Greenham and Crookham Commons exist as common land, and commoners' rights on them exist, only because they were registered under the Commons Registration Act of 1965.
The registration process
The registration authority was Berkshire County Council. Landowners and other parties (e.g. commoners) could submit areas of land to be registered as common land, and could submit rights (e.g. to take turf or to graze animals) to be registered as rights of common. Those claiming rights had to submit a map showing the property which they owned or occupied and which the rights derived from.
Our commons were registered as several distinct common land units:
- CL10 Part of Greenham Common not owned by the MOD. Registered by the Borough of Newbury.
- CL13 Part of Greenham Common not owned by the MOD. Registered by the Borough of Newbury.
- CL14 Part of Greenham Common not owned by the MOD. Registered by the Borough of Newbury.
- CL55 The part of Greenham Common then owned by the Ministry of Defence. CL55 was registered by the Crookham and Greenham Commons Association (CGCA), a body set up specifically to represent the commoners and to facilitate registration under the 1965 Act. Registered on 05 February 1968.
- CL60 The whole of Crookham Common, both within and without the airbase. Registered by the CGCA on 05 February 1968.
Multiple registrations
Most properties claiming rights over Greenham Common made very similar, or identical, register entries for CL13, CL14 and CL55. But this does not mean that rights are added together - for example if a property has a right to turn out five goats in CL13, CL14 and CL55, the total right is still only for five, not fifteen.
Crookham and Greenham Commons adjoin, and there is no fence separating them. Registered rights to graze animals are therefore regarded as applying to both commons. So a commoner with grazing rights on any of the CL units can allow their animals to roam the entire area. Commoners with rights to take wood, gravel etc. may also exercise the rights over both commons, although certain activities such as gravel digging may be restricted to particular locations.
Notes on rights
No commercial use
No right other than that to graze animals may be used commercially. Rights to take (for example) gravel, gorse or firewood are for use by the registered property only, not to take quantities to sell or give away.
Wood
With few exceptions, the right to take wood (typically for fuel or fence repairs) refers only to dead wood. It does not generally mean the right to cut living branches or cut down trees.
Grazing rights
There is wide variation in grazing rights, from one animal up to fifty-four. The reason is that traditionally, the number of grazing rights would depend on how many animals each commoner could over-winter on their own land. Records of the Greenham and Crookham Courts Leet suggest that the accepted figure was one horse or cow for each 1.5 acres (0.61 ha).
Rights not attached to properties
In most cases the rights still belong with the property and are exercisable by the occupier. There are a few properties for which this is not the case, with the rights being owned "in gross" meaning they are now exercised by a person who does not own or occupy the property.
Transcription and enhancement of register entries
The table below is based on a transcription from the handwritten register documents, by the Legal Department at West Bekshire Council. Postcodes were not used in the original registration process, and most registrations were made by house name rather than number. Modern-day postcodes and some numbers have been added subsequently.
Registration maps for (most of) the properties registered in 1968 can be viewed using the links in the table below. Properties are listed alphabetically by name, using the current expression if it differs from the one used in the 1960s.
Map image quality - not our fault!
The map images are scans, of photocopies, of black-and-white photocopies, of the originals, which would have been black-and-white base maps with a coloured border hand-drawn around around the property. These now show as a thick black outline.
The list below includes links to each property's map and a summary of its rights. You can narrow down a search for a particular property using the search box, to look for a particular string of letters in the property names.