Village green preservation part 1
In November 1968, The Kinks released an album called The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. It was a quietly radical statement disguised by a disarming delivery.
The band’s main songwriter, Ray Davies, had become disenchanted with the prevailing counterculture typified by Swinging London. Notions of England and Englishness became more overt in his songwriting, resulting in the 1968 release, which crystallised these themes into a song-suite centred on the idea of the village green as something intrinsically valuable to cultural life.
n the updated Commons Act of 2006, individuals could apply to register land for common use, providing it had been used by the local community for 20 years previously.
Traditionally, these greens were where animals such as cattle, sheep and horses could graze freely. They became absorbed into villages as settlements expanded. They then became sites for markets and fairs, further establishing greens as shared, communal spaces. During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, under various Acts of Parliament, landowners enclosed increasing numbers of fields, restricting their use, making village greens even more vital as places people could occupy and use freely.
Viewed through a modern lens, the village green should hold no less significance. However, this importance is partially obscured by its place as a cultural signifier of traditional Englishness.
In the lyrics of the title track to the Kinks’ album, Ray Davies writes:
Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
Nostalgia aside, “new ways” should protect the principle of the village green through the provision of shared, open public spaces, because in many towns and cities, these spaces are rapidly disappearing. When they go, social cohesion goes with them.
