Common

Land over which manorial tenants held shared rights. These typically included common of pasture (grazing), turbary (cutting turf for fuel), estovers (gathering wood for repairs and fuel), and piscary (fishing). Rights were attached to specific tenements and regulated by the manorial court, which set stinting limits (the number and type of animals each tenant could graze), permitted seasons, and penalties for overuse. Common land remained under the lord’s ownership but was subject to tenants’ customary rights, the extent of which varied between manors and was a frequent source of dispute in court rolls.