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THE COMMONS & HORSE
FENS
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| East Fen Common |
Qua Fen Common |
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| Angle Common |
South Horse Fen |
Soham has to its credit
three commons which are unique to the town and derived from strip farming
methods and land rights that go back to the medieval period. The Commons and
Horse Fens are not known to exist, in quite the same way as they do in Soham,
anywhere else in the country. They are protected by law and are not allowed to
have developments built on them.
Decree of the Court of Exchequer 1686
An important event in the
history of Soham was the Decree of the Court of Exchequer made in the Easter
Term of 1686. This followed a dispute over commons and involved the Lord of the
Manor of the time, Sir Thomas Chicheley. It runs to 19 pages and is quite a
complicated document but, since it has such a bearing on the subsequent history
of Soham, it is as well that we try to understand it.
1628 AD Sir Robert Heath was
ordered to set aside Common Land at Soham
(1) In 1628 Sir Robert
Heath, the then Lord of the Manor, exhibited a bill against some of the tenants
of the Manor, saying that they had surcharged the common with cattle, and the
purpose of the bill was to see that everyone had their fair share of the 9400
acres of marsh and fen grounds which lay waste and common. 1500 acres in Metlam
Fen and 500 acres in Barroway Fen were subsequently enclosed and handed down via
his descendants to Sir Thomas Chicheley. 420 acres (of the 1500) were later
taken by the drainage undertakers and the tenants threw down the enclosures.
Sir Thomas Chicheley asked in 1655 to have the former decree observed. He and
his tenants agreed in 1658 that he should enjoy the 500 acres in Barroway Fen
and certain other waste fens and commonable grounds and resign his interest in
the 1080 acres.
(2) By an "Act for the settling of the draining of the Great Level of the Fens,
called the Bedford Level" in 1663 it was enacted that it should be lawful for
Lords of Manors and those who had rights of common to set out and enclose their
respective share and proportions of commons in the Bedford Level. Differences
arose about the division and in 1664 the commoners referred the dividing and
allotting of shares to Sir Thomas Chicheley and Sir Jonas Moore.
1664 AD Sir Thomas Chicheley & Sir
Jonas Moore established the Commons
By Deed Poll of 20
December 1664 it was agreed that to every acre of arable land in the fields
there should, upon the division, be allowed half an acre in the common; and they
ordered that 100 acres of the said common - 50 acres in Horsecroft next Down
field, 20 acres in the Moore, and 30 acres in the borders next Metlam field,
should be allotted and set out for working horses of such persons as shall
plough or work in Soham fields, and no other cattle, they owning or farming six
acres, at the least, in the fields.
(3) That 200 acres of the common in Horsecroft, East fen, Qua fen, Townsend
sheaths, and elsewhere, should be set out for feeding the cattle of the poor
cottagers and others, in such order as should yearly, at Easter court, be set
out by the lord, his steward and the homage; and that there should be liberty of
digging clay and gravel for the highways; that none who had shares should common
in the 200 acres; and that 100 acres in the Hurst should be set out for digging
peat and turf for poor cottagers and inhabitants.
(4) That 12 acres of the best ground in Soham Moor should be set out for Mr
Gerald Russell and his heirs and that the Vicar of Soham should have 5 acres in
the Moor for the going of his horses and mares. That the remainder of Soham
Moor, being 116 acres, was to be settled in Trustees to be chosen by the Lord of
the Manor and tenants, the charges of surveying and setting out the commons to
be borne by the Feoffees out of the rents, and the overplus to be for a Town
Stock for to set the Poor on work, binding out Apprentices, raising a revenue
for a Schoolmaster, as the Lord and the major part of the tenants should order.
(5) There were 4666 acres of common, from which 170 were to be deducted for
droveways: the remaining 4496 acres were to be divided into 281 parts, whereof
263 parts were to be allotted to so many commonable houses and 18 parts in lieu
of so many sheepwalks, making 16 acres for a share. 256 acres next Barroway Fen
were to be divided into 16 lots for Barway and the remaining 4240 acres into 265
shares, 16 acres to a share, to commonable houses and owners of sheepwalks. The
above shares were decreed. Application was then made to the Commissioners to
decree the lands appointed for the horse pasture, the poor's maintenance and the
free school. The Commissioners, declaring that they had no power to decree the
said lands to such uses, agreed that the lands should be left vested in the
defendant (Chicheley) and his heirs.
(6) He later denied that trust, refusing to fulfil the agreement, and was taking
the rents and profits of these lands. The present Bill was to bring him to
account and make him execute the trust. He insisted that the 300 acres of common
had all along been held and enjoyed by the poor and that he had spent large sums
in draining and embanking the Moor.
After long debate, it was ordered, adjudged and decreed that the 516 acres, viz.
the 300 acres for the poor, the 100 acres for the horse pasture, and the 116
acres of Soham Moor, shall be held, ordered and used as appointed in the
previous Award. That Sir Thomas Chicheley should convey in trust these lands for
the purposes aforesaid but that the appointment of trustees should not be left
to the Lord of the Manor and tenants. The Court appointed as trustees the Master
of Pembroke, the vicar of Soham and twelve substantial tenants of the Manor.
It is probably true to say
that we owe the survival of the horse fens and commons to a grasping Lord of the
Manor who tried to get away with using the poor's land for his own ends but was
stopped in his tracks by the commoners standing up for their rights. The setting
out by decree of the division of land gave it legal backing and enshrined the
judgment which has been passed down to us today and whose terms are still
observed (albeit in slightly amended form).
Present Day Status and Recent Use
In 1943 the Agricultural
Executive Committee had taken over the Shade, Angle, Qua Fen and East Fen
Commons and now had to consider what steps should be taken to ensure the proper
use in the future of the land requisitioned during the war years. Two courses
were open to them: the land could be allowed to go back to its former state
(which had been very poor, "gone with thistles and covered with ant hills") or
the Ministry of Agriculture could buy it and let it to a farmer to cultivate.
The chairman of the Parish Council reminded the meeting: "If you agree that any
portion of these commons should go, you will lose a heritage that has been
handed down from time immemorial."
After lengthy discussion, it was agreed that the Shade, already under
cultivation, should be bought by the Ministry of Agriculture but that Angle,
East Fen and Qua Fen should be returned to the commoners, and it was resolved:
"that this meeting desires that the commons be reinstated as they were in 1939,
and a scheme formed for the Parish Council to administer them on behalf of the
commoners.
As long as the manorial system lasted, the commons were vested in the Lord of
the Manor. In the 1950s the then Lady of the Manor relinquished her
responsibility and a Scheme of Regulation was drawn up by Newmarket Rural
District Council, with powers to administer delegated to Soham Parish Council.
The commons are still
administered by Soham Town Council, though not to everyone's satisfaction and
during the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's controversy continued over: encroachment,
access, straying animals, drainage (or lack of it), illegal grazing, need for
cattle grids, rubbish dumping, etc. and matters seem to have reached a head in
the early 1970's, when it looked very much as if Soham might lose its commons
altogether.
Perhaps we may draw some comfort from the consultation draft of the East
Cambridgeshire Local Plan (1991), which designates Soham as a Rural Growth
Settlement but which states as one of its policies that:
"No development will be permitted on the Commons and any development proposal
within the vicinity of the Commons will not be permitted if it would adversely
affect their character and setting."
The Commons and Horse Fens are threatened constantly by the rising demand for
development land but thanks to Sir Thomas Chicheley and Sir
Jonas Moore, the current local plan for East Cambridgeshire and a review
of the conservation area it seems, for the moment, that they are safe.
Notes taken from 'Open
Field, Horse Fen and Common - The survival of an open field system at Soham
(Cambs)' by Anne Syme. |
