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Bishops and Abbots
Once again the Abbot of Ramsey and the Bishop of Ely are proving to be bad neighbours. The habit of grazing cattle in the woods was a right valued by Lord and tenant alike. Unfortunately in a time when most of the land was covered in woods, the boundaries between one Lord and another proved difficult to map out.
In all the other woods of the lord bishop of Ely of St Ives, Woodhurst, Oldhurst, Holywell and Needingworth, his cattle feed with those of all his tenants of the soke of Somersham by reason of the said bishop having common rights in the said woods, because the Abbot of Ramsey and his free villains of the aforesaid town of Warboys take pasture in all his woods in the said soke as far as the bridge of Herwyche, besides his meadow of Somersham has been unjustly enclosed since the time of the Lord Abbot Hugh and should be shared out.