Photograph taken outside The Cors, Laugharne , towards the end of The Common Walk, 1948. In the centre is the Portreeve, T. Fleming Williams, with other officials of Laugharne Corporation including the Constables and Halberdiers. The gathering for this photo was probably pre planned as usually only a small group of Corporation officials would take this route.
The Common Walk (similar to Beating the Bounds) is not a walk around “common land” as much of the route takes in land that is now in private hands. It does, however, follow the boundaries of the common land as granted in Laugharne Corporation’s Charter to the Burgesses of Laugharne Township. The route as now walked, has, over time, been altered in detail, but it is essentially as described in the Charter which refers to the route as “along the marks and boundaries as it is perambulated" suggesting that the walking of these marks and boundaries predated the Charter. Given that estimates of the date of the Charter vary between 1281 and 1307, it could be assumed that the walk must date back, at least 710 years.