Commoners

My friend Adrian Banford introduced me sometime ago to the fascinating and little understood world of the commoner. This story shows how the valuable contribution they make to our upland environments is under threat. It tells us:

A Ministry of Defence proposal to acquire three large upland commons in Cumbria would bring an end to hundreds of years of traditional hill farming, farm leaders have warned.

The MoD has applied to Cumbria County Council to deregister 4,500ha of common land to use for training army personnel.

The threatened commons are Hilton, Murton and Warcop fells, which are situated to the north-east of Appleby-in-Westmorland, in the North Pennines area of outstanding Natural Beauty, and amount to 3% of Cumbria’s common land.