| Administrative History | Derbyshire County Council is the registration authority throughout Derbyshire in relation to both common land and land which is a town or village green, including any rights claimed over such land and the ownership of them. The responsibilities of registration authorities are to compile, maintain and amend the registers. The main legislation establishing these functions, including the content and form of the registers, is the Commons Registration Act 1965, as reformed by the Commons Act 2006.
The registers for Derbyshire seem to have been compiled originally by the County Clerk’s office in the pre-April 1974 County Council. However there are one or two register entries which relate to the former Derby County Borough Council area. It seems that since then amending and maintaining of the registers has been done successively by the County Clerk’s office, County Secretary’s Division, and later Legal Services.
These records are unusual among Derbyshire Record Office’s collections in that they retain their status as a current record and may from time to time be further amended by council officers with appropriate authorisation.
The 1965 Act requires the registers to remain open to inspection by the public at all reasonable times, a provision which is met by Derbyshire Record Office’s regular opening hours and document ordering times.
These registers are not to be confused with the Rights of Way declarations register (see https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/countryside/access/rights-of-way/declaration-register/declaration-register.aspx). |