History of the Association

Brancaster Marsh Common looking seaward






The Rights of Common

The right to take
samphire (a local delicacy)
seaweed
shellfish
sea lavender
fish
bait (worms)
estovers (old wood etc.)
wildfowl
game
sand
shingle
soil
grazing
(sheep, cattle, horses and geese)
tangle (vegetable matter left at the top of the tide)
herbage
reeds.

The marshes and dunes have provided sustenance to the villagers of the coastal regions since their formation and over the years villagers established their rights to this provision. The land, therefore, became known as ‘Common’ and the villagers the ‘Common Right Holders’.

Marsh at low tide showing the place where Samphire grows

A Commoner's Horses grazing on the Marsh






Samphire
a small salt marsh plant
belonging to the cactus family.
Delicious boiled in water and drenched in butter

Every villager knew that through long standing custom he or she had a right to freely use the marsh produce until - in 1965 there came the Commons Registration Act.

It then became necessary for every Common to be registered as such and every Commoner to register his Rights over it. Proof had to be given that the land had been used as a Common and again proof provided of the existence of the rights that were being claimed and that a person had established his or her right to use them.



Sea Lavender growing on the marsh

There are four villages in this area, Brancaster, Brancaster Staithe, Burnham Deepdale and Burnham Overy Staithe and the population at that time would have been four times this number. Many people, therefore, lost Rights which they had held, as their families had before them, by failing to understand the importance of registering them.


Cockles & Mussels

By 1984 certain of the Common Right Holders saw that with the influx of tourism and the burgeoning interest of institutional authority, it was their duty to safeguard their legal interest in the Common and to preserve the long standing practises of their fathers who had kept the marsh and dunes safe from abuse and overuse.

At a meeting held in the Brancaster Staithe Village Hall in February 1984, a group of village men became the founding members of the Scolt Head & District Common Right Holders’ Association.


Wildfowl taking off in the morning mist

This Scolt Head & District Common Right Holders' Association has grown in stature and is now a much respected authority and is consulted regularly by numerous local and national bodies as well as educational institutions, all of whom have an interest in the Commons.

If you wish further information about this important Association, please contact the Secretary at seppings@tesco.net

A bundle of cut reeds on Brancaster Marsh Common awaiting collection