The Royal Commission on Common Land at 60
Today, 25 July, marks the sixtieth anniversary of the establishment by parliament of the Royal Commission on Common Land in 1955. The commission made far-reaching recommendations for the future of commons in England and Wales. The society had been pressing for a royal commission for some time. In October 1953 it asked the Minister of Agriculture for…
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Lord Eversley’s message to members, 19 July 1915
One hundred years ago, on 19 July 1915 the fiftieth anniversary of the society’s foundation, our president and chairman Lord Eversley gave an address to the members. It is published in a 16-page booklet marked, for some reason, ‘confidential’. Here is a summary of what he said. On the 19th of July, 1865, fifty years ago…
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Talking commons in Canada
The biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) was held this year in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Kate Ashbrook attended, generously funded by the Elinor Ostrom Award of which the society was a winner in 2013. Here is her summary of her visit. I travelled with John Powell from the Countryside and…
Read MoreOur 150th Anniversary
2015 marks 150 years of the Open Spaces Society – Britain’s oldest national conservation body – and we invite you to help us celebrate this special year. Follow our 150th anniversary tweet-of-the-day. Every day we are posting a tweet and message on Facebook with the hashtag #saveopenspaces150 to celebrate an achievement in our 150-year history.…
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Fighting on
‘Opinion’ by our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, was published in the summer 2015 issue of Open Space. When David Cameron announced on 8 May that he was forming a government, he boasted of his achievements over the last five years and what he would do in the next five. Not surprisingly there was no mention…
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International commons conference in Canada
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, is in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, for the biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC), 25-29 May. She has been generously funded by the Elinor Ostrom Award, which the society won in 2013. The society is keen to encourage the IASC to embrace practitioners who…
Read MoreThe postwar revolution that altered the English countryside
On 11 May, BBC East marked VE Day: First Days of Peace with a programme on the postwar revolution that altered the English countryside into a landscape that could not only feed the nation but also be seen as a place of leisure. Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, spoke to Ben Robinson and you can…
Read MoreAccessing Nature funding programme
This summer SITA Trust will launch its new Accessing Nature programme which will fund capital works to increase and improve opportunities for access to the great outdoors. They will be accepting England-wide applications for a range of projects including, but not limited to: providing access to nature reserves and wildlife areas, creating community pond-dipping areas…
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The commons’ people
This article by our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, was published in the spring 2015 issue of the Campaign to Protect Rural England‘s magazine Countryside Voice. The name ‘common’ is scattered all over maps of England. But that does not mean the land is common today—rather the word is a memento from a time when much of…
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Happy birthday Pennine Way
Fifty years ago today, on 24 April 1965, the Pennine Way was opened. This was the first of Britain’s long-distance paths (now called national trails in England and Wales) and the event took place on Malham Moor with the Minister of Land and Natural Resources, Fred Willey, in attendance. The path was the inspiration of…
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