The Commons.

       The land surrounding the villages of High Cummersdale and Newby West were until the Enclosure Act mostly common, waste scrub and pasture, as part of the Carlisle and Cummersdale Moor.

The Commissioners who carried out the Enclosure Act in 1770, divided and enclosed the moor, but they had the authority to set out places for gravel pits, Clay pits, for the making of bricks and roads in the Parish, but also for parishioners to repair their paths and properties.

The Common at the entrance to High Cummersdale village is the plot of land set out by the commissioners in 1770. There is a similar plot set out at Newby West beside the small mission hall (now a house).

At a meeting in the village in 1881 to discuss the building of the proposed new school at High Cummersdale, the common was suggested as a possible site, but this brought an angry reaction from one villager at the meeting, he threatened that he would wait until the school was built and then exert his common right to dig for clay beneath the foundations! Whether this had any influence on the final out-come it isn't known.

When the first Parish Council was formed in 1895, they refer in their minutes to the Brick Hills or Claypit, and not the common. At the Parish Council meeting Jan 3rd 1895, Mr Robert Hodgson, gave notice to move at the next Council meeting, a committee was to be appointed to take charge of the Brick Hills. A committee was appointed later that month. 

By 1897 the Council were discussing what the parish should do to commemorate Queen Victoria's 60 year reign. The consensus of opinion gravitated to the making of a recreation ground for the parish. 

By 1897 the common, Clay pits or Brick Hills had become an eyesore, with heaps of rubbish having been dumped there over the years, and also piles of bricks. The committee had the area cleared, leveled and drained. Top soil was spread over the surface and it was landscaped.

The first name chosen for the new ground was "Victoria Park" but it was later changed to " The Jubilee Recreation Ground".

For many years the common has been used for many social occasions, such as Gala's, Coronation celebrations, football, cricket, hound trails, sports and many more, it was even used

as the pick-up point for the evacuee children from the North East in 1939.