Newtown Common is a village in the

Basingstoke and Deane Basingstoke and Deane is a local government district with borough status in Hampshire, England. The main town is Basingstoke, where the council is based. The district also includes the towns of Tadley and Whitchurch, along with numerous vil ...

district of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. Its nearest town is Newbury, which lies approximately 2.5 miles (4.1 km) north-east from the village.

History

The Feudal title ''Lord of the Manor of Newtown'' was sold at auction in 1986 for £4,200 by the

Earl of Carnarvon Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The current holder is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. The town and county in Wales to which the title refers are historically spelled Caernarfon, having b ...

to local businessman Michael Farrow. Using the title, Farrow claimed the common and registered it with the

Land Registry Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

. He then transferred it to Bakewell Management, who requested a fee of 6% of the property value from all of the homeowners who used the common to access their property. Initially successful, the request for money to cross the

ransom strip In the United Kingdom, a ransom strip is a parcel of land needed to access an adjacent property from a public highway, to which the owner is denied access until payment is received. The strip of land can be either between the property and the hig ...

was overturned by the House of Lords on 1 April 2004.

Governance

Newtown Common is part of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Newtown, and is part of the Burghclere, Highclere and St. Mary Bourne

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of Basingstoke and Deane borough council. The borough council is a

Non-metropolitan district Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of Districts of England, local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''s ...

Hampshire County Council Hampshire County Council (HCC) is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hampshire in England. The council was created in 1889. The county council provides county-level services to eleven of the thirteen districts geo ...

References

Villages in Hampshire {{Hampshire-geo-stub