Village greens - at the heart of quintessential Dales' villages

When I say 'village green', does a children's fairy story picture-book image pop into your head? Perhaps you have a favourite village green somewhere, and a photo you can share? For many they represent a quintessential English scene. The houses and buildings around village greens may vary, but the feel is essentially the same.

There is usually a cluster of houses facing the green and behind them, their gardens or fields, wandering into the surrounding hills. Most have some kind of religious building nearby, whether a church or chapel. Village greens hold the settlement together, and it's easy to imagine them being the centre of local life in bygone times.

You may spot quoit boxes laid flat into the green, a bench or somewhere to gather and pass the time of day. Not far away a pub will beckon visitors and locals.

On some village greens you can still see the remnants of an old pump or market cross, and perhaps even some village stocks. An ancient oak or ash tree may complete the story book picture of rural perfection.

Village greens are defined as 'any land on which a significant number of inhabitants of any area has indulged in lawful sports and pastimes for 20 years or more'. Such places can be protected by law and are thought to have existed for at least 1500 years.

Some village greens are common land, often in addition to commons on the edge of the village. These are often open, rougher land where local people have specific rights.

I love some of the old names for particular rights. Pannage is the right to run pigs in woodland, taking beech mast and fallen acorns. Pasture sounds like it comes from an old fashioned hymn – it means a place with the right to graze stock. Turbary rights are the right to dig peat for fuel. We still talk about doing our stint, which comes from taking turns to graze or use common land.

​Village greens vary enormously in size. Some are tiny pockets squeezed among houses such as in Gunnerside. Others such as the one at Fearby above Masham stretch on for the entire village, and the grassy green grows right up to the houses.

If you’d like to enjoy some of the loveliest village greens in the Dales, take a look at Arncliffe, Carperby, East Witton, Muker, Reeth, and West Burton.

This photo is the tiny green at West Scrafton.