LITTLE HUCKLOW : ITS CUSTOMS AND OLD HOUSES. 47 



are otherwise known as Brockdale and Withered Bush. They 

 are held in eleven undivided shares, six of which have become 

 the property of one landowner, and there seems to be no reason 

 why all the shares should not ultimately become the property 

 of one man. For a long time past the shareholders have held 

 the headborough lands in turn, usually for more than a year 

 each. This periodical holding of land has been found to be 

 very inconvenient, for the tenant for the time being could 

 plough up and exhaust it, leaving it in a bad condition for his 

 successor. Others say that these lands were left to the poor 

 by an old woman whose name they do not remember. It 

 seems to be very likely that the eleven landowners, or the 

 owners for the time being of the eleven ancient messuages 

 which may have composed the township, took the office of 

 headborough in turn, and received payment in this way. We 

 are reminded of the " town hams " in the Aston village 

 community, such as the Constable's Ham, the Smith's Ham, 

 the Water Steward's Ham, and so forth.* In 1903, the Charity 

 Commissioners gave notice that the trustees of " the charity 

 called the Constable Land, " containing la. or. 2op., at 

 Wentworth, in the parish of Wath-upon-Dearne, proposed to 

 sell it. It is a mistake to call such properties charities ; as 

 well might the wastes and commons of a township be so 

 described. They belong not to charities, but to the landowners 

 of a township. I am told that at Treharris, in Glamorganshire, 

 is a piece of land which belongs to the burgesses, and is 

 divided into a certain number of shares ; when a shareholder 

 dies, the next oldest burgess takes his share. 



Formerly the herbage by the road sides was let by candle 

 to the highest bidder, and the money went to the overseers 

 or township. There is a saying in the village that a yard 

 of land is worth a pint of ale. In the county of Cavan, in 

 Ireland, land was formerly measured by pints of six and a 

 quarter acres, pottles of twelve and a half acres, and so on.t 



* Gomme's Village Community, p. 163. 



tO'Curry's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, i., p. xlv. 



