Abstract
It is generally recognized that commons have played a key role in English village life.Three types of rights ― such as ownership, common right and public rights of access ―overlap each other on the same lands. After the mid-nineteenth century a social movement led by the urban middle class has been developed claiming public rights of access to the common lands for air and exercise. This paper analyzes the historical process and the significance of the movement. The Commons Preservation Society (now The Open Spaces Society) has been tackling access issues persistently over a century. The Society aimed at not only the protection of common rights from enclosure but the opening of commons for the public enjoyment. The aim was partially realized after a series of Commons Acts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The Metropolitan Commons Act 1866 was the first step in protecting urban commons from enclosure and claimed their preservation as open spaces. The Law of Property Act 1925 established the public rights of access to metropolitan commons for the first time. The Act strictly forbade owners to erect any building or fence whereby access was prevented or impeded.
The public now have access rights to areas amounting to about 20 per cent of the whole common lands. The author regards it epoch-making that the general right of public access has been established on a wide range of open country in Britain. Through this process the legal structure of commons has changed its individual characteristic and accepted the concept of the right of access by public at large.
