Abstract
Taking a four thousand year view when considering changes in use, extents and perceptions of commons in Cornwall helps us place ‘the end of tradition’ and ‘cultural and ecological severance’ in long-term context. The histories of the surviving and well-known commons of Bodmin Moor and the west Cornwall downs (Lizard, Goonhilly and West Penwith), and of those forgotten commons in central and northern Cornwall that were either largely or completely enclosed in the last two or three hundred years demonstrate both continuity (of practice and ecology) and change. This chapter considers not only the loss of commons (to either change of use or privatisation and enclosure), but also the effects on communities, economies and landscape of their creation and extension.
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- CRoW Act:
-
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
- HLC:
-
Historic landscape characterisation
- MBA:
-
Middle Bronze Age
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Acknowledgments
Thanks to Bryn Tapper, Steve Hartgroves and Graeme Kirkham of Cornwall Council’s Historic Environment Service for images.
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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Herring, P. (2013). Changing Cornish Commons. In: Rotherham, I. (eds) Cultural Severance and the Environment. Environmental History, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6159-9_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6159-9_17
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