In the middle of 2022’s dry, bright, and occasionally alarmingly hot spring and summer, I chose a week of glum skies and drizzle for my field trip to visit Gloucestershire’s astonishing commons. My visit to the celebrated Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons was on the glummest day of all – and yet the place crackled withContinue reading “Heritage as radical space – Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons.”
Tag Archives: town common
Newcastle Town Moor: an exemplary c.21st common.
Newcastle’s Town Moor is the UK’s largest urban green space; at 985 acres, it’s 142 acres larger than New York’s Central Park. It’s also a mosaic of land uses – much continues to be given over to grazing, but there are also allotments, playing fields and a golf course; also on the common are anContinue reading “Newcastle Town Moor: an exemplary c.21st common.”
Tewkesbury’s commons: two meadows, four rivers and a weir.
In the present day, Tewkesbury is famous for just one thing. In July 2007, two months of rain fell on Gloucestershire in just 14 hours, causing widespread catastrophic flooding. Tewkesbury, where the Avon meets the Severn, was particularly badly hit, effectively becoming an island and resulting in the loss of three lives. This was perhapsContinue reading “Tewkesbury’s commons: two meadows, four rivers and a weir.”
Several commons around Wareham, Dorset.
To mark another beautiful September day, I drove down to West Dorset to have a look at some commons that had intrigued me when I came across them on mapping sites. St. Mary’s Churchyard is a tiny common in the middle of a meadow south of the River Froome. The original church likely dates toContinue reading “Several commons around Wareham, Dorset.”
commonplace.phd 