ABSTRACT
In his influential essay on the role of custom in early-modern England, E. P. Thompson (1993, p97) noted that ‘at the interface between law and agrarian practice we find custom’. Nowhere is that more pertinent than in relation to common land and the variety of interests and use-rights that were claimed over it. The legal framework of property rights on commons (outlined in Chapter, pp4–7) provided a skeleton, capable of being shaped and fleshed out according to circumstance. Legal principles were mediated by local custom, with the result that patterns of property rights on common land differed in detail from one locality to another, while changing perceptions and priorities exerted different forces at different times. Local custom and informal practice are thus central to understanding the place of common land in English culture, and they have continued to flow as a strong current even in modern times. This chapter therefore seeks to look behind the formal legal principles to explore the interface between custom and more formal conceptions of rights by examining the cultural dynamics which have moulded conceptions both of ‘ownership’ and of the perceived rightful use of common land since the 16th century.
