COMMONERS AND CORPORATION.
For nearly ten years the Cottage Commoners of Epping Forest have
been harassed by a series of persistent attempts on the part of the City
Corporation to efface their ancient Eights of Commonage.
At Loughton, the Forest Eights belonging to the parishioners were
three in number. At the time the Corporation of London became Con-
servators of the Forest, under the Act of 1878, these rights were enjoyed
in full, and unquestioned. They comprised :—
1. The right of Lopping—for firewood.
2. The right of Pasture—for cattle.
3. The right of Pannage—for pigs.
The right of Lopping was bought from the Loughton Commoners
by the Corporation for £7,000.
Some time after taking possession, the Corporation made a new regulation,
since rigidly enforced by Mr. Crawford, the City Solicitor, in which the
two remaining legal rights of Pasture and Pannage, as affecting the poor
Commoners, were effaced. The City Solicitor issued a notice, that no
claims to these rights would be recognised unless the Cottagers held
half-an-acre of land. As few held half-an-acre, they found themselves
suddenly robbed of their birthright; and robbed of it after they had only
recently parted with one of their rights, for which they received £7,000.
The Cruel Injustice of this Action
is shown by a typical case. Some years before the Corporation had any
control over the Forest, one Willingale, a sturdy Loughton cottager, stood
up for his and his fellow-cottagers' rights against the enclosing Lord of
the Manor. Ile was charged before the justices, of course, and went to
prison. Later on the Forest Defence Fund championed his cause, and
finally, when the Corporation took up the fight for the Forest, Willingale
was pensioned by the City for the brave part he had played. To-day the
sons of this very Commoner, under the City Solicitor's action, are denied
the rights their father fought for and helped to maintain.
The action of the Corporation in effect was this. It took from the
Cottagers the legal right of turn-out which they used to profit, and
left it only to the well-to-do who, since they held land of their own,
did not turn out their cattle on the Forest, or, if they did, to a very limited
extent; and while it took the rights from the Willingales and old
residents of his class, it gave them to any new man, and any number of new
men, coming into a Forest parish, and hiring half-an-acre of land, or a
house with half-an-acre of flower garden. These men are accepted as
Commoners and entitled to full Common rights at once.