Little is known about land ownership in Britain before the Romans. We do know that the pre Roman Brits were good fighters. They saw off Julius Ceasar a few decades before Claudius invaded. They probably got that good by fighting amongst themselves which would suggest that land ownership was based on the ability to fight for it.

After the Romans left, waves of Angles, Saxons and Jutes came over and took land to settle on simply because they could. The Romans had sent all the Britons who joined their army abroad as a matter of policy. An occupying Roman army was always made up of foreigners. and after they left there was no culture of training for combat so the country was wide open.

Another 400 years later and the Viking invasions began. Alfred the Great sorted that, improved law and made the first steps in developing towns or cities in four hundred years. Again land was fought for. Another two and a half centuries later we get Billy the Bastard invading from France.

Our current Aristocracy was founded then. Billy owned all the land, because he said he did. Who was going to argue? People who were able and prepared to fight for him got control of parts of it. They built castles, wooden stockades at first, and raised armies and took over control of any existing infrastructure. The suppression of the Saxon culture was deliberately brutal and more or less successful. I have wondered if the deep seated hate that socialist Britain has for the aristocracy is some kind of racial memory of this time. The conquerors conquered. Oh how unfair! The legal structure was maintained and developed. The church was a common factor and gradually became richer and more powerful. Over time possession became ownership, the power of Royalty over Aristocracy was eroded, slowly, slowly a middle class of merchants and independent farmers developed. Some of them got to own property. At no point was any land owned by 'ordinary people'.

Common land was not owned by the commoners. The commoners had rights of use. Acts of Parliament were used to repeal those rights. All very legal, if inhumane in its application.