Lammas land

Having been awakened at 7am by the Bosch repair-man, (pre-arranged) there was nothing for it but to head for the Lugg Meadows to catch the sunrise, and hopefully some autumn atmosphere. B. slept peacefully on and I decided to brave the constant flow of traffic on the (pavement-less) bridge, but disappointingly missed the sunrise by about an hour.

However, some quick blips enabled me to record the flooding of the Lammas land alongside the river at New Court. The raised road used to carry a coach and horses over the land to enable postal communication to continue with London, a two day ride away via Gloucester, irrespective of the climate.

The flood meadows of the Lugg are the largest example of surviving Lammas land in Britain, ownership of the meadows being divided amongst many local people, just as in medieval times. This is a remnant of the ancient open field system of agriculture, with long narrow 'strips' or irregularly shaped 'parcels'. These were marked out on the ground by 'dole stones', still visible in the meadows. The system has remained unchanged for almost 1000 years, with no ploughing taking place in that time, and grazing is only allowed for a limited time during the year by the 'Commoners' .

We are able to graze a cow and two sheep there if we want to!