Commons, town and village greens

Commons and Rights of common

The term ‘common land’ or ‘common’ usually refers to and includes all land that is subject to a ‘right of common’. A right of common is a right that one or more persons (‘commoners’) has to take the natural produce of that land, in common with each other and with the owner of the land. In most statutes, the term ‘common’ is defined more widely as including any land liable to be inclosed under the Inclosure Acts, and any town or village green. See Practice Note: Creation and registration of common land.

Halsbury's Laws of England defines a right of common as:

‘a right, which one or more persons may have, to take or use some portion of that which another man's soil naturally produces. Such part of that produce as the commoners do not lawfully take belongs to the owner of the soil. The right is in the nature of a profit à prendre, and so must be distinguished from an easement, which, although a right over another man's land, confers no right to participation in the produce of that land.’

Rights