Minchinhampton Common

Minchinhampton Common is the high, open grassland that spreads west of Minchinhampton towards Amberley and Nailsworth, with Rodborough Common to the north. The National Trust has held it since 1913. Commoners still graze cattle on it, and its turf hides one of the richest archaeological landscapes in the Cotswolds.

History

The common has been common for as long as there are records. The Victoria County History describes more than 500 acres that survived enclosure, where the tenants of the manor grazed their animals. A tradition says that Alice Hampton, who died in 1515, gave the common to the people of the town; the Victoria County History says the story appears to be a fiction. The tenants guarded their rights all the same: a Chancery suit between the lord and the tenants over pasture was heard in 1620.

The archaeology

Historic England schedules the whole common as one monument, for remains that run from prehistory to the Second World War. The oldest is Whitfield's Tump, a Neolithic long barrow, scheduled on its own. The best known are the Bulwarks, a Late Iron Age bank and ditch that sweeps across the common, with a second Iron Age bank near Amberley and the traces of at least twelve prehistoric fields, seen mostly from the air. The Middle Ages left Amberley Camp, an arc-shaped enclosure, ridge and furrow from a short spell of ploughing, hollow ways and a deer park first mentioned in 1176.

Later centuries added a rabbit warren of about 49 pillow mounds, the long low mounds built for breeding rabbits, with round buries and two vermin traps, probably of the sixteenth or seventeenth century; 37 old quarries, from 10m to 250m long; and the line of the Cirencester to Stroud turnpike. In the Second World War 22 anti-glider trenches were dug across the open ground to stop enemy aircraft landing, and a military camp stood in the area called the Park.

Racing, golf and the National Trust

The common was a playground as well as a pasture. Horse races were run on it until the elder David Ricardo of Gatcombe Park stopped them early in the nineteenth century, and the Minchinhampton golf club was formed in 1889, with the Old Lodge inn as its clubhouse from about 1895. In 1913, after quarrying had begun to alarm the town, the lord of the manor, H. G. Ricardo, sold his rights in the common to the National Trust.

Tom Long's Post

Tom Long's Post stands where the Tetbury road meets the Cirencester road and several lanes. Tradition says it takes its name from a suicide buried at the crossroads; it is a story, not a record. The standing stone there is included in the scheduling. In 1785 the Thames and Severn Canal Company built a road from the post down to Brimscombe Port.

What to see

The common is limestone grassland, and Natural England protects it as a Site of Special Scientific Interest of about 194 hectares. Come in late spring and summer for the wild flowers and butterflies in the turf; the conservation leaflet from Stroud District Council and its partners names early purple and green-winged orchids among them.

The earthworks need low light. On a winter afternoon the Bulwarks show as a long bank with its ditch on the east side, the pillow mounds rise like rows of low loaves, and the quarry pits break up the turf near the roads. From the western edge the views run down into the valleys towards Nailsworth and Stroud.

George Whitefield

The long barrow takes its name, so tradition says, from George Whitefield, the evangelist. Historic England records the story that he preached from the mound in 1743.

Visiting

The common is free to wander, with no gates or opening hours. Commoners' cattle graze it in the grazing season, from mid-May to October by Stroud District Council's account, and they wander across the open roads. The speed limit across the commons is 40mph, and the council and its partners ask drivers to go slower. After several cows died in 2026, one hit by a car near the Bear on Rodborough Common, the parish council said in September that road safety was under review, so drive slowly and expect animals on the tarmac. Dogs are welcome under close control; the National Trust asks for a short lead around livestock and from March to August, to protect skylarks and other birds nesting on the ground. The ground is rough and uneven, with no surfaced paths over most of it. There are no public toilets on the common; the Cotswolds National Landscape lists public toilets in Bell Lane in the town.

Getting there

Small National Trust car parks sit beside the roads that cross the common, open from dawn to dusk, and the parish council says parking in the parish is free; do not park on the grass. The Reservoir car park is on level ground, and the Trust says the land beside it suits wheelchairs. Stagecoach West's 620 from Stroud to Tetbury and Bath stops at Tom Long's Post six or seven times a day, Monday to Saturday, with no Sunday service. On foot, Bell Lane leads from Holy Trinity Church and the Market House in the town straight onto the grass.

Nearby

The Old Lodge, the inn on the common itself, and the Amberley Inn, on its western edge, are the obvious stops; the Bear of Rodborough is on the road north to Rodborough Common. South-east of the town stands the Long Stone. Our guide to Stroud and the Five Valleys covers the valleys below, and The Cotswolds with a dog has more open ground like this.