venville

plural venvilles

1. historicaluncountableusuallyA system of tenure in Dartmoor, England, allowing residents to graze animals on the moor and to gather coal, turf, etc. from the forest.

   A custom of law particular to England's Dartmoor Forest, venville rights allowed for "certain rights of common"[.]

   2015, William J. Kupinse, “Private Property, Public Interest”, in James Joyce Quarterly, volume 52, number 3/4, pages 593–621

   1 more example

   [Dartmoor forest’s] boundaries being, in some parts, several miles from the cultivated country, the intervening tract being claimed as common land by the numerous parishes bordering it, which parishes are known as lying within Venville.

   1887, William Crossing, The Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor, Exeter: James G. Commin, page x