The English Village Green

While Italian borghi have their main “piazza” or square, old English villages had, and often still do have, a “village green”.   Traditionally the village green was a space of land where local animal owners could allow their sheep or cows to graze, or a place where local parties and festivals were held. On Mayday for example a maypole would be set up on the green and the villagers would celebrate by choosing a May Queen and Morris Dancing.  

Morris Dancing is old English folk dancing and is still practised today by some enthusiasts.  (See a couple of examples here and here).  Many of the old village greens also had a pond.   The village greens of the middle ages also had “stocks”, (read about Stocks and see a picture here) where wrongdoers were held in wooden structures and the local people would throw things like rotten vegetables at them to punish them for their crime.  Some of these old stocks can still be found, even in London today. Village greens can be found all over the UK and are still used to celebrate local festivals or fun, such as summer fetes, where the locals set up stalls selling home made produce and games usually to raise money for good causes.  Many are well known and very picturesque as you can see in the pictures on this link.

Like the old borghi, the village roads tend to be narrow and picturesque, while magnificent old houses sometimes surround the village green itself.  Here is an example of one beautiful old place with a “thatched roof”.  

Have a look here to see some truly wonderful examples of thatched cottages around the UK if you are interested.  There used to be many more in the countryside, but they are a terrible fire risk, and so very expensive to insure. Nowadays many thatched cottage roofs are being replaced with tiles L  

This village along with its thatched cottage on the green also still has a traditional telephone box,

but that doesn’t date back so far J