Talk:Open Country

There is also a programme on BBC Radio Four called "Open Country". A lot of Radio Four programmes get their own article in Wikipedia, so if any one starts an article on this programme, disambiguation would be needed. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 14:36, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Move or merge?

"Open country" is not a proper noun, so this page should be at "open country" not "Open Country" per WP:SENTENCECASE. The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 use lower case throughout. I haven't gone thorough checking all sources, and I imagine that some might treat it as a proper noun, but in cases where usage is mixed, WP house style is sentence case. It looks like Natural England used to capitalise it, which I imagine might be where we picked it up from, but Natural England have a habit overcapitalisation, and they've stopped since they were brought onto Gov.UK and had the Gov style guide imposed on them.

However, before I rush ahead an request a move, there are complications.

• Open country currently redirects to open terrain. Some editors might therefore prefer that we merge this article with open terrain and have a section within that article about usage of the "open country" term in the UK. I do not prefer that option, because while open terrain and Open Country are not unrelated topics, I think they have sufficiently distinct definitions that merging them could be confusing or misleading.
• "Open country" is closely related to the term open access land, which currently redirects to freedom to roam. Is there even enough unique content in this article to be worth separating from freedom to roam § England and Wales? If there is enough, should the separate article be called "open country", "open access land", or would it be better to use WP:SUMMARY and have an article freedom to roam in England and Wales covering these topics?

So the options seem to be:

1. Move this page to open country (and add a hatnote from here to open terrain and/or text in the body explaining the relationship and difference between the terms)
2. Merge this page with open terrain
3. Merge this page into freedom to roam § England and Wales
4. Move this page to freedom to roam in England and Wales and use it as the basis of a broader sub-article for freedom to roam § England and Wales

Any views? Joe D (t) 12:28, 29 July 2025 (UTC)