Synopsis

Local villagers successfully stop a golf course being built on their common land. The film won the Brazilian Olympiad Video in 1994.

After the Statute of Merton in 1237, it was agreed that the waste of the manor could be used by tenants as ‘common land’ for the grazing of animals and collection of fuel. Today, there are over 8000 commons covering 1.3 million acres of land in England and Wales. But the amount of common land is diminishing as developers seize on what they see as ‘free land’. This video concerns the privatisation of Weavers Down in Hampshire by Kosaido, a Japanese multinational that proposed an 18-hole golf course to be built onto the common space.

Mary Holloway from Bramshaw Commoners Association led the fight against the plans for the golf course. She contacted Kosaido’s president, the District Council among others through an organisation called the global anti-golf course movement. She used ‘Commons Rights’ to explain that animals and people had the right to walk through the grounds. After vigorous lobbying from the commoners, the District Council decides to reject Kosaido’s proposal. Investigators found foul play, as the mutilated remains of slow worms and sand lizards, both protected species, were discovered on the commons. In Jan 1994, the RSPCA prosecuted Kosaido for killing protected species with a £6000 fine.