Town and village greens and common land

Cheshire East Council is the commons registration authority for town and village greens and common land in Cheshire.

Town and village greens

Town and village greens are usually areas of land within defined settlements or geographical areas which local inhabitants can go onto for the exercise of lawful sports and pastimes such as organised or ad-hoc games, picnics, fetes and other similar activities. There are 17 town or village greens in Cheshire East, covering an area of approximately 289,361 metres squared.

Whilst land forming town or village greens may be privately owned, many are owned and maintained by local Parish or Community Councils. Some may also have rights of common (for example grazing of livestock) over them.

Common land

There is approximately 3,279,648 metres squared of common land in Cheshire, comprising 32 register units. Common land is land, usually in private ownership, that has rights of common over it such as:

  • grazing sheep or cattle (herbage)
  • taking peat or turf (turbary)
  • taking wood, gorse or furze (estovers)
  • taking of fish (piscary)
  • eating of acorns or beech mast by pigs (pannage)

List of Common Land in Cheshire East  (MS Excel 22KB)

Page last reviewed: 01 September 2022