Wolvercote Common and St. John's College, Oxford, at odds over grazing rights

The right to pasture cattle, horses or geese on Wolvercote Common was confirmed in 1279, with grazing there recorded even earlier, in the Domesday Book.

You might, therefore, have assumed that the rules and granting of grazing rights might have been pretty well settled by now.

But you couldn’t be more wrong, with Wolvercote Commoners still locked in a dispute with an Oxford college over the ownership of historic grazing rights, and whether such a privilege can now be viewed as just another commodity to trade.

Outsiders and visitors to Oxford may view as quaint a dispute about who should enjoy the rights to graze horses and geese — though certainly not sheep — on the common.

But environmentalists will tell you that the good management of the common is a complex and serious matter, with important implications for an important green area and delicate eco-system.

Like Port Meadow (whose grazing rights are claimed by the Freemen of the City of Oxford, the common has been registered as a Site of Special Scientific Interest under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act and is widely used by the general public for horse riding, walking, exercise, and birdwatching.

Spread over 74 acres, Wolvercote Common is the largest tract of common land in Wolvercote, adjoining Port Meadow, which stretches from it into Oxford.

Local pride in the common is made clear on the website of the Wolvercote Commoners’ Committee, established back in 1929 to take responsibility for the management of the land.

“Other commons in England and Wales have been enclosed, built upon or in some way lost to local people,” it says. “One of the unusual features of Wolvercote is the tenacity of Wolvercote people in fighting to preserve their heritage.

“Throughout recorded history there have been attempts to enclose, purchase or build upon our commons. But the current committee’s predecessors fought major legal battles to maintain their rights in 1553, 1649, 1762 and 1843.”

An attempt to reduce Wolvercote Common by a few feet along its southern boundary led to an outbreak of violence now known as The Battle of Wolvercote, it adds, while as recently as 1993, commoners resisted an attempt to take the common into the ownership of Oxford City Council.

But the commoners’ dispute with St John’s College has nothing to do with any building scheme, or anything comparable with the Castle Mill Oxford University accommodation blocks built next to Port Meadow.

The issue of grazing rights is based on evidence dating back to before the Norman Conquest, meaning that for centuries every householder in the village had grazing rights so long as he or she remained a householder in the village. All rights were lost once a person moved out of the village.

Things were formalised in 1965 by the Commons Registration Act, when individuals were requested to register their rights, something many failed to do.

It has meant that people moving into new homes in the village often find themselves automatically disqualified from grazing rights as their properties have no rights registered under the act.

The commoners’ committee has come to view itself as the guardian and manager of Wolvercote Common, representing local people and their grazing rights.

As such it issues temporary grazing certificates to villagers who can show they need one.

But a problem has arisen with St John’s College, which the commoners says dates back to 1969, when St John’s College sold Manor Farm House but retained 48 grazing rights.

Now commoners say outsiders are being allowed to benefit.

Commoners fear that the delicate flora and eco-system of the area could be damaged if common and grazing rights are treated by the college as a commodity.

Jonathan Gittos, vice-chairman of Wolvercote Commoners’ Committee, told The Oxford Times last month: “We believe that St John’s College is wrong and they do not have the grazing rights they claim. This isn’t new, the committee has been saying the same thing since 1969.”

Unhappiness with St John’s in recent months has come to focus on a tenancy held by Charlie Hanson, a Herefordshire farmer, who grazes cattle on the common.

The idea of farmers bringing in cattle from miles away sparked an angry response.

Mr Gittos issued a statement last month saying: “Our duty is to safeguard the common. We can only do so if graziers work with us to avoid damage to a very sensitive environmental site.

“We also strongly believe in encouraging local food production. Neither objective is possible if graziers come from hundreds of miles away and grazing rights are treated as a commodity.”

But Mr Hanson said he had in 2008 simply answered an advertisement in the Farmers’ Weekly requiring a cattle grazier for Port Meadow and Wolvercote, placed by the then tenant of Manor Farm, with the common undergrazed and costing taxpayers money to cut the grass.

Mr Hanson has since acquired the right to graze up to 96 cattle on the common, and it is this increase that has upset the commoners.

He said: “There are around 300 cattle currently grazed annually on Port Meadow and Wolvercote by eight graziers, keeping it farmed, in its intended state and looked after for the enjoyment of thousands of people annually.

“There are over 1,258 grazing rights registered to the common. We, or indeed any other farmer, could lease rights from any householder or farmer holding rights, not necessarily St John’s College.”

He also pointed out that, while portrayed by the commoners as a farmer based hundreds of miles away, he in fact farmed grazing land at Boars Hill and on city council land nearby in the Chiswell Valley.

Mr Hanson said he had had an informal meeting with commoners and other graziers at the White Hart pub in Wytham, at which he says “some of the misunderstandings” were resolved.

Iris Burke, bursary manager at St John’s College, said: “St John’s College have registered grazing rights on both Wolvercote Common and Port Meadow which are leased to a tenant.

“The current tenancy is due to expire in April 2015 and it is the college’s intention to make this available on the open market.”

Mr Gittos, who refused to comment further to The Oxford Times this week, has said that the commoners have come up with a compromise plan but are still awaiting a response from St John’s College. It is understood to involve allowing current grazing rights leased from the college being allowed to run their course, and St John’s forfeiting these grazing rights when the leases have expired.

It would have been fitting if beers in the White Hart had proved enough to resolve a commoners-college dispute. But the issue of Wolvercote Common’s cattle and horses looks set to run for some time yet.