Oxfordshire.
Until within the last century, a custom prevailed in the parish of Ensham, by which the towns-people were allowed on Whitsun Monday to cut down and carry away as much timber as could be drawn by men’s hands into the Abbey yard, the churchwardens previously marking out such timber by giving the first chop; so much as they could carry out again, notwithstanding the opposition of the servants of the Abbey to prevent it, they were to keep for the reparation of the church. By this service they held their right of commonage at Lammas and Michaelmas, but about the beginning of last century this practice was laid aside by mutual consent.—Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 669.