THE START OF IT ALL

By admin | Published 15/08/2020

THE BATTLE FOR BROXHEAD COMMON. THE START OF IT ALL — THE STORY OF BW54

The start of the Battle.

This Tithe Map is freely available to anyone who wants to go to their local Records Office or National at Kew.

This is hugely important. It shows Broxhead as having no Proprietors and used by Sundry People.

It is a documented Act of Parliament.

This proves that there was no trace of an owner at that time. In any case under the Commons Act 1876 “an owner other than a lord seems to merely take his place alongside the commoners as one of the persons representing two thirds in value of affected interests…” the other is the local authority.

The Chief Commons Commissioner gives a detailed account of the conveyances covering various parts of Broxhead Common and concludes: “On the evidence so far reviewed I am satisfied that there was a right of common in the soil and a right of common of pasture over the whole of the common attached to all the tenements, whether freehold, copyhold or leasehold mentioned in the survey of the still unpartitioned manor in 1636. “

See links to the CCC’s final LAND decision (1) and RIGHTS decision (2) in which I have highlighted important paragraphs.

The RIGHTS decision is 22 page document. Very detailed so the crucial bits are often missed.

BROXHEAD COMMON final decision RIGHTS highlighted- WHITEHILL AND HEADLEY NO.CL.147 (1)

Broxhead Final LAND Decision 197417072020.pdf HIGHLIGHTED (2)

 

  1. It was a damp grey day on the 8th October 1971 when my family and I moved to The Old Cottage at Frith End; but I was not complaining. Earlier that year we had been participating in a transport study for the World Bank in East Pakistan when the country had undergone a coup during its transformation to Bangladesh. Never had we been more pleased to see the RAF land on that pock marked runway at Dacca and lift us back to civilisation.
     
    Only a couple of weeks after moving in, my husband was off to Korea until Christmas on a port study, leaving me to replace the bedroom floor after he had put his foot through the rotten boards, get the place rewired and, well you can imagine the rest. Eventually however I began to enjoy the surrounding countryside.
     
    Alice Holt Forest is just opposite on the other side of the narrow C96 from where I live. Cradle Lane (BOAT) about three hundred yards away up the hill, and at the Headley end of that is Broxhead Common.
     
    Little did I know that I was at the beginning of what would become a 40 year and more battle to regain the public rights of access to Broxhead Common, but for now suffice it to say that it consisted of approximately 180 acres of heathland on the East side of the B3004 with a further 220 acres on the west side which was owned by the MOD. In an article for the Daily Telegraph in 1895 entitled ‘Celebrities at Home in the World this Week’, the owner of Headley Park, a Mr Justice Wright, tells us as he lays on a fresh pipe, “you may walk ten miles in a line from his front door over heather alone”
     
    It was not like that when I moved here in 1971. I did not realise it then, but a battle had been raging since 1963 with local commoners after the previous landowner, a Mr Sefton Myers, illegally fenced in 80 acres of the common land on the eastern side of the road B3004, which crosses the open common land. The response from Hampshire County Council under the Chairmanship of the Open Spaces Committee, on 8th December 1964, resolved to protect Broxhead Common against unlawful encroachments, including instituting proceedings under Section 194 LPA 1925.1
     
    The MOD had after some dissent acknowledged the public interest for the part of the common under their ownership to the west of the B3004. At the beginning of the 20th Century the Secretary of State for War purchased the western half of the common as an “appendage to Bordon Camp”.
     
    The Commoners at that time were genuinely concerned at the interference with the grazing rights by the exercise of Cavalry and heavy guns and artillery on the common and appealed for help to the Headley Parish Council. Various incidents are recorded of fence cutting and encroachments, which culminated in a confrontation between the Military Authorities and the Commoners on Saturday afternoon 16th November 1907.
     
    A demonstration was staged, and ten Commoners under the leadership of Mr A. J. Harding, Messrs Caine, Courtnage, Fullick, Hellier, Lovegrove, Lawes, Piggott, Lee and Whiting, assembled with horses and carts to carry away bracken, furze and turf for fuel, and others brought their cows for grazing. Mr Hellier supplied a barrel of beer and he was placed in charge of it.
     
    A mounted Police Constable with two others on foot appeared, and the following statement was read out to the assembled company:
     
    “To Mr Albert J. Harding and whosoever it may concern, Whereas it appears that Mr Baldwin, War Department Lands Warden did interfere with certain Commoners when exercising their Rights over Broxhead Common – this is to acknowledge on behalf of the War Department that the said Mr Baldwin did so act without authority and was at the time, owing to an error on his part, under the impression that the said Commoners were on War Department free-hold property. The War Department do not contest the right of the Commoners to exercise their ancient rights over Broxhead Common.”
     
    The matter was confirmed in the Final Decision of the Chief Commons Commissioner dated 22nd November 1974, “The common is crossed by a road leading from Lindford in the north to Sleaford in the south. The portion of the land to the west of this road has been registered in the Ownership Register Unit as being in the ownership of the Secretary of State for Defence.”
     
    Tithe Award for Broxhead Common
  2. However, I am getting ahead of myself. On 1st December 1955 a Royal Commission on Common Land had been appointed to “recommend what changes if any are desirable in law relating to common land in order to promote the benefit of those holding common rights, the enjoyment of the public or where little or no use was made of such land, its use for some other desirable purpose.” To this end HCC had commissioned Dr. L. Ellis Tavener to research and record all the common lands of Hampshire. His report eventually appeared in book form entitled “The Common Lands of Hampshire”. Based on his findings HCC provisionally registered the whole approximately 400 acres of Broxhead Common under the 1965 Commons Registration Act.
  3. The Hampshire County Council advised Headley Parish Council that the best way to prove the land was common land was to find the commoners
  4. Headley Wood Farm which lies adjacent to Broxhead Common, was owned sold in 1962 along with 200 acres of Broxhead Common, by Mrs Patricia Barnard the widow of C.W. McAndrew, McAndrews had lived adjacent to the common land for sixty years, first as owners of Headley Park before moving to Headley Wood Farm in 1947. Neither property was possessed of the common land, according to the sale catalogues of 1926 for Headley Wood and 1821, 1869 for Headley Park, though both are recorded as having Rights of Common. In fact, the 1847 Tithes Apportionment Act records the common as, ‘having no proprietor and used by sundry people’.  
  5. However, when it was sold to Siegfired Sefton Myers the MacAndrews made it clear that Broxhead had always been an open public common and when Mr Myers began fencing in the 80 acres the following year, they supported the commoners in their fight to retain their Rights.Headley Parish Council also helped, and on the eve of a decision to join the Commons Preservation Society (now the Open Spaces Society), Hampshire County Council (HCC) agreed to help also.
  6. The local miller, Mr John Ellis, who was also Chair of Headley Parish Council, as well as being a commoner. He set up the Broxhead Commoners Association (BCA), on 6th June 1968, to do everything possible to ensure the whole common was registered. He was particularly interested in preserving its wildlife qualities and public access.
  7. In 1970 Mr Myers sold Headley Wood Farm and the eastern side of the common to the present owner Mr Anthony Gary Peter Whitfield.
  8. Mr Whitfield and one or two other local landowners objected to their parts of the common being registered under the Commons Act 1965.
  9. In December 1973 John Ellis writes to the BCA “The successful stand by our Association in conjunction with the Headley Parish Council and the Hampshire County Council in preserving most of Broxhead Common to date, is constantly having to be watched, and I am daily in touch with those concerned. The owner of the Eastern side in the Parish of Headley is trying desperately to influence some of the Commoners to change their minds with an offer of a piece of Common land for a Football Field, and has been instrumental in setting up a “Working Party”. This is not repeat not part of our association and is acting against our aims and the long-term interests of the local people. This premature offer of course could be interesting were it not for the conditions attached, which have now been officially made known to me. They are in short:
    1. The Commoners give up their rights.
    2. The whole of the Common except a narrow strip, to be allowed to be fenced with barbed wire
    3. That it be allowed to extend the illegal fences, enclosing about 85 acres of common to take in a further 100 acres
    4. That all gorse, heather, trees, wildlife and flowers will be destroyed to make way for Agricultural Development.
      WE CANNOT AGREE TO SUCH CONDITION
      CCC's notes alterations to the register
  10. Because of the five objections by local landowners, the Commoners fight to register the land proceeded first to a twelve-day hearing before the Chief Commons Commissioner which took from 26th April to 14th October 1974, in Winchester and London. The Chief Commons Commissioner, Mr G. D. Squibb, made many changes to the Rights registrations discarding about half of them but still leaving 20 commoners registered
  11. Perhaps I should explain here that Rights of common are property rights which are attached to property rather than an individual.
  12. The Chief Commons Commissioner delivered his interim Decision on 26th August 1974, leaving time for further comment before issuing his Final Determination on – 22nd November 1974. He stated in his Land decision Broxhead (1) that the land the subject of the dispute should be registered for reasons given in his Rights Decision.(2).
    Of interest is the statement he made on Page 14 of that document; He says:“Some witnesses spoke of act done on the western part of the common but denied having seen them on the eastern part. I do not believe this evidence, but whether it is to be attributed to faulty observation or recollection or to an over-enthusiastic desire to help Mr Whitfield’s cause seems to be a matter on which it is unnecessary for me to express an opinion.” 
  13. Mr Whitfield appealed this decision to the High Court on 24th March 1977. The Judge, Brightman J., decided against him, at the same time as discarding one other commoner, a Mrs Rosemary Cooke of Trottsford Farm and confirming a Mr Connell as having rights over the whole of the common, referred to as ‘the said land’ being the land in dispute. Brightman J makes no order for altering or changing the Register in any way, and after confirming the Chief Commons Commissioner’s decision leaves him to “put his law right” and alter as he sees fit. According to the CCC’s notes, the only alteration he actually made were dates “for land entry No. 1 and Rights Entries 1 & 12. The dates of the rest being unaffected by the appeal.” There was much discussion about the ‘costs’ and whether these could be appealed. Brightman J. says he does not think it will take awfully long for the Court of Appeal to form a decision about this if the parties decide to go there, and so grants leave of appeal.
  14. 24th May 1978 is the date of the Court of Appeal hearing. The Court issues an Order to which is attached a Schedule. The Schedule is an agreement between the parties, that is, Mr Whitfield, HCC, Mr Connell and Mrs Cooke. HCC say it is in this Schedule that the Court of Appeal instructs them to remove the 80 acres. I would not find out for another forty years that Brightman J. had been right to say the CA would not take long in their deliberations, for in fact the only Order that they issued that day was for the dismissal of the case from out of that Court. They had not sat or considered anything at all. 

NEXT TIME: I JOIN THE HEADLEY AND DISTRICT BRIDLEWAYS PROTECTION GROUP