Village Greens

Town and village greens derive from customary law. They were originally areas of land where local people indulged in lawful sports and pastimes. These might have included organised or informal games, picnics, fêtes and similar activities. A green can be in private ownership but many greens are owned or maintained by town and parish councils.

Countryside Agency 
Door Step Greens Evaluation

 

This report presents our findings in relation to the three research projects above which were identified by the Countryside Agency as forming part of their evaluation of the Doorstep Greens grant scheme.

Study of registered town and village greens and the attitudes towards applications - NR0139

For the last 40 years, successive governments have considered the possibility of reform of the law relating to common land and town/village greens. This is partly because it has long been recognised that town and village greens represent important open spaces for local communities right across England and Wales.

This additional advice from Defra should not be regarded as definitive and cannot be treated as a complete and authoritative statement of the law. It is for commons registration authorities to consider how best to do so in de-termining applications for the registration of new greens.

Do you have registered Village Greens? To check on the status of your village greens and to access a map of your village greens follow this link.

Then click on: 

Search Tools (top left green menu)

Enter the name of your village green and click on Go

Green Places News.

A weekly bulletin provided by Landscape Design Trust.

This highly regarded and recently updated guide looks at some common community green space management issues and discusses ways to address them. It aims to help provide guidance through potentially intractable situations and advice on how to avoid getting into such situations in the first place. It also signposts you to organisations and agencies that may be able to provide further help.

This is the 2nd recently updated version of this guide and is intended for Parish Councillors or community groups who manage or are thinking about managing open green spaces.

 

This highly regarded and recently updated guide aims to set out clearly and in simple terms what the laws are and how they apply in different situations. It is designed as a starting point to getting to grips with legalities of green spaces and to point you on to other organisations and resources if you need to dig deeper. 

Market Research Report Stages 1 and 2.