Turbary

Turbary is the ancient right to cut turf, or peat, for fuel on a particular area of bog. The word may also describe the associated piece of bog or peatland and, by extension, the material extracted from it. The right is more fully expressed legally as common of turbary and is often associated with commonage or, in some cases, with rights over another person's land. Turbary was not always an unpaid right or easement, and at least in Ireland regulations governed the price that could be charged. Turf was widely used as fuel for cooking and domestic heating and also for commercial purposes such as evaporating brine to produce salt, and the right was particularly important where firewood was scarce. The right to collect firewood was protected by estovers. In the New Forest of southern England a particular right of turbary belongs not to a person, dwelling or plot of land but to a particular hearth and chimney.