Kempsey's Common Lands

There are 5 areas of Common Land and 3 areas of Lammas Land in Kempsey Parish:

Commons

• What is Common Land?
• Kempsey Common and The Back Common, which is south of Kempsey Common
• Kerswell Green Common, which is south of Kempsey, by the motorway
• Ashmore Common, which is near the south end of Old Road South
• Stonehall Common, which is east of Kempsey Common, is partly in Kempsey parish.
• Normore Common

Lammas Land

• What is Lammas Land?
• North and South Ham, by the river, are Lammas Land. Midsummer Meadow is part of North Ham.
• Lord's Meadow
• Winnall, on Brookend Lane, near the motorway.

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What is Common Land?

Common Land is land where people with common rights (those people who registered for their common rights in 1965) have the right to use the area as common land. These rights are:

• Pasture - the right to graze animals on the common
• Pannage - the right to let pigs forage for acorns and beechmast (beech nuts)
• Estovers - the right to collect wood and bracken
• Turbary - the right to lift peat for fuel
• Piscary - the right to fish in inland waters

Kempsey Common

The Farmer's Arms Pub on the common used to be a workhouse for the poor, until it became a pub in 1896. Click on the picture or here for an enlargement.

Also, during WW 2 the common was ploughed up to grow food. (From 'Kempsey Collection', page 83.)

The bumps on the top of the hill in the Common were made when cattle who died or were killed in a Foot and Mouth disease outbreak were buried by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

The local archeological society has identified some of the hollows as stone age "dew pits", where dew collects for drinking water.

What is Lammas Land?

Lammas Land is privately owned, but is common from Lammas Day (12th August) until 2 February. Kempsey Ham is Lammas Land. The land is held as freehold property but is strictly controlled in its use. The grass is cut for hay which has to be cleared by August 12th. The land then becomes available to parishioners who have common rights to graze a specified number of animals until Jan 12^th, at which date it reverts to freehold status. The 'policing' of this system is monitored by a'Haywarden' appointed by Kempsey Parish Council.

© 1999 - Andy Morrall

Last updated 22 December 2004.

E-mail: andymorrall@geocities.com

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