One sunny Sunday in July a group of people went for a walk around Firle in East Sussex. Ignoring the “keep out” signs and clambering the fences these mass trespassers are part of a growing land rights movement across England. Lockdowns made clear the importance to our health of access to nature, yet we only have definite access rights to 8% of the land and 3% of rivers.
Grassroots group, Landscapes of Freedom, organise monthly mass trespasses in Sussex. Trespassers take it in turns to research the land visited and share what they find with the group. This includes information about history and wildlife as well as contested access and environmental damage. Bonus is the chance to soak up hidden beauty and make new friends.
At the Firle Estate, the group were told about the inherited wealth (estimated at more than £15 million) of the owner, the 8th Viscount Gage and how that wealth comes from slavery and colonialism but dodges inheritance tax! In 2021, the estate received £330,000 from a “levelling up” fund, to fix potholes in a private road on the estate. How level is your land?
The Firle Estate is hunt country and hunt sabs in small groups have often been attacked. This time we walked through a pheasant pen with the gamekeeper there. Not so brave when outnumbered! Previous outings have faced aggro from the toff’s hired goons. Bloodsports only continue because the few who do support them own huge areas of land which they defend using the same violence with which they acquired it.
The walkers proceeded, sometimes on footpaths, sometimes not, along the land at the base of the South Downs. Areas of the steep slopes above are designated as open access but no signs tell this to the public passing by on footpaths. In contrast, when passing through private land of the estate, every gateway off the footpath sports a stern sign – “Keep out”. The access rights we have now were only won by direct action and campaigns over many years, and footpaths are only kept open by kicking up a fuss when access is denied.
Trespassers talk about how land ownership is entwined with struggles for social and environmental justice. Firle trespassers discussed the inequalities in housing, where one person can own 7,500 acres, including three villages, while most of us struggle to afford rent for a mouldy flat.
Other organised trespasses have aimed to highlight environmental destruction, for example climate and biodiversity activists marched on Boughton House in 2022 to protest plans by the owner, Duke of Buccleuch, to destroy woodland and meadows for a warehousing development.
While some landowners decide to do organic farming or rewilding, others decide to open a mine or burn a grouse moor. In a time of biodiversity crisis it seems not just unfair but utterly foolish to leave so much power in the hands of so few individuals. The rest of us are expected to pay them subsidies not to destroy the ecosystems we are not allowed to visit.
You too can easily do a bit of trespassing, with a few friends or organising a new group. There is 92% of the country to choose from and no shortage of tales of injustice to uncover either.
- Share reports of your trespass at trespasserscompanion.org
- See also – landscapesoffreedom.wordpress.com
- Right To Roam – righttoroam.org.uk
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