diff --git a/CHANGELOG.txt b/CHANGELOG.txt
index a140f726f0..5132549588 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.txt
+++ b/CHANGELOG.txt
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ Changelog
  * Added contextual links to admin notification messages
  * When copying pages, it is now possible to specify a place to copy to (Timo Rieber)
  * FieldPanel now accepts an optional 'widget' parameter to override the field's default form widget (Alejandro Giacometti)
+ * Page URL paths can now be longer than 255 characters
  * Dropped Django 1.6 support
  * Dropped Python 2.6 and 3.2 support
  * Dropped Elasticsearch 0.90.x support
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.0.rst b/docs/releases/1.0.rst
index 7f8b360fc7..f606ff5715 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.0.rst
+++ b/docs/releases/1.0.rst
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ Core
  * The Page model now records the date/time that a page was first published, as the field ``first_published_at``
  * Increased the maximum length of a page slug from 50 to 255 characters
  * Added hooks ``register_rich_text_embed_handler`` and ``register_rich_text_link_handler`` for customising link / embed handling within rich text fields
+ * Page URL paths can now be longer than 255 characters
 
 
 Admin
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailcore/migrations/0016_change_page_url_path_to_text_field.py b/wagtail/wagtailcore/migrations/0016_change_page_url_path_to_text_field.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d583afd61a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailcore/migrations/0016_change_page_url_path_to_text_field.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+from django.db import models, migrations
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ('wagtailcore', '0015_add_more_verbose_names'),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AlterField(
+            model_name='page',
+            name='url_path',
+            field=models.TextField(verbose_name='URL path', editable=False, blank=True),
+            preserve_default=True,
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailcore/models.py b/wagtail/wagtailcore/models.py
index fe8bb728a9..479fdef344 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailcore/models.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailcore/models.py
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ class Page(six.with_metaclass(PageBase, MP_Node, ClusterableModel, index.Indexed
     content_type = models.ForeignKey('contenttypes.ContentType', verbose_name=_('Content type'), related_name='pages')
     live = models.BooleanField(verbose_name=_('Live'), default=True, editable=False)
     has_unpublished_changes = models.BooleanField(verbose_name=_('Has unpublished changes'), default=False, editable=False)
-    url_path = models.CharField(verbose_name=_('URL path'), max_length=255, blank=True, editable=False)
+    url_path = models.TextField(verbose_name=_('URL path'), blank=True, editable=False)
     owner = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL, verbose_name=_('Owner'), null=True, blank=True, editable=False, on_delete=models.SET_NULL, related_name='owned_pages')
 
     seo_title = models.CharField(verbose_name=_("Page title"), max_length=255, blank=True, help_text=_("Optional. 'Search Engine Friendly' title. This will appear at the top of the browser window."))
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailcore/tests/test_page_model.py b/wagtail/wagtailcore/tests/test_page_model.py
index 814d460b0e..b1773ab0c4 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailcore/tests/test_page_model.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailcore/tests/test_page_model.py
@@ -677,3 +677,30 @@ class TestIssue756(TestCase):
 
         # Check that latest_revision_created_at is still set
         self.assertIsNotNone(Page.objects.get(id=1).latest_revision_created_at)
+
+
+class TestIssue1216(TestCase):
+    """
+    Test that url paths greater than 255 characters are supported
+    """
+    fixtures = ['test.json']
+
+    def test_url_path_can_exceed_255_characters(self):
+        event_index = Page.objects.get(url_path='/home/events/')
+        christmas_event = EventPage.objects.get(url_path='/home/events/christmas/')
+
+        # Change the christmas_event slug first - this way, we test that the process for
+        # updating child url paths also handles >255 character paths correctly
+        new_christmas_slug = "christmas-%s-christmas" % ("0123456789" * 20)
+        christmas_event.slug = new_christmas_slug
+        christmas_event.save_revision().publish()
+
+        # Change the event index slug and publish it
+        new_event_index_slug = "events-%s-events" % ("0123456789" * 20)
+        event_index.slug = new_event_index_slug
+        event_index.save_revision().publish()
+
+        # Check that the url path updated correctly
+        new_christmas_event = EventPage.objects.get(id=christmas_event.id)
+        expected_url_path = "/home/%s/%s/" % (new_event_index_slug, new_christmas_slug)
+        self.assertEqual(new_christmas_event.url_path, expected_url_path)