Village greens of England: a study in historical geography

Abstract

The thesis involves a study of the English village green from the viewpoint of historical geography on aspects of greens as rural settlement. The presence of village greens in the landscape poses three categories of questions; concerning their origins, their present status and their future. With these categories of questions in mind, the research focuses pricipally on three main areas, law and regulation - including common rights and registration, inclosure and disputes. These subjects are covered under the themes of nation and local (manorial) law with a historic aspect throughout the study. types of village green - an examination of the wide variety of physical forms and origins covers greens which have been planned partially planned or formed from the residuum of some other landscape feature. distribution - a national database of village greens has made possible the production of national ma ps of these different types of greens together with surviving common rights and greens sorted on ownership types. The principal original contributions take the form of a collation of the law concerning village greens from diverse sources, a classification of their various types and numerous national and regional distribution maps of the location and types of greens and common rights and classes of owners of the greens resulting from the compilation of a national database of registerd greens.