History
Wash common is the location of five Bronze Age tumuli.
The manorial rights over the common-field lands known as "The Wash" were acquired by the Mayor and Corporation of Newbury in 1627. A turnpike road from Oxford to Andover was built across Wash Common and included a gate at near the Gun public house, which was in use up to 1880. A milestone still exists where the road slopes down to Hampshire.
Until the latter part of the 19'th century Wash Common was open heathland. In 1858 an enclosure resolution was passed. W Money, author of "A Popular History of Newbury" published in 1905, describes this act in terms of a land grab, (see chapter XVI): "it is scarcely necessary to add that the householders of Newbury received no compensation when thus deprived of the valuable rights and privileges which had been enjoyed by the commonalty of the town for so many centuries, but their inheritance was bestowed on their more favoured neighbours, whose only claim was that they were already possessed, by purchase or otherwise, of land within the boundaries of the borough".
The enclosure resolution opened the way for the progressive residential development of Wash Common, which continues to this day.
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