The fact that a piece of land was treated as common land before the Romans arrived would not, in most cases, mean that the same piece of land is common land now, or that it was common land until the new Act came into force recently (whether or not it is now being used as a canal towpath or a golf course).

Incidentally, a few years ago some gypsies camped temporarily in the corner of a large supermarket car park in Sandhurst. I was impressed that they had managed to camp only about 100 yards from where there used to be a field in which gypsies would camp regularly some 40 years ago.