Rushmere Common
Encyclopedia
Common land
Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...
situated on the east of Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
mainly within the parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
of Rushmere St. Andrew
Rushmere St. Andrew
Rushmere St. Andrew is a village and civil parish adjacent to part of the eastern edge of the borough of Ipswich in the Suffolk Coastal district of Suffolk, England. The parish includes the Ipswich suburbs of Rushmere Heath and parts of the Broke Hall as well as the village of Rushmere St...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is predominately heathland, gorse
Gorse
Gorse, furze, furse or whin is a genus of about 20 plant species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.Gorse is closely related to the brooms, and like them, has green...
, woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
and hosts a golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
. It adjoins the Sandlings Open Space to the east which is owned and managed Suffolk Coastal Council and is crossed by a number of footpaths, including the Sandlings Walk
Sandlings Walk
The Sandlings Walk is a long-distance path in Suffolk, England. It runs through an area of lowland heath, Britain's rarest wildlife habitat, and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty....
which is a long distance footpath which starts on the common ends 160 miles miles away in Southwold
Southwold
Southwold is a town on the North Sea coast, in the Waveney district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the North Sea coast at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is around south of Lowestoft and north-east...
.
History
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. For at least two hundred years, the ownership of the soil was claimed by one of the local manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
s. The commoners resisted the claims of the Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
, the Marquess of Bristol
Marquess of Bristol
Marquess of Bristol is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom held by the Hervey family since 1826. The Marquess's subsidiary titles are: Earl of Bristol , Earl Jermyn, of Horningsheath in the County of Suffolk , and Baron Hervey, of Ickworth in the County of Suffolk...
, who tried to prosecute some of them.
It was used as a place of execution with some one hundred recorded hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
s between 1735 and 1797, most frequently for house breaking and burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
, but also for highway robbery and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. The heath was frequently used by the army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, and in 1804 Sir James Craig
James Craig
-Public officials:*James Henry Craig , British soldier and colonial administrator*James Craig , British politician*James Craig , Canadian politician...
had 11,000 men under arms on the common.
Nathanial Abblit championed the commoners' rights and in 1861 he had a stone tablet erected on the outside of his cottage, which can still be seen today on the wall of the Baptist Chapel which reads:
This tablet sheweth every person's right to the heath who lives or occupies in the parish, by the decision of Lancelot ShadwellLancelot ShadwellSir Lancelot Shadwell was a barrister at Lincoln's Inn and was Member of Parliament for Ripon from 1826 to 1827 before becoming Vice-Chancellor of England in 1827.He supported Jewish emancipation....
Counsellor in the House of LordsHouse of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
, being applied to when the 800l was paid by the government for the troops exercising there, he gave his opinion that every person must have equal share who cut whins and feed cattle there, so we had all 8l each them and ever since the parish receive 5l a year the troops being few, this 5l is always divided. Ablitt
A Commoners Committee was established to manage the common in 1881. Golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
has been played on the common since 1895, first by the Ipswich Golf Club and since 1929 by the Rushmere Golf Club.
In 1958 the title to the land was purchased by the Chairman of the Commoners Committee, for £500, who then sold it to the Commoners for the same price. The title is held in trust by the Trustees and the conduct of the Commoners' affairs is regulated by the Trust Deed. In 1967 the common was registered as a common under the Commons Registration Act. After that time, all commoners' rights not registered by individual commoners were lost.
Management
Day-to-day management of the common is performed by the Commoners Committee which has nine members, of whom three are elected at each Annual General Meeting. Anyone who has resided in the ancient parish of Rushmere St Andrew for twelve months or more can vote, although one vote per household is allowed. The committee is supported by a clerk and two wardens. The wardens patrol the common on most days and keep a watching brief on the area in general and the clerk deals with the correspondence and record keeping as well as the financial accounts.Rights of way
Sandlings Walk
The Sandlings Walk is a long-distance path in Suffolk, England. It runs through an area of lowland heath, Britain's rarest wildlife habitat, and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty....
. These paths are used by local people for leisure and also by walkers and cyclists as a traffic-free route to the hospital, Ipswich station, Ipswich Town Centre, BT Research at Martlesham
Martlesham
Martlesham is a village in Suffolk, England about two miles South-West of Woodbridge and East of Ipswich. It is often referred to as "old Martlesham" by locals in order to distinguish this old village from the much more recent Martlesham Heath development to the south although both form a...
, Kesgrave
Kesgrave
Kesgrave is a small town in the English county of Suffolk on the northern edge of Ipswich.-Early history:The town was recorded as Gressgrava in the Domesday Book, by the late 15th century its name had become Kesgrave...
, Grange Farm and also number of local schools.
The path to Grange Farm and beyond to the East of the common is a bridleway and cycling is allowed, but the path across the common is legally a footpath so cyclists should dismount. Although people have cycled across Rushmere Common for at least 70 years, the route cannot be shown on maps or signposted and the surface is not well maintained.
Sustrans
Sustrans
Sustrans is a British charity to promote sustainable transport. The charity is currently working on a number of practical projects to encourage people to walk, cycle and use public transport, to give people the choice of "travelling in ways that benefit their health and the environment"...
wanted National Cycle Route 1 (NCR 1) to cross the common but were forced to make a detour to the south to avoid the area. The only other cycling options across the common on an east-west axis that avoid the common are along the A1214 (Woodbridge Road) to the north, however this does not have enough width for either an on-road cycle-lane or a shared-use path without a strip of land from the Common or to the South along the current route of NCR 1.
An alternative proposal has been to improve the route across the middle of the common and proposals to date have included both a paved cycle-track and the conversion of the footpath to a bridleway with a loose surface. Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council is the administrative authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 72 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions...
requested a strip of land to the south of the A1214 to create a segregated cycle-path, but this was refused by the Commoners Committee. The county council are now requesting that the main east-west footpath be upgraded to a bridleway.