We set up our group to protect the land and stop the developer, who now has planning permission for 98 homes in Phase 1 and has started building. Residents have been fighting for over 30 years to protect this ancient common land.
Wildlife
With three different types of habitat on this small area of land, wetland, grassland, and brush, Codnor Common is rich in wildlife.
Ancient Common Land
Due to its name, we believe Codnor Common is ancient common land. We believe the fields were farmed using the strip system and the land is ancient ridge and furrow. We have not been able to carry out or inspire an archaeological study as yet to prove this.
The ‘Pentrich Revolt’
The revolutionaries came through Ripley and Codnor on their way to their ill fated revolution. They stopped at the old Glasshouse pub on Glasshouse hill, so it is likely some of the revolutionaries were familiar with Codnor Common.
Literary significance
At only five miles away from Eastwood, it is likely that DH Lawrence knew the Common. His story, ‘Tickets, Please’ describes the tramline between Ripley (the last vestiges of the Common are now in Ripley Parish) and Nottingham and the tram went past the Common. In Lawrence’s time, the Common would have been farms, including Codnor Gate Farm and Meadow Farm (now an industrial estate and a council estate respectively, though many houses on the Meadow Farm development are now privately owned).
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