MR. W. G. CLARKE OX THE COMMOXS OF XORFOLK. 
55 
Enclosure Acts read peculiarly. That of Thetford, for example, 
was “ for dividing, allotting and inclosing the Whole-year 
lands, open and Common Fields, Half-year or Shack Lands, 
Warrens, Heaths, Commons, Commonable Lands, and Waste 
Grounds.” The area of the three Thetford parishes at that 
time — 1806 — was 6976 acres, of which no less than 5941 
were dealt with by the Enclosure Act. The Sedgeford 
Enclosure Act refers to “ whole-year lands, brecks, common 
fields, half-year or shack lands, commons and waste grounds.” 
and “ rights of sheep-walk, shackage and common.” Dr. 
Slater states that the variety of these rights is peculiar to 
Norfolk, and he considers it a Teutonic characteristic, while 
the “ whole-year lands ” — those made to bear a crop every 
year — were “ held and cultivated in just the same way as 
the village lands in North-West Germany.” 
Generally speaking, commons may therefore be considered 
survivals of the vast extent of land formerly held by the 
community and gradually lost by successive enactments. 
For a variety of reasons they do not fulfil so useful an economic 
purpose as they did in days gone by. Of the commons in 
Norfolk at the present day some were allotted under En- 
closure Acts ; others are considered “ waste of the manor,” 
and therefore in a sense the property of the lord of the manor, 
though he has no power to enclose them ; while others are 
fuel allotments, managed by trustees, and used by the poor 
for obtaining fuel, with the sporting rights in most cases 
let. On most of the commons where the pasture is good, 
so much per head is paid for the “ goings ” or rights of pastur- 
age. Economically, commons of various kinds provide 
grazing for the small-holder’s and cottager’s stock, furze and 
peat for fuel, wood for the erection of sheds, rush and sedge 
for litter, water-cress, mushrooms, blackberries and other 
edible fruits, and places remote from dusty roads where all 
may walk with freedom and view nature in the wildest aspects 
which such a county as Norfolk can furnish. Evidence of the 
antiquity of commons is furnished by a Norfolk simile 
“ As old as Carlton Common ”* ; but that at East Carleton — 
* Rye’s ‘History of Norfolk,’ p. 304. 
