Common Land Committee
Around a tenth of land in Wales is common land, and common grazing rights represent a significant proportion of Welsh farm forage areas. Such rights are therefore essential in terms of the economic viability of many Welsh farms, and are naturally included in the purchase and rental prices of holdings.
Members of the general public often mistakenly interpret the term “common land” as meaning land owned by the common people, or publicly owned land. However, despite the legal differences between common and other land, most commons are essentially agricultural land for which rights are owned by more than one individual – in simplistic terms, common land is shared land.
The FUW has been at the forefront of efforts to protect the rights of commoners in Wales for more than 50 years, and has had a Common Land Committee for the past 26 years.
The Chairman of the Common Land Committee is Dilwyn John. Mr John, a past FUW Brecon and Radnor county chairman, farms around 240 acres at Dan Y Graig Farm, Cwmtaff, Merthyr Tydfil, and has grazing rights on Vaynor commons for 1,500 sheep. Together with his wife, Beth, he runs a flock of 700 South Wales Mountain ewes.
