Estovers

This morning I came across an old man exercising his commoners right to estovers - taking of wood from the common (the 'waste of the manor') for firewood. The rangers had cleared a huge stand of birch last week and left the trunks cut in four foot lengths for the man to clear by hand - when he returned to start collecting it this morning he discovered that someone else had got their first - with a fork lift - and made off with two-thirds of the pile.