Country & Garden: Country Matters: Grounds for a common purpose

With all the fuss going on about the right to roam, you would think that people had nowhere to go in the countryside. In fact the British are amazingly well provided for, not only with footpaths and bridleways, of which there are more than 200,000 miles, but also with common land, which in England and Wales extends to a million and a half acres.

The origins of our commons are lost in the mists of time. Yet it is clear that many of them existed in some form when William the Conqueror commissioned his Domesday survey in 1086, and that they were then, as now, stretches of grassland or scrub on which people could pasture grazing animals. It seems extraordinary that, with our island now so crowded, such a large area remains open for public recreation.

The thought occurred to me as I walked out over the high, grassy plateau of Minchinhampton Common at seven o'clock on a lovely morning. The air was vibrating with skylarks, and at ground level dew glittered on thousands of cowslips, with orchids showing on the banks known as "pillow mounds" - the remains of warrens, in which rabbits were once bred for market. Six hundred and fifty feet above sea level, way above the industrialised valleys which radiate from Stroud, I felt on top of the world.

It is widely supposed that commons are public property, but this is a misconception, for they are all owned by somebody. They were originally the property of the local lord of the manor, and many still are; others have been sold or given to district councils, corporations or charitable bodies.

Minchinhampton is in many ways typical. Its 600 acres belong to the National Trust, and members of the public have free access. Some of the people living around its fringes still exercise their right of pasturage, which goes with individual properties, rather than with owners - and turn out cattle and ponies in summer.

Yet the place can also boast one highly unusual feature, in that it incorporates a full-sized golf course. This came into being by a curious fluke. In the late 1880s the lord of the manor was Colonel David Ricardo, who lived at nearby Gatcombe Park (now the home of Princess Anne). One day he invited a friend to stay and took him for a walk over the common. Thrilled by the views and the sense of space, the visitor exclaimed, "God gave this for golf!"

"Golf?" snorted the Colonel. "Golf? What the devil's that?"

Sending for some clubs, the friend showed him - and Ricardo was so impressed that he commissioned an 18-hole course. Because he was anxious not to deprive local people of their rights, he knocked down the wall round his own park at the eastern end of the common and threw the land open to graziers.

So the Minchinhampton Golf Club was founded in 1889, and today it is flourishing - although members have to play along with whatever livestock may be inhabiting the fairways and greens. The cattle traditionally come out on Marking Day - 13 May - when an ancient ceremony is enacted at the Old Lodge, a settlement in the middle of the course, with a clubhouse and pub.

From next Thursday, then, the course will be strewn with hazards, some alive, others inert. The cattle have an unfortunate predilection for sleeping on the greens, which look extremely comfortable. The animals are also liable to deposit various offerings during the night, so that the wily player equips himself with a shovel when he goes out for an early round.

By 1975 the number of humans picnicking, kite-flying, dog-walking and generally rollicking on the common had grown so large that golf had become almost impossible at weekends, and the club opened a new course at Avening.

However, the old course has continued to flourish, even though members are discouraged from playing on Sundays.

Its minor drawbacks mean that fees are modest: a full annual subscription is pounds 240 (far less than one would pay at a pukka club in the South-east) and a single green fee is only pounds 12 on weekdays, pounds 15 at weekends. Nevertheless, according to Jolyon Gardiner, a member, and secretary of the Commons Conservators, "it's a splendid old golf course, and one of the most highly respected clubs for miles around".

The cattle and ponies are a hazard not only to golfers, but also to traffic. The roads that cross the common are unfenced: there are generally at least half a dozen accidents every year, and bullocks often wander into the village of Minchinhampton, or down through a series of hairpin bends towards the town of Nailsworth. With the help of the National Trust, English Nature and other bodies, the Commons Conservators have been trying to get a speed limit imposed, and it looks as if they are about to succeed. The point about the cattle is that they are essential to the maintenance of the common, the whole of which is a Site of Specific Interest. Without their grazing and browsing, thorn, birch, ash and hazel scrub would quickly invade the limestone grassland; the glorious open spaces would become choked, the wild flowers would die out, and the whole character of the area would change - a fate that has already overtaken countless commons elsewhere.

The sad fact is that even at Minchinhampton very few people retain any interest in the land. Under the terms of the Commons Registration Act of 1965 everyone living in the parish was entitled to register their rights; they had 13 years in which to do so, but, in spite of frequent exhortation from the Conservators, only a handful bothered. The result is that, even with grants available from the European Community, there are now scarcely enough cattle and ponies to keep the common in order.