Dramatic skies hang over Black Hambleton, its summit almost clear of cloud. The view is from Solomon’s Lane, a grand name for a track that no longer exists. The surrounding expanse is Osmotherley Moor, part of which is “waste land of the manor,” now the subject of an application by the Open Spaces Society to have it registered as “common land.”1Notice of an application to register waste land of the manor as common land. Application Reference Number: CA13 033 Osmotherley Moor, Osmotherley (CL253) NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL. COMMONS ACT 2006 — SCHEDULE 2, PARAGRAPH 4.
The idea of the Commons is elusive, rooted in the long shadow of medieval England. Property rights began to harden in the 13th century. The Statute of Merton, passed in 1235 under Henry III, set out the principle: the land belonged to the lord of the manor, yet tenants might hold customary rights to use it. The land was never theirs, but they could depend upon it.
As feudalism gave way to a more commercial order, tenants paid rent yet retained rights linked to their cottages or holdings. These rights were practical: grazing animals (pasture), feeding pigs on acorns (pannage), cutting turf (turbary), fishing (piscary), or collecting wood (estovers). Lawyers called them profits à prendre—things to be taken from the land—though ownership remained with the lord.
Osmotherley Moor illustrates the story well. In 1755, only half the moor was enclosed by Act of Parliament. The rest, about 1,220 acres, remained common land for local cottagers, free of tithes but still under the lord’s control. Sporting rights were let to the Thimbleby Estate from 1849 onwards.
By the late 19th century, villagers still grazed sheep and cut turf, though records blurred who precisely held which rights. The sale of the unenclosed moor in 1906 to John Storey Barwick, owner of Thimbleby, severed the land from the manor yet left its use unchanged. Shooting rights passed to the estate, but the rights of commoners persisted alongside them.
The moor has remained open, uncultivated, and essentially unchanged. For that reason, the Open Spaces Society maintains that it meets the criteria to be registered as common land.
- 1Notice of an application to register waste land of the manor as common land. Application Reference Number: CA13 033 Osmotherley Moor, Osmotherley (CL253) NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL. COMMONS ACT 2006 — SCHEDULE 2, PARAGRAPH 4.
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