Commons Preservation Society

A British conservation organisation founded in 1865 by George Shaw Lefevre and others to protect common land from enclosure and development. Its early campaigns helped preserve Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon Common, and Epping Forest. Its founders also helped establish the National Trust in 1895. Renamed several times, it became the Open Spaces Society in 1982 and continues to protect commons, open spaces, and public paths.