Common Land in Britain: A History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day

The first authoritative survey of the history of common land in Great Britain from the medieval period to present day.

More than a million hectares of Britain has the status of common land, most of it consisting of semi-natural environments of mountain, moorland, wetland or heath. Formerly much more extensive, common land was, and in many places remains, an integral part of the pastoral economy. Even where it is no longer used by farmers, it plays an increasingly important role in modern lif...