‘They don’t like girls hanging around there’: conflicts over recreational space in rural Northamptonshire

This paper provides new insights into girls’ use of recreational spaces within rural areas. We draw upon data from in‐depth discussion work with 10–14 year old girls undertaken in rural Northamptonshire to show how conflict between adults and children, rival groups of children, and boys and girls influences the social ownership of recreational spaces. In contrast to the rural childhood myth, we disclose geographies of anxiety, tension anddisharmony.