diff --git a/src/main/java/uk/org/iay/incommon/validator/ValidatorConfiguration.java b/src/main/java/uk/org/iay/incommon/validator/ValidatorConfiguration.java
index dbcc250..573323f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/uk/org/iay/incommon/validator/ValidatorConfiguration.java
+++ b/src/main/java/uk/org/iay/incommon/validator/ValidatorConfiguration.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
+import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
 
 import uk.org.iay.incommon.validator.context.ValidatorCollection;
 
@@ -37,6 +38,10 @@ public class ValidatorConfiguration {
     @Value("${validator.configurations}")
     private String configurations;
 
+    /** Property value telling us where the common configuration lives. */
+    @Value("${validator.common}")
+    private String commonConfiguration;
+
     /**
      * Build the validator configuration collection.
      *
@@ -45,7 +50,17 @@ public class ValidatorConfiguration {
      */
     @Bean
     public ValidatorCollection validatorCollection(final ApplicationContext webContext) {
-        final ValidatorCollection c = new ValidatorCollection(webContext);
+        // Build the common configuration.
+        LOG.info("loading common configuration from {}", commonConfiguration);
+        final ClassPathXmlApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext();
+        ctx.setConfigLocation(commonConfiguration);
+        ctx.setParent(webContext);
+        ctx.setDisplayName(commonConfiguration);
+        ctx.refresh();
+        LOG.info("common configuration has {} bean definitions", ctx.getBeanDefinitionCount());
+
+        // Build the individual validators, with the common configuration as a parent.
+        final ValidatorCollection c = new ValidatorCollection(ctx);
         LOG.info("loading validator configurations: '{}'", configurations);
         for (final String configLocation : configurations.split("\\s+")) {
             c.add(configLocation);
diff --git a/src/main/java/uk/org/iay/incommon/validator/context/ValidatorCollection.java b/src/main/java/uk/org/iay/incommon/validator/context/ValidatorCollection.java
index 7dd355b..ab3c6c7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/uk/org/iay/incommon/validator/context/ValidatorCollection.java
+++ b/src/main/java/uk/org/iay/incommon/validator/context/ValidatorCollection.java
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ public void add(final String configLocation) {
         ctx.setParent(parentContext);
         ctx.setDisplayName(configLocation);
         ctx.refresh();
-        LOG.info("refreshed {} has {} beans", configLocation, ctx.getBeanDefinitionCount());
+        LOG.info("context {} has {} bean definitions", configLocation, ctx.getBeanDefinitionCount());
         final Entry entry = new Entry(ctx);
         entries.add(entry);
         byId.put(entry.getId(), entry);
diff --git a/src/main/resources/application.properties b/src/main/resources/application.properties
index 7b6c3fa..cb4d18e 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/application.properties
+++ b/src/main/resources/application.properties
@@ -4,5 +4,8 @@ server.port=8080
 spring.jackson.date-format=uk.org.iay.incommon.validator.RFC3339DateFormat
 spring.jackson.serialization.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS=false
 
+# Common configuration shared across all validators.
+validator.common = common-beans.xml
+
 # Space-separated list of the validator configurations to load.
 validator.configurations = default-validator.xml second-validator.xml
diff --git a/src/main/resources/common-beans.xml b/src/main/resources/common-beans.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..327989f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/common-beans.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+    Common bean definitions.
+-->
+<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+    default-lazy-init="true"
+    xmlns:c="http://www.springframework.org/schema/c"
+    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
+    xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
+    xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
+    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="
+        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
+        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd
+        http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util.xsd">
+
+</beans>