Welcome To The Sudbury Common Lands
Many take for granted the 115 acres that make up the Sudbury Common Lands. Access to wander at will across similar tracts of unspoilt lowland river valley pasture can be enjoyed in few other places. Intensive arable farming has brought an end to much of the pastoral landscape in the Stour valley. We hope you will find these notes interesting and informative.
COMMON LAND:
The term Common Land does not mean that the land is owned by the public. These particular riverside pastures are owned by the Sudbury Common Lands Charity. Public access to them is granted under the provisions of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and by indicated public footpaths.
HISTORY:
This land has the longest recorded history of continuous grazing in East Anglia and was first recorded by name in the late twelfth century. In about 1260, Richard de Clare, Duke of Gloucester and Hertford and owner of Clare castle, confirmed the grazing rights of the free Burgesses of Sudbury over his lands of King’s Marsh and Freemen’s Commons.
Today’s Freemen no longer exercise their individual rights to graze livestock and the grazing is let annually. The father and an uncle of artist Thomas Gainsborough were Freemen who grazed their horses on the riverside pastures.
