Commons Registration Authority

What we do to maintain the register of common land and village greens.

We are a registration authority under the Commons Registration Act, 1965 and hold registers for both common land and town or village greens, which can be inspected free of charge.

What information is in the registers?

Each area of common land or town or village green listed in the registers has a unique 'unit number'. For example, Port Meadow is register unit No. CL1 (the CL prefix defining the land as common). Wood Green, Witney is register unit No. VG90 (the VG prefix defining the land as town or village green).

Each registration comprises of a map and a register entry which is divided into three sections showing details of:

  • land - this includes a description of the land, who registered it and when the registration took place.

  • rights - this includes a description of the rights of common (e.g. the right to graze 100 sheep), the area over which the rights are exercisable, and the name of the person (the 'commoner') or property these rights are attached to. These rights will almost always be attached to a property rather than a person.

  • ownership - this includes details of who it was that was understood to own the land at the time of registration. Entries in this section of the register are not held to be conclusive.

What do we do?

As a Commons Registration Authority, we are responsible for maintaining the registers of common land and town or village greens in Oxfordshire. This includes registering ‘new’ town or village greens, in some instances rectifying incorrectly registered commons or greens, and updating the registers when necessary.

The registers are available for public inspection or we can provide scanned copies of entries. Contact us to request a copy. 

If upon inspection you believe the registration map to be in error, it may be possible for you to make a Rectification Application to amend it. Details of how to make such an application.

All CON 29 Question 22 queries regarding Common Land and Village Green should be directed to the relevant District Council for your area: