The Village Green, in Houghton Regis, has been called Houghton Green at least since 1762 and The Green (1848). Land called The Green is registered as a village green by the Commons Registration Act 1965, registered as V.G. 19 by Bedfordshire County Council as the registration authority at the time. Houghton Regis Parish Council applied on the 14th of December 1967. The undisputed registration became final on the 1st of October 1970. The Commons Commissioner directed Bedfordshire County Council, as Registration Authority, to register Houghton Parish Council as the owner of the Village Green on 22nd December 1972.
The Commons Registration Act 1965 provides for the registration of common land and town or village greens. Therefore, the level of protection is the same whether the Village Green is protected as common land or as a village green. There are no recorded rights of common over the Village Green. The Act identified three classes of greens, those allotted through inclosure for recreation, those originating in customary rights, and those on which lawful sports and pastimes had been carried out for more than 20 years by a significant number of inhabitants.
Under section 15 of the Commons Act of 2006, only the last type of greens, depending on evidence of recent use, can be registered. The traditional view of a village green is a mowed space on which cricket matches could be played, and maypoles are danced around, with well-placed benches, serving as a meeting place and forming the heart of a town or village.
A number of files are available concerning the use of The Green. Please ask for access.
Previously
The earlier byelaws, below, made by Houghton Regis Parish Council on 30th October 1962, have been repealed and are no longer enforceable.
