Papers of the Ashdown Forest Commoners' Committee

These papers relate to the opposition of the Commoners' Committee to East Sussex County Council's promotion of the Ashdown Forest Bill in the House of Lords in 1973.

The commoners objected to the proposal to give a majority on the Board of Conservators to ESCC, to permit the lord of the manor of Duddleswell to exchange land, to permit the conservators to deal in land, undertake arboriculture and timber-sales and grant licences.

The committee petitioned against the bill, which was debated in the Commons on 23 October 1973 and was not carried over to the new session. To the disgust of the Commoners' Committee, the authority re-promoted the bill the following year and succeeded in negotiating the withdrawal of the Commoners' opposition.

The following year, there was a proposal to re-constitute the Ashdown Forest Commoners' Committee.

These documents are not the substantive archive of the committee, but were a selection given to a boy undertaking a school project by the widow of a former member of the committee in about 1975.

Copies only have been retained of those papers not written on a permanent medium.

Records given on 15 April 1999 (ACC 7876)