venville

English

Noun

venville (usually uncountable, plural venvilles)

1. (historical) A system of tenure in Dartmoor, England, allowing residents to graze animals on the moor and to gather coal, turf, etc. from the forest.
   • 1887, William Crossing, The Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor, Exeter: James G. Commin, page x:

     [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.

   • 2015, William J. Kupinse, “Private Property, Public Interest”, in James Joyce Quarterly‎^[1], volume 52, number 3/4, pages 593–621:

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