Southwold Common covers 130 acres (52.6 hectares). It is not, strictly speaking, 'Common Land' where people are entitled to exercise specified 'rights of common', such as grazing, cutting bracken and so on. Its status today is that of a registered Charitable Trust. The land which forms the Common was part of the estate of William Godell, a wealthy 15th century merchant who bequeathed most of it, in perpetuity, to the town of Southwold in his will of 1509: 'I will that the said place called Skylmans... wholly remain to the said Town of Southwold for ever to give and sell.'
To read more about Southwold Common and Godell's will, see these extracts from the Southwold Museum website.
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