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| Map of the North Mymms Common in 1777 Image from the former North Mymms Local History Society |
North Mymms once had 735 acres of common land where freeholders or tenants of the manor, known as copyhold tenants, could gather fuel and graze their livestock.
The common covered what is now the Brookmans Park Transmitting Station, Queenswood School, Leggatts, and Pine Grove.
But in 1778 a group of wealthy landowners, including the local vicar, introduced a private Act of Parliament to change all that.
The act resulted in the enclosure (or inclosure) of the common land. According to local historian and author, Peter Kingsford, it meant many in North Mymms lost their rights to use the land.
In a short article in the May 1983 issue of the Chancellor’s Community Newsletter, Kingsford wrote about 'how the common was lost'. The article has been reproduced here with permission of the publisher.
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