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A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock,[ citation needed ] often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle to bring them later on to a common land for grazing.[ citation needed ] Later, planned greens were built into the centres of villages. [1]
The village green also provided, and may still provide, an open-air meeting place for the local people, which may be used for public celebrations such as May Day festivities. The term is used more broadly to encompass woodland, moorland, sports grounds, buildings, roads and urban parks.
Most village greens in England originated in the Middle Ages. Individual greens may have been created for various reasons, including protecting livestock from wild animals or human raiders during the night, or providing a space for market trading. [1]
In most cases where a village green is planned, it is placed in the centre of a settlement. Village greens can also be formed when a settlement expands to the edge of an existing area of common land, or when an area of waste land between two settlements becomes developed. [1]
Some historical village greens have been lost as a result of the agricultural revolution and urban development. Greens are now most likely to be found in the older villages of mainland Europe, the United Kingdom, and older areas of the United States.
Some greens that used to be commons, or otherwise at the centres of villages, have been swallowed up by a city growing around them. Sometimes they become a city park or a square and manage to maintain a sense of place. London has several of these, such as Newington Green, with Newington Green Unitarian Church anchoring the northern end.
Town expansion in the mid-20th century led in England to the formation of local conservation societies, often centring on village green preservation, as celebrated and parodied in The Kinks' album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society . The Open Spaces Society is a present-day UK national campaigning body that continues this movement.
In the United States, the most famous example[ citation needed ] of a town green is probably the New Haven Green in New Haven, Connecticut. New Haven was founded by settlers from England and was the first planned city in the United States. Originally used for grazing livestock, the Green dates from the 1630s and is well preserved today despite lying at the heart of the city centre.
The largest green in the U.S. is a mile in length and can be found in Lebanon, Connecticut. This is the only village green in the United States still used for agriculture. One of the most unusual is the Dartmouth Green in Hanover, New Hampshire, which was owned and cleared by the college in 1770. The college, not the town, still owns it and surrounded it with buildings as a sort of collegiate quadrangle in the 1930s, although its origin as a town green remains apparent.
An example of a traditional American town green exists in downtown Morristown, NJ. The Morristown Green dates from 1715 and has hosted events ranging from executions to clothing drives.
There are two places in the United States called Village Green: Village Green-Green Ridge, Pennsylvania, and Village Green, New York. Some New England towns, along with some areas settled by New Englanders such as the townships in the Connecticut Western Reserve, refer to their town square as a village green. The village green of Bedford, New York, is preserved as part of Bedford Village Historic District.
A notable example of a village green is that in the village of Finchingfield in Essex, England, which is said to be "the most photographed village in England". [2] The green dominates the village, and slopes down to a duck pond, and is occasionally flooded after heavy rain. The small village of Car Colston in Nottinghamshire, England, has two village greens, totaling 29 acres (12 ha), [3] and the village of Burton Leonard in North Yorkshire has three.
The Open Spaces Society states that in 2005 there were about 3,650 registered greens in England covering 8,150 acres (3,298 ha) and about 220 in Wales covering about 620 acres (251 ha).
The northern part of the province of Drenthe in the Netherlands is also known for its village greens. Zuidlaren is the village with the largest number of village greens in the Netherlands.
The Błonia Park, originally established in the Middle Ages, is an example of a large village green in Kraków, Poland.
In Indonesia, especially in Java, a similar place is called Alun-Alun. It is a central part of Javanese village architecture and culture.
Apart from the general use of the term, village green has a specific legal meaning in England and Wales, and also includes the less common term town green. Town and village greens were defined in the Commons Registration Act 1965, as amended by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, as land:
Registered greens in England and Wales are now governed by the Commons Act 2006, but the fundamental test of whether land is a town and village green remains the same. Thus land can become a village green if it has been used for twenty years without force, secrecy or request (nec vi, nec clam, nec precario). [4] Village green legislation is often used to try to frustrate development. Recent case law (Oxfordshire County Council vs Oxford City Council and Robinson) [5] makes it clear that registration as a green would render any development which prevented continuing use of the green as criminal activity under the Inclosure Act 1857 and the Commons Act 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 56). This leads to some most curious areas being claimed as village greens, sometimes with success. Recent examples include a bandstand, [6] two lakes [7] and a beach. [8]
On 11 December 2019, a Supreme Court decision put the future of some village greens at risk in England and Wales. The case involved five fields (13 hectares) in south Lancaster, the Moorside Fields, owned by Lancashire County Council. The lands had been available for public use for over 50 years. According to the Commons Act 2006, land used for informal recreation for at least 20 years can be registered as green and is then protected from development. (Granted, the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 specified that land designated for planning applications could not be registered as a village green, but that did not apply in the Moorside Fields case.)
The Moorside Fields Community Group attempted to register the lands in 2016 under the Commons Act 2006. The local authority challenged the registration, wanting to retain control of the lands for future expansion of the nearby Moorside Primary School's playing fields. The council's challenge failed in the High Court and then in the Court of Appeal; the registration of the land as a village green could proceed. [9] Lancashire County Council subsequently appealed to the UK Supreme Court.
In the appeal decision, cited as R (on the application of Lancashire County Council) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Respondent) the court overturned the previous judgments. At the same time, the Supreme Court also ruled against the registration of lands in a separate case in Surrey involving the 2.9 hectare Leach Grove Wood at Leatherhead, owned by the National Health Service. [10] [11] After publication of the decision in the Moorside Fields case, Lancashire County Council told the news media that the court had "protect[ed] this land for future generations". [12]
In effect, the Supreme Court decision left lands owned by public authorities by their statutory powers open to development for any purpose that they deem to be appropriate. [13] This could have far-reaching ramifications in England and Wales, according to the Open Spaces Society, a national conservation group that was founded in 1865. A representative made this comment to The Guardian : "This is a deeply worrying decision as it puts at risk countless publicly owned green spaces which local people have long enjoyed, but which, unknown to them, are held for purposes which are incompatible with recreational use". [14]
English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures.
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower court, elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the same meaning. Depending on the jurisdiction, such justices dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions. Justices of the peace are appointed or elected from the citizens of the jurisdiction in which they serve, and are usually not required to have any formal legal education in order to qualify for the office. Some jurisdictions have varying forms of training for JPs.
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, which for centuries were the principal unit of secular and religious administration in most of England and Wales. Civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894, which established elected parish councils to take on the secular functions of the parish vestry.
Common land is collective land in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
Lancashire is a county of England, in the northwest of the country. The county did not exist in 1086, for the Domesday Book, and was apparently first created in 1182, making it one of the youngest of the traditional counties.
The courts of Scotland are responsible for administration of justice in Scotland, under statutory, common law and equitable provisions within Scots law. The courts are presided over by the judiciary of Scotland, who are the various judicial office holders responsible for issuing judgments, ensuring fair trials, and deciding on sentencing. The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland, subject to appeals to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and the High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court, which is only subject to the authority of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on devolution issues and human rights compatibility issues.
Swinton is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. southwest of the River Irwell, 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Manchester, adjoining the town of Pendlebury and suburb of Clifton. In 2014, it had a population of 22,931.
A parish meeting is a meeting all the electors in a civil parish in England are entitled to attend.
Rivington is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying 2,538 acres. It is about 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Chorley and about 8+1⁄2 miles (13.7 km) northwest of Bolton. Rivington is a rural area consisting primarily of agricultural grazing land, moorland, with hill summits including Rivington Pike and Winter Hill within the West Pennine Moors. The area has a thriving tourist industry centred around reservoirs created to serve Liverpool in the Victorian era and Lever Park created as a public park by William Lever at the turn of the 20th century, with two converted barns, a replica of Liverpool Castle and open countryside. Rivington and Blackrod High School is located here. Rivington and its village had a population of 109 at the 2011 Census.
Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd, also known as the Gove land rights case because its subject was land known as the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory, was the first litigation on native title in Australia, and the first significant legal case for Aboriginal land rights in Australia, decided on 27 April 1971.
Warneford Meadow is an area of 20 acres (8.1 ha) of natural grassland immediately south-east of the Warneford Hospital, in Headington, east Oxford, England. The Warneford Meadow is a wild space within urban Oxford. The area has been used by local residents as a public space for recreation for over 50 years.
Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty to that land by another colonising state. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, the content of aboriginal title, the methods of extinguishing aboriginal title, and the availability of compensation in the case of extinguishment vary significantly by jurisdiction. Nearly all jurisdictions are in agreement that aboriginal title is inalienable, and that it may be held either individually or collectively.
Sholver is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. An elevated, residential area, it lies near the middle of the Oldham part of the valley of the River Beal, 2.1 miles (3.4 km) northeast of Oldham's commercial centre, nearly at the northeasternmost extremity of the town, by open countryside close to the source of the River Medlock and by the border with Saddleworth.
The Open Spaces Society is a campaign group that works to protect public rights of way and open spaces in the United Kingdom, such as common land and village greens. It is Britain's oldest national conservation body and a registered charity.
Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut (1705–1773) was the first indigenous land rights litigation in history in a common law jurisdiction. James Youngblood Henderson, professor of law, calls the case "the first major legal test of indigenous tenure." Robert Clinton calls it the "first formal litigation of North American Indian rights."
English land law is the law of real property in England and Wales. Because of its heavy historical and social significance, land is usually seen as the most important part of English property law. Ownership of land has its roots in the feudal system established by William the Conqueror after 1066, but is now mostly registered and sold on the real estate market. The modern law's sources derive from the old courts of common law and equity, and legislation such as the Law of Property Act 1925, the Settled Land Act 1925, the Land Charges Act 1972, the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 and the Land Registration Act 2002. At its core, English land law involves the acquisition, content and priority of rights and obligations among people with interests in land. Having a property right in land, as opposed to a contractual or some other personal right, matters because it creates priority over other people's claims, particularly if the land is sold on, the possessor goes insolvent, or when claiming various remedies, like specific performance, in court.
The Commons Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It implements recommendations contained in the Common Land Policy Statement 2002.
Woodcock Hill Village Green or Woodcock Hill Open Space is an area of grass and woodland in Borehamwood in Hertfordshire in England. It was designated a Village Green in 2008 to prevent development of the site.
The Commons Registration Act 1965 is an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom enacted in 1965 that concerns the registration of rights to common land, town greens, and village greens in England and Wales. The legislation under the Harold Wilson government made reference to the Land Registration Act 1925 and Land Registration Act 1936.
The law of Illinois, a state of the United States, consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, and regulatory law, as well as case law and local law. Illinois state law is promulgated under the Illinois State Constitution. The Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) form the general statutory law. The case law of the Illinois Supreme Court and state appellate courts is currently published online under a public domain reporting system. Interpretations of law and conflicts among the various levels of law are referred to the Illinois courts in suits for application of common law. The states administrative law is published in codified form in the Illinois Administrative Code. Local ordinances are published by the respective local authorities, which are granted that authority under state law.
The future of a Lancaster village green has been secured after its registration was upheld in court.
The question common to both cases was whether the fact that the land was held by a public body for the performance of its statutory powers and duties (by Lancashire County Council and the NHS in these instances) made the land incapable of being registered as a town or village green. Registration requires local people to have used the land for informal recreation for 20 years 'as of right', ie without being stopped or asking permission.
[2019] UKSC 58
the case has wide implications for land held for statutory purposes by public authorities.
I think that this judgment totally redefines the way we understand land held in the public domain," Bebbington said. "It affects every piece of land held by a statutory body, for example by the MoD, the NHS and local authorities.