Common People
On the 7th of April 2007 after a period during which there had been no cattle on Midsummer Common for some years a small number of Red Poll cattle were introduced.
Cambridge Vet, Angelika Von Heimendahl, had made public her intention to make use of the right that she, like all Cambridge residents, has to graze cattle on the Common. In spring 2007 she purchased and will manage a small herd of around eight Red Poll cattle, a breed chosen for their historical association with the local area and the fact they are suited to the wet riverside grassland.
Meat from the cows is expected to be available in local butchers in November 2007.
The grazing of cows on the common is controversial, given that the extent of other uses to which the common is put may conflict with grazing.
In March 2006 Geoffrey King who later became the chairman of the friends of Midsummer Common put up £20 to investigate the possibility of introducing a “residents’ herd” of cows to the common, at a meeting of the Brunswick and Kite Residents’ Association.
