Greens, Commons & Tyes

From Edward Martin's article on Greens, Commons and Tyes in An Historical Atlas of Suffolk edited by David Dymond & Edward Martin

‘Green, common and tye are all terms used in Suffolk for areas of common pasture - in that order of frequency. Green is derived from Old English grene meaning the colour green and, by extension, a grassy area, in particular a piece of public or common grazing land.' [Two land sale documents from 1658 and 1781 refer to ‘common of pasture for all manner of cattle in Ubbeston.']

‘Physically greens … are usually found on clay soils.'

‘The present archaeological evidence from Suffolk suggests a 12th-century origin for many of the settlements around greens, which is consistent with place name evidence. Greens tended to be located on the high, heavy land with poor natural drainage, often on the periphery of their parishes, [the church would have had a settlement nearby and Ubbeston Green probably appeared later] suggesting that they are secondary features in the medieval landscape. This view is supported by the distribution of churches (mostly in existence in 1086) and rarely associated with greens.' [As is ours.]

‘Many pieces of common land were encroached upon, or totally enclosed, from medieval times onwards. Nevertheless, a large acreage, as demonstrated by Hodskinson's map of 1783, remained to be enclosed by Parliamentary Acts in the late 18th and 19 centuries.'[See Ubbeston on Hodskinson's Map of Suffolk in 1783 - there does not appear to be any common land but the area on both sides of the modern B1117 is labelled Ubbeston Green as it is today.]

‘Enclosure tended to produce a highly distinctive landscape - a straight road running down the centre of the old green [the B1117], with new brick houses beside it [The Wheatsheaf and Wheatsheaf Cottage and the parish cottages], while long tracks lead to the older timber framed houses set back from the original edge.' [White House Farm, Hill Farm, Tylehouse or whatever was sited there originally. Lodge Farm and Green Farm (the clue could be in the name!) would be on the edge of the green which would probably cover a substantial part of the land to the NW and the SE of the road.]

[In 1881 the local alehouse was described as The Wheatsheaf, Ubbeston-on-the-Green.]