General Definitions

Common land is land owned by one or more persons over which another person is entitled to exercise rights of common in common with others.

A right of common is a right which one or more persons may have, to take or use some portion of the produce of another person’s soil. These cover a wide range of produce.

Pasturage: the right to graze, generally grass or natural vegetation such as heather and bilberry but can extend to mast, acorns and leaves of trees.

Pannage: the right to graze pigs in woods.

Estover: the right to take specific timber products such as whole trees or firewood.

Turbary: the right to take turf or peat for burning as fuel.

Piscary: the right to take fish from ponds, lakes, rivers and streams.

Rights in the soil: the right to take part of the soil or minerals from the common, strictly limited to the needs of the property.

Animals ferae naturae: the right to take wild animals.

In addition to the definitions above there are other categories of land that are often, but not exclusively, regarded as common land:

Land subject to sole rights or stinted pasture - this is land where rights have been granted in their entirety to one or more individuals. There is no residue for the owner of the soil and so the rights are sole rights rather than rights in common. These rights are divided into equal shares known as stints or beastgates and allocated amongst the sole right holders.

Common fields or regulated pasture – this occurs when the land is owned jointly but grazed or managed communally usually, because it would be uneconomic or impractical to fence each share. Each individual’s right to graze is proportionate to the share of the land owned. Some regulated pastures are the result of Inclosure Awards.

Determining which of these categories a particular common falls into is not straightforward but the first reference should be the Commons Register held by the local authority.