History of Village Greens

The history of village greens is very similar to that for common land and most village greens at one time may have formed part of the waste of the manor. Use of the land for sports and pastimes by local inhabitants of the area was tolerated by the lord of the manor and over many years the rights of local people to use land for recreation became enforceable at law.

The village green was, and is still today in many localities, the centre of village life - a communal area where people gather to play games, dance, take air and exercise, and have a good gossip! In an early case concerning a dispute over the rights of villagers to dance in the open-air in a field, the Court held that "..It is necessary for Inhabitants to have their recreation." Many hundreds of years ago, village greens were often the locations for archery practice and it has been said that the battle of Agincourt was won on the village greens of England. Village greens also served another purpose in the past - as secure areas where livestock could be gathered in and safely grazed during times of civil disturbance or unrest. The enclosed nature of many village greens still in existence today is evidence of this, where the green is central and may be enclosed on three or four sides by dwelling houses with access-ways which could be defended or protected. Greens were also often the locations for services, such as the village well or pond, or where justice was dispensed, as in the village stocks.

There is a separate statutory class of village greens, many of which have their origins in the nineteenth century Inclosure Acts. It was a requirement, when setting out land under Inclosure Awards, for the Inclosure Commissioners to set aside a specific area of land for the recreation of local inhabitants. If this was not done, the Commissioners had to explain in their annual report to Parliament why it had not been done. These areas of land are known as recreation allotments and their maintenance and management is usually the responsibility of trustees.

It was not until the late nineteenth century that the village green was defined in statute, but the Commons Registration Act 1965 for the first time provided for registration of greens as a distinct category of land separate from commons. The definition of village greens in the 1965 Act includes greens subject to customary rights (enforcable at law), greens created by Statute (such as those allotted under the Inclosure Acts), and a third category of greens, where village green status is acquired over land because a significant number of the inhabitants of a locality, or of any neighbourhood within a locality have indulged in 'lawful sports and pastimes' for at least twenty years on that land and either continue to do so or have ceased to do so for not more than such period as is prescribed or determined in accordance with prescribed provisions (to be made by the Secretary of State).

Section 15 of the Commons Act 2006 changed the legal definition of a town or village green and sets out the qualifying circumstances in which land may be newly registered. Essentially anyone can apply to have land registered as a green if it has been used by local people for recreation ‘as of right’ (i.e. without permission, force or secrecy) for at least 20 years.