People in Beverley can stand for election to historic posts tasked with managing the town’s pasture lands

Nominations have opened for candidates to become Beverley’s 12 new Pasture Masters and two auditors, with an election set to take place in March.

The Pasture Freemen, those entitled to stock the commons of Swinemoor, Figham and the well-known Beverley Westwood, will vote to fill the posts.

Those on the Pasture Freemen rolls can stand to be candidates, along with Freemen living in the parishes of Beverley, Molescroft and Woodmansey.

The common pasture of Beverley Westwood has its origins in Medieval times, when it was granted to the freemen of the town by the Archbishop of York in 1380.

In the 19th Century, Parliament passed the Beverley Pasture Act of 1836 which set out the governance of the lands and who could stand to run them.

A Pasture Master’s responsibilities include assessing the commons for grazing possibilities and allocating the ‘gaits’, the number of livestock allowed on each of them.

One gait is equivalent to a cow, a horse or three sheep.

For 800 years, only men were allowed to become become freemen or Pasture Masters.

But the rules changed in 2011 so that women can now vote and stand in the elections.

Those would could become freemen were also previously restricted to the sons of existing ones or those apprenticed to a Pasture Master.

In 2010, the law changed so both the sons and daughters of freemen can apply to become one when they turn 21, regardless of where they were born or live.

Those wishing to stand in the March elections can get their nomination forms from the clerk to the Pasture Masters, in Curfew Close, Beverley.

The deadline for nomination forms to be returned is noon on Monday, February 12.

Polls are set to open from 9am to 4pm on Friday, March 1, with ballot papers available to those eligible from Beverley’s Town Mayor.

More information is available from East Riding Council’s Electoral Services Manager Simon Clark, who can be contacted by phone on 01482 393311.