A Common Resource - Gower - page 206

The earliest surviving general survey ofGower,which mentions most ofthe common land, only dates
from 1650. There are other later surveys, which provide many details of the Gower commons, such as
that prepared in 1764 by Gabriel Powell, Steward to the Duke of Beaufort (Morris, 2000). Probably the
most comprehensive survey, however, is that undertaken for the Duke of Beaufort in 1826 by Rees Jones,
a surveyor from Loughor, and presented in his Book of Plans of Commons and Wastes . Twelve commons
were covered in this survey, including Fairwood, Pengwern and 'Cefen Brin'. Only small encroachments
are shown on these maps and the boundaries of the commons are virtually the same as they are today,
indicating that little change has taken place since these surveys.
While variations in the ownership of commons can influence their conservation value and manage-
ment,itistheexerciseofcommonrightsthat,withinenvironmentalconstraints,hasshapedthecommons,
producing the range of habitats that make them so important for wildlife. The wide range of activities
covered under these rights, such as the grazing of stock, collecting of timber, or taking of fish, have their
origin in local custom. In each community the local economy, geography and balance of power have all
played their part in shaping the use of the common. There are a number of legally defined rights of com-
mon, including grazing or pasture, estover (the right to gather litter, firewood, bedding etc) turbary (peat
or turf cutting), piscary (fishing rights), pannage (the right to turn pigs out to eat beech mast or acorns)
and common in the soil (the right to dig gravel, sand, etc for use on the commoner's holding). The ex-
istence of piscary rights on some of the Gower commons is curious as many of them, Cefn Bryn being
a notable exception, have no fishable water. Similarly pannage strictly means allowing pigs to forage in
woodlands on acorns and beech mast, but it is registered on Llanmadoc Hill, a common with no wood-
land.Althoughturbaryrightsarenolongerexercised,peatcutting,inthepast,islikelytohaveinfluenced
the topography and vegetation on commons such as Clyne and Fairwood. Turbary rights have also been
registered on several commons unlikely to support peat such as Barlands Common, but turbary can also
include the right to take grass turf.
Apartfromthatofgrazingthemajorityoftheserightsarenolongerused.OnCefnBryn,forexample,
the rights include 128 registered grazing or pasture rights, 94 estover rights and other rights for common
inherbage,coire(therighttotakestonefromthesoil)andpiscary.Thepasturerightsareforsheep,cattle,
horses, ponies, donkeys and poultry. While there is still some bracken cut on Cefn Bryn for animal bed-
ding, as opposed to being cut for conservation reasons, of these numerous rights only the right to graze
is really exercised these days, and for ponies, cattle and sheep only. It is a long time since donkeys and
poultry grazed the slopes of the common.
GRAZING ANIMALS
The evolution of the landscape of lowland Britain since the end of the last ice age has been shaped by
the activities of grazing animals, in particular sheep, cattle and horses. Eighteen breeds of sheep, three
breeds ofcattle, onebreed ofpigandonebreed ofhorse have been identified as having close associations
with Wales. Once every valley had its own type of sheep and nearly every village its particular shape of
pig. Occasional references to heifers or oxen of certain colours can be found in the wills of Gower farm-
ers in the Tudor and Stuart periods. Two breeds are mentioned most often. Firstly the reds, belonging to
a constant strain noted by Walter Davies (1814-15): 'a very pretty breed of red cattle, in shape like the
Glamorgan browns, but not so large, like the Devon breed, if not the same'. There were also the blacks,
the native Gower breed often referred to as 'our old blacks' by farmers in the early nineteenth century.
Theanimalsdevelopedfromthesebytheearlylivestockimproversoftheeighteenthcenturyhaveres-
ulted in the breeds we know today, such as the Glamorgan Brown. Crossbreeding certainly went on, and
the wills refer to brown, brindled or 'bragged', spotted and yellow cows. On David ap Richard's farm in