The objects of the Ramblers’ Association include:-

“The protection and enhancement for the benefit of the public of the beauty of the countryside and other areas by such lawful means as the trustees think fit, including by encouraging the provision, preservation and extension of public access to land on foot.”

Access land is defined under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 as open country – defined as mountain, moor, heath and down – and registered common land. This history is concerned with the latter – land in England and Wales over which there have historically been rights of common, or is a town or village green, and which has been registered as a common under the Common Registrations Act 1965.

The origins of common land in the manorial system
Commons are the remnants of the manorial system, which, from mediæval times has been the basis of the country’s economy. The manor was the basic unit and was supposed to be self-sufficient.  Crops were grown on the better soil and the poor land was the ‘waste’ used for grazing and for gathering fuel. The lord of the manor owned the whole of the land but the cottagers had rights recognised by the courts.

Typically, after the harvests had been gathered in each year from the cultivated land of the manor, the open field strips and hay meadows were made available for common grazing by the animals owned by all those who lived and worked on the manor: these were known as the common fields. In addition, there was usually poorer quality land within the manor which was not cultivated by the lord or his tenants, but might be available for grazing by livestock: this was the 'waste of the manor'. There was also common entitlement to other resources, such as coal, peat or brushwood for the hearth, turf for the roof, or fish for the table.

As time passed, rights of common became recognised and enforceable at law, and some of the earliest case law of England concerns commoners and their rights. Common land has been described as the lowest rung of the social ladder leading to the occupation of the land.

The obligation of the lord of the manor to provide land for commoners' rights was derived from the Ancient Statute of Merton, dated 1235, which was not repealed until 1953. (It began the list of English Statutes, was the first Commons Act and quickly became a basis for English common law, developing and clarifying legal concepts of ownership). The obligation was reflected in the variety of courts leet, which determined the dates for grazing and rotation of crops.

Some land in or close to communities became frequently used by the inhabitants of the community for the purposes of recreation, sports and fairs (typically, such land was waste land of the manor). Where long-standing use could be shown to have occurred, the courts began to regard the use as customary, and the land was recognised in law as a town or village green with protection from interference. 

Enclosure of commons
The 1235 Statute of Merton also confirmed that where there was a permanent excess of land beyond the grazing needs of the commoners' livestock, and other commoners' entitlements, the owner could 'inclose' or 'approve' it (and so remove rights of common from land). It therefore heralded a series of Inclosure Acts for individual commons.  Although the full Parliamentary procedure was involved, including the hearing of counter petitions, the system was loaded heavily against the humble commoner.

The Commons Act of 1285, also known as ‘the statute of Westminster the second', confirmed landowners' right to 'approve' common land - that is, to fence off surplus common land beyond what was required to meet the commoners' needs and turn it to more profitable agricultural use. This was a frequent source of conflict between landowners and commoners until the practice of approvement was finally regulated under the Law of Commons Amendment Act of 1893. It has now been abolished.

A 1589 (Planning) Act against Erecting and Maintaining Cottages attempted to reduce rural poverty by preventing over-population of villages where opportunities for employment were restricted by the availability of land. The act prohibited the building of cottages unless four acres of land were put with them; and the taking of lodgers. Corporate and market towns, maritime districts and places dependent on mines and quarries were exempt. The restrictions were extended to areas surrounding London in 1593.

The Act of 1593 (35 Eliz I c6) provided that: “No new Buildings shall be erected within three Miles of London or Westminster. One Dwelling-house in London, Westminster, or three Miles thereof, shall not be converted into more. No Inmates or Under-sitters shall be in the Places aforesaid. Commons or waste Grounds, lying within three Miles of London, shall not be inclosed. A Mile shall contain eight Furlongs, every Furlong forty Poles, and every Pole shall contain sixteen Foot and an half.” (‘Inmates’ and ‘Under-sitters’ were 16^th-century terms for lodgers and sub-tenants, respectively).   

At first an Inclosure Act might become law without the ordinary folk even knowing anything about it, and it was only at the end of the 18th century that it became obligatory to post notices of an intended Bill to Inclose on the church door.

The 1836 Inclosure Act made it possible for landowners to enclose land without reference to parliament, as long as a majority of them (in value and number) agreed to do so, and set out the procedures for enclosing open and arable fields.

There had been more than 4000 individual Inclosure Acts, and many riots, before The 1845 Inclosure and Improvement of Commons Act was passed which set up Inclosure Commissioners to supervise and remedy defective or incomplete actions taken under previous inclosure acts and the many private acts. The Commissioners allocated freehold parcels of land to the lord of the manor and the former commoners which they considered to be a fair equivalent "in full and perfect satisfaction" of pre-existing open lands and common rights. Their final decisions were recorded in the Enclosure Award. A surveyor prepared the Enclosure Map which was appended to the award. A final residue of land was to be left for communal use, including land for a poorhouse or field set-aside for fuel, a gravel pit for road making and an area for the ‘exercise and recreation of the inhabitants’.  However, in the next 20 years which followed, over 615,000 acres were inclosed and only 4,000 acres allotted for recreation or the benefit of the poor.

Demand for open spaces for leisure
But social and economic changes were to cool the ardour for increased inclosure, the attraction to turn over commons to arable land having been lessened by the development of corn growing in America’s mid-west, which led to cheap imports.  As technological advances moved to the industrial scene the towns grew rapidly and there was a demand for open spaces to which people could go for leisure.

It was at this time, 1865, that the Commons Preservation Society was established, attracting the interest of many progressive public figures. The Society, which is today called the Open Spaces Society, campaigned to rescue commons from inclosure and speculators, especially in the south-east.  The sagas of Berkhamstead, Wimbledon and Banstead were some of those enacted in the courts and in direct action on the ground.

Shortly after the Commons Preservation Society was founded it was able to influence the provisions of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866, which prevented the enclosure of any common wholly or partly within the Metropolitan Police District – a radius of 15 miles from Charing Cross. The 1866 Act also provided for the making of management schemes of which twenty-nine were subsequently passed, covering a rather large number of commons.

The Commons Act of 1876 enabled commons to be regulated or inclosed by means of an Order made on application to the Inclosure Commissioners, and confirmed by Parliament by means of a Provisional Order Confirmation Act. Generally, the Orders provided for the management of the common to be assigned to a board of conservators, although in a number of cases, the functions of the board were vested in the local authority either under the terms of the Order, or under amending legislation. Some 36 commons in England and Wales are or were regulated under this Act.

The beginning of the 20th century saw the passing of the National Trust Act 1907, whole sections of which are devoted to common land. The National Trust now owns over 200 commons including some of the most important open spaces in the country. At the time of the 1907 Act there was no universal right for the public to walk over and enjoy all common land. Further, it was still legally possible to enclose common land and take it away from commoners and the public. This led to stringent obligations being imposed on the National Trust by the Act, to ensure that public enjoyment of the common would always be paramount.

End of the manorial system and changes to property law
Reform of property law in the early 20^th century abolished the manorial system of copyhold land which had been governed by manorial courts. In future, land was only to be owned freehold or leasehold. To safeguard common land, which had also been governed by the manorial courts, provisions were included in the Law of Property Act 1922 (subsequently consolidated in the Law of Property Act 1925). These provisions introduced a right of public access to certain commons (chiefly those in or close to urban areas, amounting to about one fifth of all common land), and a requirement for ministerial consent to works that prevented or impeded access on all commons which remained subject to rights of common at that time.

Protection of remaining commons achieved
In 1958 the Royal Commission Report on Common Land was published. There were three principal recommendations for sustaining what it called ‘this last reserve of uncommitted land in England and Wales: -

1.         A register of common land.  This objective was achieved in the Commons Registration Act 1965, which provided that “(a) no land capable of being registered under the Act shall be deemed to be common land or a town or village green unless it is so registered; and (b) that no rights of common shall be exercisable over any such land unless they are registered either under this Act or under the Land Registration Acts 1925 and 1936.” 

2.         A general right of public access to common land.  The Countryside and Rights of Way Act, 2000 achieved this objective by permitting access to all areas of common land, where it had previously been denied.

3.         Effective schemes for the management of commons.  The Commons Act 2006 achieved this objective by providing for the establishment of Commons Councils when there is substantial support from those with legal rights on common land. The Councils have the ability to make and enforce regulations within a remit of managing agriculture, vegetation and the use of common rights. In addition, this Act provides for the correction of anomalies of registration that arose under the Commons Registration Act, 1965.

The position now
There are 373,570 hectares of registered common land in England (about 3% of the total land area). This figure does not include the New Forest, Epping Forest, or certain other commons exempted from registration under the Commons Registration Act 1965, which together account for a further 25,470 ha, making a total of 399,040 ha of common land in England. In Wales there are 175,000 ha of registered common land (about 8.4% of the total land area). There are no significant areas of common land exempted from registration in Wales. In addition, there are 4,370 registered town or village greens, amounting to around 4,660 ha. Some of these greens are subject to rights of common. 

Half of all registered commons (3,608) are less than 1 ha in area — a total area of 1,072 ha – whilst 89 are 1,000 ha or more in area — a total of 192,057 ha.

31% (116,500 ha) of England's common land is in Cumbria and 21% (76,900 ha) is in North Yorkshire.

Of 7,039 commons in England, only 35% have registered rights of common and these commons account for nearly 88% of the total area of common land. Rights to graze cattle are registered on 20% of commons, sheep on 16%, horses and ponies on 13% and rights of estovers on 10%; the other main rights categories are present on fewer than 10%.

1,900 commons have no known owners. 1,740 (other than the 47 in the ownership of traditional estates) are in private ownership, 679 have private owners for parts of the land, 1,230 are owned by parish and other councils and 431 are owned by a variety of organisations including charities, trusts etc. Many commons have multiple owners.