Inland Revenue 1910 Finance Act Maps
The working maps drawn up by the Inland Revenue under the Finance Act 1910 were handed over to the Wiltshire Record Office in 1979 and are now in the custody of the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre. The maps are typically consulted by the public for family and local history research and for evidence to…
Read MoreWe commemorate our path pioneer, Octavia Hill
The year 2012 marks the centenary of the death of Octavia Hill, an early activist of the Open Spaces Society. Octavia became involved in the society in about 1875 shortly after her unsuccessful campaign to buy the fields between Swiss Cottage and Hampstead in west London. She joined the committee of the society, urging it…
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Open Spaces Society becomes a company
On 1 January 2012 the Open Spaces Society gains company status, registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, number 7846516. This follows our special general meeting on 23 November where members voted unanimously that the society should become a company. The society will continue to be known as the Open Spaces…
Read MoreOSS responds to local government association’s attack on new village greens
We have responded robustly to an outburst from the Local Government Association today on new village greens. Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘The LGA has not produced hard evidence to back its allegation that people are applying for village green status in order to block development. ‘The LGA implies that this happens frequently. In…
Read MoreWe fight development on treasured Picket Mead common
Carrington Moore Estates wants to build four houses next to Picket Mead Common at Murton, Swansea, with a driveway over the common and cabling underneath it. Last December Welsh ministers rejected appeals by the company against the refusal of permission for a similar application, but the developers are trying again to get consent. We have…
Read MoreCourt win for Yeadon Banks town green
We are delighted that the case for registering Yeadon Banks as a town green has prevailed in the Court of Appeal. The five-acre Yeadon Banks is a much-loved open space on the outskirts of Leeds. On Friday (2 December) the Appeal Court rejected the arguments on behalf of the landowner, Leeds Group plc, that the…
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New footpath in Leicestershire
Chris Peat (a member of the society and clerk to Carlton Parish Council) organised a special celebration for the opening of a new definitive right of way on land between the villages of Carlton and Barton in the Beans, about ten miles west of Leicester. The new path links footpath S68 (on the well-known Leicestershire…
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Mega-nosedive for microlights in mid Bucks
A planning inspector, John Felgate, has rejected plans by Mr Mark Fowler to fly microlight aircraft from Bernwood Farm, Botolph Claydon in mid Bucks. Mr Fowler had appealed against Aylesbury Vale District Council’s refusal of consent in December 2010. The application was retrospective: Mr Fowler, the tenant of Bernwood Farm, was already flying aircraft there…
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Government should learn from Cumbrian green-space project
‘The government could learn a lot from the Our Green Space project in Cumbria.’ So declares our general secretary Kate Ashbrook, who spoke at the project’s celebratory event in Penrith on 11 November. ‘Here five communities*, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Friends of the Lake District, have revitalised their local green…
Read MorePlan to suburbanise Cornish coast
We are opposing plans which would suburbanise the small rural community of Trevone, near Padstow on the north coast of Cornwall. An application from First Step Homes to erect 15 dwellings at Trevone Farm comes before the planning committee on 9 November. This development will be an eyesore, a suburban excrescence in open country. There…
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