Rushmere St Andrew Heath
Rushmere St Andrew Heath - the question of ownership
On the eastern edge of Ipswich there runs a piece of heath land that has gradually been engulfed by housing and most of the remnant is covered by a golf course. Cutting through the heath is the A1214 leading out of Ipswich towards Woodbridge, most drivers do not even notice the heath it was once a matter of major discussion and disagreement.
This brief essay will provide a bit of the background to the Nineteenth Century debate over the ownership of the heath. I wrote this piece in 1983 having some time on my hands and access to the archives, but I have revised the original with a few more details and an attempt at better English.
It is known that the heath was used by man for some considerable time, as finds of stone age tools and the excavation of Bronze age burial mounds (on nearby Foxhall Heath) bear witness.
Travelling rapidly forward in time, it came to be used by the people of Ipswich as a site to execute criminals. A newspaper report from April 1763 carries a lurid description of the last execution to take place on the heath. The gibbet was situated close to the modern A1214, and the event attracted a huge crowd of spectators.
For the local residents the heath was important as a place to graze their livestock, and as a place to dig sand and turf and to cut the bracken. The heath provided fodder and bedding for the animals as well as building and heating supplies. In the early years of the Nineteenth Century, European politics impinged on Rushmere and brought with it an additional financial benefit from the heath as the military took a role. An invaluable source of information for events relating to the heath is the "Commoners of Rushmere" an account of the memories of the early Nineteenth Century and later contemporary documented accounts.
The strength of local feeling towards the heath is evident from the reaction to what was seen as encroachments. A prominent local figure at the turn of the Nineteenth Century, the Rev John Edge (incumbent 1782-1816), requested that Mr Cuffley was given an area of farmland taken from the heath. Eight acres was enclosed for him, but Rev Edge's attempt to build a house for himself on the heath met with stiff opposition and ended with the bank and ditch marking out his plot being levelled. The Rev Edge made do with a house in his other parish of St Clements in Ipswich; he did however receive twelve acres in the parish, which he rented out for cultivation.
While some of the land was used for cultivation the poor quality of the heath land saw much of it left as open land. During the early Nineteenth Century, England faced the possibility of invasion by the military might of Napoleon's armies. Garrisons from Woodbridge and Ipswich used the open spaces of Rushmere Heath for their military manoeuvres. In 1813 General Lord Paget reviewed 10,000 men on the Heath. Not surprisingly these activities caused a great deal of damage to the vegetation and required the government of pay compensation of £227 for the impact up until 1814.
In the next two years the army made additional payments of £66 and £57 to the Parish, but in 1817 the government insisted a fixed sum of £20 was agreed or the troops would move elsewhere. The locals accepted this offer rather than lose this valuable source of income. The churchwardens invested the money from the military and from the original capital of £350 a total of £745-18-6 was realised by 1819. Following a meeting at the Falcon Inn a share-out of the money was made to the locals, with those who had resided in the parish for the whole period receiving £8, and newcomers receiving a proportional amount. Records from 1819-48 make no mention of military activity on the Heath and it was not until 1858 that a lump sum of £50 was made with the offer of £5 pa. An annual share-out of 7d was made to parishioners and these continued until 1872. In 1872 the drill ground on the Heath was enlarged and a corresponding payment of £12 was agreed, which resulted in a 2/- share-out. In 1878 the area was increased again and in 1881 the payment went up to £20, this agreement also included a clause to add an extra £5 when a further extension was complete.
The 1881 agreement was presented to the Rev Wigston
(1848-91) as a contract but as he was not the landowner he forwarded the contract
to the third Marquis of Bristol (1834-1907), and opened a whole can of worms
in the Parish which provoked a series of disagreements until the end of the
Century. Earlier in 1851 the Marquis of Bristol had attempted to exert his authority
over the Heath land, setting up notices threatening prosecution of anyone taking
materials from the Heath. The local residents opposed this act and neighbouring
landowners, Mr W C Fonnereau of Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich sent his cart
to collect gravel to uphold his manorial rights to the land. Nathaniel Ablitt
led the locals' cause and disputed the issue claiming the local rights were
proven by custom. A stone inscription was set up in 1861 proclaiming the Parishioners
rights. This inscription can still be seen on the Chapel in the village.
The Rev Wigston's act in referring the contract to the Marquis of Bristol in 1881 reopened the old debate. The Marquis reacted to the situation by declaring all former contracts of this kind to be "ultra vires" (beyond their authority) to grant a lease, he accepted the traditional rights to the Heath but not the military leases. A series of meetings were staged to discuss the matter and a local spokesman R L Everett stated "I do not know who is lord of the manor I do not know that it matters a great deal to us so long as they do not interfere with our rights". This seemed to be the prevalent feeling among the locals, but not everyone agreed. Mr B King claimed that there had to be someone with manorial rights over the Heath, and furthermore he did not believe the parishioners had any right to the War Office payments. The meeting closed with a decision to ask the Marquis for the return of the money which Rev Wigston had handed over. It was also agreed to set up overseers to distribute the payments on the first Monday of each April. Following further meetings and an exchange of letters between the Marquis and Mr Everett the debate approached a resolution. Without any documents to back his claim and with parishioners defending what they saw as their rights a Mr Porter offered a solution. He stated that the War Office payments were in compensation and therefore the question of land ownership was an irrelevant one.
A committee of commoners was set up to find a settlement, with Mr Everett and Porter among the six members. The problems were eventually resolved without loss of face, when in March 1883 a rental of 5/- was paid to the Marquis and the overseers administered a sum of £20 pa as compensation for the damage to the Heath. With the monetary issues solved the committee set up their own notices on the Heath to warn non-parishioners not to remove materials from the land. The Marquis objected to these signs and set up his own boards in direct confrontation to the committee. In 1884 a meeting in the village school saw the Marquis defending his families 300 year old traditional role as lords of the manor, and the parishioners sought to uphold their rights on the Heath. Despite the threat of prosecution the Marquis of Bristol's notices were removed and true to his word the three men responsible were taken to court. Following an appeal heard at Woodbridge court, attended by 50 of the commoners, the case went against the Marquis. Rather than suffer the defeat in the court and set a precedent, the solicitors representing the Marquis withdrew their case. A moral defeat, but not, a formal legal judgement against the lord of the manor.
As the Century progressed the heath land became a place for the people of Ipswich to enjoy the countryside. Following this trend a recreational golf club was established in 1894. Although neither side relented in the well debated ownership question, it was agreed that the commoners would receive compensation and the Marquis the rental payments. A clause was also entered to ensure the traditional rights of feed and bedding for parishioner's livestock and all other materials from the heath were retained, so long as this did not interfere with the game of golf. The War Office money also continued to be received until 1922 when the troops finally left the Heath. The final distribution of "Heath Money" was in 1947 when 2/6 was given to 921 Commoners.
The village of Rushmere St Andrew is now all but swallowed up by Ipswich, but in the nineteenth Century it still had it's own character and identity. The payment of money to parishioners ensured the boundaries were rigorously defined, and the new houses were declared in or out of the parish. Ownership of the heath land remained a matter for debate, as there were no records available. In the 1950s and 60s the matter was debated again, a meeting in 1956 stated that although no record of ownership existed the traditional rights had been practised since the Middle Ages by the parishioners. At the same meeting it was also noted that the rights had not been under threat since the setting up of the inscription of 1861. The question of ownership was finally settled when in 1958 the committee initiated negotiations and drew up a trust deed to the heath land and in effect bought the land for the parish.
Written 1983 / revised 2009