Shropshire Routes to Roots

3. The meadows and commons

The meadows

Meadow land was usually found along the sides of brooks or rivers. In a meadow the grass was allowed to grow for hay, an important product which provided winter keep for the animals. The meadow land of a manor could be divided into 'The Lord's Meadow' and 'The common Meadow'. The latter area was divided into 'doles ', which were similar to the strips in the open-field, and were also allocated among the Lord's tenants.

The common

Areas of land known as 'Common' were still held under the Lord of the Manor but his tenants and cottagers had 'common rights' at certain periods of the year. These rights varied from place to place but could include grazing cattle or sheep, allowing pigs to forage for beech mast or acorns in woodland, and taking fallen wood for use as fuel or to make implements. Some commons were woodland, some were wood pasture (having standing trees and grass for pasture), and some, like the upland areas of the Clee Hills or the Long Mynd, were used for rough grazing and taking peat for fuel. On commons one frequently finds evidence of 'Squatting'; that is the building of a cottage on a small plot of land. The control of the common-land was undertaken for the lord by an official sometimes known as a 'Hedgelooker' or 'Hayward'. The former relating more often to the official who controlled coppice woodland where it was important to maintain a hedge-ditch which would stop the progress of cattle or deer who could damage young trees.

Continue

Return to top of page