An Historical Introduction to Minchinhampton

Minchinhampton Common was beginning to assume its role for recreation, in addition to that ofcommon farmland. In Victorian times the duty of administering the common pasture was graduallyassumed by a Committee of Commoners, which kept detailed minutes throughout the C19 th . Theywere concerned for their cattle, and damage of any sort to the turf brought an immediate response.In 1847 James Harrison of Littleworth was threatened with prosecution for “injuring a stonetrough”. It had previously been reported that the weather had been so unusual that all the pools onthe commons had dried, and water for the beasts was only obtained with great difficulty. Otherissues tackled were taking land into the Common, dealing with straying cattle and with thequarries. There were two large areas of arable land left, one to the north of Box and the otherstretching in a broad arc northwards from the windmill. When an occupier of land wished tostraighten his boundary or enlarge his garden permission was granted provided he threw into thecommon as large, or a larger piece of ground. Mrs. Frith made the road from the Halfway House toTom Longs Post, in return for taking in 3½ acres of common land into the grounds of Highlands,now Beaudesert School. Near Windmill House the footings of the original wall of the field atCharity Barn can be seen.Cricket was played on Minchinhampton Common, near to the windmill although conditions werefar from ideal, a match between Nailsworth and Minchinhampton yielding a score of visitors 26,home team 86! There would be a mown strip, as the early accounts of this local M.C.C. indicate,but this would not have been rolled, and "bouncers" would catch many experienced batsmenunawares. The open land was undoubtedly the scene of many local sporting events, from football tohorse racing, and the area by Dr. Brown’s Road, then part of Burleigh Lane, was regularly used formilitary gatherings and manoeuvres, thus acquiring the name Camp Field; a copse of trees and aflagstaff marked the centre of the parade area. As the Ricardo family lived at Gatcombe, their oldpark had become somewhat of a public open space, although it was never part of MinchinhamptonCommon, with all the rights that entailed. Along the northern boundary of the Great Park was awall and ditch with entrance gateways or arches, still visible in the line of brambles today. Closer tothe schools, on a concrete plinth, there stood a large gun that might have been captured from theRussians in the Crimean War. Certainly two cannon from the Siege of Sebastopol were erected infront of the Subscription Rooms in Stroud. Nailsworth, too, was presented with a gun but they put itout of sight possibly “to intimate the great blessing it would be to mankind if all the warlikeinstruments in the world lay as peaceful and quiet as theirs”.11 This poses a question: at that timeNailsworth was not a parish in its own right, but part of Minchinhampton, so was this the gun thateventually ended up here?