lea Cottage | Cricket Hill | GU46 6BA |
| Grasshoppers | Cricket Hill | GU46 6BB |
| Holly Cottage | Cricket Hill | GU46 6BD |
| Carolina | Hall Lane | |
| Moorside and land at | Cricket Hill | GU46 6BB |
| 1 Laurel Cottages | GU46 6BD | |
| 2 Laurel Cottages | GU46 6BD | |
| 1 Bramley Cottages | GU17 0NS | |
| 2 Bramley Cottages | GU17 0NS | |
| 1 Jessamine Cottage | ||
| Moonrakers | Cricket Hill | GU46 6BA |
| Quarry House | GU46 6XW | |
| Bayfield House and land adjoining | GU17 0BE | |
| Oaklands | Vigo Lane | GU46 6ES |
| Heathfield | Blackwater Flats | GU46 0AS |
| Tudor House | Cricket Hill | GU46 6XW |
| Monteagle House | GU46 6LU |
Since 1975 the above list has probably changed significantly for two other reasons:
In the first case it may be possible to apportion the common rights between the properties.
In the second case, under the 1965 Act, it had been previously contended that the rights had been completely lost since 1965. There were rules which determined whether rights can be apportioned or lost. The Commons Act 2006 requires that the commmons registers be up-dated, and it seems that rights properly registered under the 1965 Act may not have been lost after all, only rendered unusable. I do not yet understand this, so please phone me if you believe you may have common rights.
I do not believe that part 1 of the 2006 Act has yet been enabled. When it has the County Council will be updating the Commons Register for Hampshire. If you are now the owner of the property you will be able to apply to have your name placed on the updated register. The name of your property may have changed in the last 30 years, so you will be able to apply to have the name changed. The county will undoubtedly require proper evidence not just an email or letter. It may be that you live in one of the estates on which stood, Carolina in Hall Lane, Yateley House now Lower Canes, or one of the Charles Church house on Vigo Lane once the property of Windy Ridge. You may be able to have the orginal rights appointioned provided you meet certain conditions. In the meantime please let me know if you own any of the above properties. Either contact me by phone or through the wikimaster of this site.
If you own any of these properties please come to the Yateley Society stand in the community marquee at May Fayre, Yateley Green on May Bank Holiday 5 May 2008
Back to Yateley Common Facts