Latest News

Herefordshire’s historic Boat Lane, near Ross-On-Wye, is now on the map

April 21, 2022

We are delighted that the ancient Boat Lane, in the parishes of Goodrich and Walford south of Ross-on-Wye, has been added to Herefordshire Council’s definitive map of public paths, after a 20-year campaign. The route was claimed in 2003 by the society’s former local correspondent for south Herefordshire, Owen Morgan.  He argued that the lane…

Read More

Our new guide to saving green spaces

April 19, 2022

We have published a new edition of Getting Greens Registered, our step-by-step guide to registering land in England and Wales as a town or village green. Once registered, the land is protected from development and encroachment, and local people have rights of recreation there. The new (fourth) edition explains how local people must gather evidence…

Read More

Happy returns?

April 5, 2022

Anniversaries are opportunities.  So writes our general secretary Kate Ashbrook in her Opinion piece in the spring issue of Open Space. Ninety years ago this April, the trespassers on Kinder Scout in the Peak District made a brave bid for freedom. It is sad that government has not marked this event with a strong statement…

Read More
Newly recorded track in Norfolk

2026 Guillotine for historic ways is to be abolished

February 17, 2022

We are delighted that the government is to scrap the 2026 deadline for recording historic paths in England.  This deadline has, for more than 20 years, threatened our unique path-network. The deadline meant that on 1 January 2026, public rights over thousands of paths, which are public highways but not yet recorded as such, or…

Read More

New green secured voluntarily in Dartmouth, Devon

February 4, 2022

We are delighted that the historic community-orchard in Dartmouth, Devon, is now officially a village green.  On 2 February, the society joined an event organised by the Friends of Dartmouth Community Orchard and Dartmouth Town Council to unveil the plaque marking this achievement. Now that the orchard is registered as a green with Devon County…

Read More

Our stand against the grandstand

January 27, 2022

We save common land at Richmond Low Moor, North Yorkshire We have welcomed a court order setting aside the removal of common land from Richmond Low Moor following the society’s legal action. On 21 June 2021, North Yorkshire County Council granted an application by the Richmond Burgage Pastures Committee to deregister common land at the…

Read More

Our justice system undermined

January 26, 2022

Over the last 157 years, the Open Spaces Society has taken pride in successfully using the courts to rectify wrongs affecting commons, greens, other open spaces, and public paths. We also back our members in their legal actions. Now, the Westminster government’s Judicial Review and Courts Bill is set to have a profoundly detrimental effect…

Read More

Parks for ever

January 11, 2022

Simon Hunt, one of our trustees and the former chair of the Friends of Finsbury Park, reflects on the increasing importance of open spaces in the context of the pandemic and climate crisis. On 23 March 2020 the public was told to stay at home. Shops, pubs, gyms, theatres, cafes and restaurants were closed, and…

Read More

2021 What a year!

December 22, 2021

Watch our general secretary Kate Ashbrook’s Christmas message

Read More

2021 Report for the Stakeholder Working Group on Unrecorded Public Rights of Way

December 20, 2021

The aim of the Deregulation Act 2015 is to speed up the processing and determination of path claims. It is the result of many years’ work, and the consensus reached, by the rights of way stakeholder working group, consisting of balanced representation from landowners, local authorities and users. Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook is a…

Read More