Thread by @TheMERL

When was the last time you saw a cow? Not in a photo. Not on Minecraft. A real mooing cow.

For many people in Newcastle, the answer is every day, because there's literally 1,000 acres of common land in the city centre, where cattle have grazed since the 12th century.

(a thread)

(image credit: Wikimedia, taken by Chabe01)

Common land is an area in which people, commoners, are able to enjoy certain rights, known as 'rights of common'.

Historically, there have been many different rights: from pasturage (letting animals graze), to pannage (letting pigs search woodlands for treats, like below).

(image: @britishlibrary, Queen Mary Psalter, MS. Royal 2 B VII f.81v)

In fact, the right of pannage is still exercised today in the New Forest (in the south of England), where pigs are let into the woods to eat fallen acorns. Which is great, because pigs love acorns, but they're poisonous to other animals (like horses and cattle). Everyone wins!

bröther may i have some acörns

https://twitter.com/dorianscary/status/785681417078345728

The people who own common land are required to respect the rights of common. So, if the common land has a right of pasturage, you can't cover it in concrete. You know, that famously natural resource everyone was talking about last month.

Sheep can't eat concrete. That's that.

Returning to Newcastle: the common land in the city centre is known as the Town Moor.

The Moor has been held in common for over eight hundred years, when it was bequeathed to the Freemen of the City of Newcastle, who continue to exercise their rights of common today.

(image credit: Wikimedia, taken by Chabe01)

Traditionally, the city's Freemen had a more expansive role, with duties including, uhhh, defending the city in case of a siege.

In fact, Freemen today (sworn in by Newcastle's Lord Mayor) must still swear to defend the city from attackers.

brother may I have some öaths

Thinking about the complete history of the Town Moor, from those days in the aftermath of the Norman conquest, to now, it's amazing to think how our relationship to green space has transformed so radically so recently.

Whereas agriculture used to be a familiar feature of most people's lives, from livestock grazing to plants growing, it's now grown stranger. So many of us live in cities. Less commons, more concrete.

https://twitter.com/TheMERL/status/1453290281948823562

And so it's quite incredible to think about how the Town Moor endures today, as a space that's larger than Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath combined, as well as the cows that live there and call it home. Cows that are city-dwellers. The urban sprawl, with cows.

The setting and significance of the Town Moor forms a central focus of our latest exhibition, FIELDS.

Supported by the @WellcomeTrust, it explores the experience of livestock, and their relationships to the farmers and humans they share their lives with.

merl.reading.ac.uk/event/fields/

On the FIELD project website, the project team have created stories about their work.

This one explores the Town Moor, and local people's memories of the cows that graze there: from seeing them up close, to watching them hear music.

It's a lovely read!

stories.field-wt.co.uk/when-did-you-l…