Village green

A village green is an area of common grass land at the centre of a settlement. Some may also have a pond. Greens are increasingly rare and are mainly to be found in the older villages of mainland Europe, and the United Kingdom. Everyone has the right to graze animals on this land although few people now do so.

Enclosure, the agricultural revolution, and urban development have led to the loss of a number of village greens. Town expansion in the mid 20th century led to the formation of local conservation societies, often centering on village green preservation, as parodied in The Kinks' album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society.

The green is traditionally at a central location and provides an open-air meeting place for the people of a village, specifically at times of celebration. May Day festivities are traditionally located at the green, with the Maypole errected at its centre. See also Beltane.

A notable example of a village green is that in the village of Finchingfield in the English county of Essex, which is said to be "the most photographed village in England" [1]. The green dominates the village, and slopes down to a duck pond, and is occasionally flooded when it has been raining too much.

There are two places in the United States called Village Green: Village Green-Green Ridge, Pennsylvania, and Village Green, New York.