New Commons for Old: Inspiring New Cultural Traditions

Just like the story of Aladdin’s lamp, there has been a long history of commoners being double-crossed and commons being tricked away from their local communities. This often had severe impacts on self-sufficient peasant farmers who depended upon common land and rights of common for their livelihoods, as the following case-study of Otmoor shows. These rights of common, especially those without stint, were a unique historical golden thread to a time ‘out of the memory of man.