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Towards a Sustainable Future for our Nation's Common Land
The four-year Our Common Cause project was designed to be a focus for concerted and collaborative action. It signified a step-change from talking, convening and championing, to a time of action filled with demonstrating, delivering and empowering.
Contested Common Land (Book)
This book makes a major contribution to common pool resource studies. It offers a new perspective on the sustainable governance of common resources with multiple, often conflicting, uses.
High Nature Value Farming in Europe
This landmark volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject and outlines how the concept can be applied in 35 European states. It is richly illustrated throughout with colour photographs, maps and figures.
A Common Purpose: A Guide to Community Engagement for those Contemplating Management on Common Land
This 2012 document provides guidance concerning community engagement and consensus building for those contemplating works on common land. Mainly written for lowland commons with no active graziers, where there is a range of stakeholders with no legal interest but a strong emotional interest—in recreation, natural history or archaeology, for instance. The principles can also be applied to actively grazed upland commons.
Common Land Research
The Contested Common Land project was a collaborative project between Newcastle Law School, Lancaster University History Department and the Informatics Research Institute at Newcastle University. It aimed to examine the environmental governance of common land from an interdisciplinary, historical and contemporary perspective.
The project has now drawn to a close but there is a website which serves as an archive of the project.
Grassington Moor, Wharfdale Historic Environment Survey
This report documents the results of a historic environment survey as part of a project for proposed peat restoration works under a Natural England PA2 Feasibility study grant. This work focuses on two blocks of moorland on Grassington Moor, Wharfedale, and provides the information required of an Historic Environment Assessment to allow the management of the historic environment within the wider restoration project.
Piles Hill Double Stone Row, Harford & Ugborough Moors
This survey aimed to increase our understanding of Piles Hill Stone Row and peripheral monuments. Discoveries were made during a week-long dig aimed at learning more about the double stone row, the longest of its kind in the UK. Authors: Mark Edwards and Dr Stephen Trick, Substrata, May 2022.
Harford & Ugborough Commons Management Plan (2024)
This management plan looks ahead to managing Hartford and Ugborough Commons over the next 20 or 30 years. The work programme identifies and proposes work to improve the condition of the commons and the public benefits they provide, including the condition required by the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the two Premier Archaeological Landscapes (PALs). This management plan is written primarily for the owners of the commons and the farmers whose livestock graze the common.
Lost Cairns of the Stiperstones
This report describes the results of heritage work carried out with volunteers on the Stiperstones during Autumn 2023. They focussed on Bronze Age cairns in the south of the site and Post Medieval settlement remains in the north. The activities were aimed at engaging volunteers in archaeological survey work, increase knowledge in the local community of features on the common and improve information held at the Shropshire Historic Environment Record (SHER).
Clee Liberty Lime Kiln Report
This report describes the results of an archaeological trench over part of a lime kiln adjacent to Nordy Bank, Clee Liberty, in the northwest of Clee Liberty Common. The fieldwork was carried out from the 5th to the 12th of June 2023.
Brant Fell Archaeological Report
YDNP (Yorkshire Dales National Park) Historic Environment team undertook a site walk-over of Brant Fell, Sedbergh to discover any further archaeological remnants of human habitation to enhance existing HER records. The report details 75 new sites that underpin other Brant Fell Projects, such as the NFM (Natural Flood Management) recommendations.
Grassington Moor - Peatland Restoration Plan
This report describes the results of a survey carried out by Yorkshire Peat Partnership between February and March 2022.
The survey was carried out in 3 parts: an initial desk-based survey of aerial photographs, which helped make an initial assessment of the type of work that might be needed; the field survey, where information about the grips, gullies, hags and bare peat as well as the vegetation communities and peat depth is recorded onto a hand-held mapper; and a desk-based post survey of the area using a combination of the aerial photography and walkover survey data to classify erosion features.
Geophysical surveys at Bodbury Ring and Novers Hill on Longmynd, Summer 2022
This report describes the results of archaeological geophysical investigations with the aim of enhancing our understanding of the archaeological resource within the common lands of Shropshire and, in particular, relating to prehistoric activity on the Longmynd. The surveys were undertaken at two scheduled sites, Bodbury Ring (LEN: 1009309), a large univallate hillfort situated above Cardingmill Valley. The second was Novers Hill (LEN: 1008385), a small enclosure and building platform located near the summit of Novers Hill.
Archaeological Excavation at Clee Burf, Clee Liberty 2022
This report describes the results of archaeological investigation at Clee Burf, the south east side of Clee Liberty Common, which took place in June 2022 with volunteers from the local community. It was part of the second year of historical environment projects with focus on the medieval period and includes excavations of bell pits and boundary banks.
Archaeological Excavation at Pole Cottage, Longmynd 2022
This report describes the results of archaeological trenching at Pole Cottage, a demolished building and enclosure at the top of the Longmynd. This fieldwork, carried out by volunteers from the local community and surrounding area, was part of the investigations into the history and archaeology of the Longmynd, an area of heath and moorland in the west of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
I’ll take the High Road – A community based survey and excavation project
This report describes the results of a community-based survey and excavation project investigating the presence of the High Street Roman Road on Bampton Common. The form and route of the road has been the cause of much speculation, we aim to address this by finding evidence of the road and its construction.
Nordy Bank Fieldwork Report 2021
This report describes the results of archaeological investigation of the ramparts of the Nordy Bank hillfort and the repairs carried out to sheep scrapes and bare patches by volunteers during 2021. The hillfort is a Scheduled Monument, and consent was obtained from Historic England.
Historic Landscape Survey of Clee Liberty
This report comprises an assessment of the historic environment and archaeological features of Clee Liberty including a discussion of their value and significance in the historic landscape. The report forms the basis for the Historic Environment activities offered and carried out as part of the Our Upland Commons project during 2021 -2023.