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Lord Eversley, as George Lefevre, was a Liberal MP and Mr Gladstone made him a junior Minister at the Board of Trade. He held a variety of posts including Commissioner of Works. He opened Hampton Court Park, Kew Gardens and Regent’s Park to the public. The Society, over the last century, preserved commons for the enjoyment of the public. It has also been active in protecting the historic and important rights-of-way network through England and Wales. In 1829 Sir Thomas Maryon-Wilson was anxious to build on Hampstead Heath. He made many unsuccessful attempts to get Parliament’s permission to build on his land. After his death in 1868 his successor reached a compromise with the Society and Parliament to transfer all his rights as Lord of the Manor to the Metropolitan Board of Works. The result was a major victory for the Commons Society. Wimbledon common was under threat. Then in 1871, a bill was introduced with the Society’s help whereby eight Conservators were appointed for the future preservation of the common. Another early struggle for the society was over the commons at Banstead in Surrey. Together with Epsom Downs, they served as a green lung for many Londoners. The threatened inclosure of Banstead Common continued for nine years until, thanks to the society, the commons were saved for posterity under the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866. The Society was also active in preserving Wandsworth and Berkhamsted Commons and Epping Forest. Farther afield, it helped to save Ashdown Forest and the Malvern Hills. After both world wars the Society’s difficult task was to reinstate much common land which had been used for defence and food production. In the late 1960s, following the enactment of the Commons Registration Act 1965, we worked hard to register common land and common rights, in the far-too-short three years allowed by the Act. Many commons were lost through failure to register them. Much of our work is about the preservation and creation of public paths – footpaths was included in the Society’s title after it amalgamated with the National Footpaths Preservation Society in 1899. Before the introduction of definitive maps in the early 1950s, the public did not know where the paths were. We helped to campaign for paths to be shown on Ordnance Survey maps. After several changes of name the Society is now known formally as the Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society, abbreviated to the Open Spaces Society. Today the Open Spaces Society has its headquarters in the attractive town of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. It has 2,300 members throughout England and Wales. Its principal work is in the protection of common land, town and village greens, open spaces and public paths. We help our members when they come to us with problems threatening the public value of paths and open spaces. We advise the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and National Assembly for Wales on applications for works on common land, and we are notified by local authorities whenever there is a proposal to alter the route of a public right of way. We have always been at the forefront of the campaigns to protect common land. In 1986 the Common Land Forum, comprising all the interests in common land, recommended that there should be a public right to walk on all commons coupled with management of the land. (Please note, commons all have a landowner, ranging from a public body to a private individual, and there is no general right to walk there.) The then government backed the Forum’s proposals for legislation and promised to introduce such a law – but it broke the promise. More than a decade later, we have won the right to walk on all commons, subject to certain restrictions, under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and other legislation. There is a lot for a small society like ours to do, but we are persistent in our defence of the countryside and we greatly appreciate the support of our members.
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