What are Town and Village Greens?

Town and village greens share a similar history to common land. However, they are defined separately for the purposes of the Commons Registration Act 2006.

What are they used for?

Village greens are usually areas of land within defined settlements or geographical areas which local inhabitants can go onto for the exercise of lawful sports and pastimes.

Typically, these might include organised or ad-hoc games, picnics, fetes and other similar activities.

Who owns them?

Whilst land forming town or village greens may be privately owned, many greens are owned and maintained by local parish or community councils.

Some greens may also have rights of common (i.e. grazing of livestock) over them.

For further information

Please refer to either the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs or Opens Spaces Society websites (see useful links).