ABSTRACT
The focus of this case study lies on the coast fringing Brancaster Bay, an area of high conservation value, designated as Heritage Coast and falling within the North Norfolk Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). 1 In marked contrast to the upland case studies, the surviving common land represents only a fraction of the land over which common rights formerly existed. Enclosure of commonable arable land in the 18th century resulted in the extinguishment of common rights over the bulk of the land, with the result that only the saltmarshes and smaller vestigial areas of inland common remain. The surviving commons (see Figure 9.2) thus represent only fragments of a system of communal resource management which operated before circa 1750. At Brancaster, a total of 1746ha of coastal marshes and dunes are registered as common in three common land units (CL 65, CL 124 and CL 161), the bulk of which comprises Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve; a further 300ha of saltmarsh common survives at Thornham (CL 41 and CL 56). Smaller patches of common land survived inland, including Barrow Common (CL 159), near Brancaster Staithe, which is included in the case study, and Thornham Ling Common (CL 55), the attempted registration of which failed. 2
