In 1995, the Open Spaces Society announced that the first new common to be established in England during the twentieth century was being set up in the Norfolk village of Rushall. I went to have a look. First published in the Guardian, 2 September 1995.
Rushall is a small Norfolk village, not far from a somewhat larger settlement named Dickleburgh. It has a church, some council housing built at a polite distance from the village proper, a few farms and a pub. There were airships here once, but today Rushall’s most historic site is a hedged meadow on the other side of the parish.
Beyond the wooden gate, which bears a notice about the village fete, an elderly lady is walking through long grass, pointing out various features as she goes. The man next to her stoops occasionally to pick up twigs, which he then holds in a curious, vaguely anthropological manner…
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