JOIN US FOR A MASS TRESPASS!
Saturday 24th July 2021
The fate of Brighton Downs sharply symbolises the fate of much of our modern private countryside.
Within the lifetimes of our oldest people living today the South Downs used to be a ‘Landscape of Freedom’, with great open scented, flowery pastures, rolling, close-cropped ‘sheep walks’ – largely unfenced – over which people could freely wander, whilst Skylarks made music in the heavens above our heads.
To be sure, the mad economics of imperial food policy and the craziness of two world wars had seen these biodiverse ‘chalk grasslands’ greatly neglected in a century of agricultural depression, then turned into army training ranges, and cleared and destroyed by dig-for-victory and post-war ploughing.
Even now there are nearly two hundred shattered fragments of these pastures surviving locally… mostly on slopes too steep to plough… mostly in poor condition… mostly unknown to us all.
We lost our freedom to wander. We lost most of this hugely-rich ecosystem…this ‘rainforest in miniature’.
We were driven from the places we’d played in as children.
NOW we want our Landscape of Freedom back!
This July a new alliance of free walkers, local and national, are organising a peaceful mass trespass on Saturday 24th July, 10.30am, to re-connect with our local Downland.
‘Landscapes of Freedom’ is a new local activist group, organising with and in support of the national Right to Roam campaign.
This is in the tradition of the campaign of peaceful mass trespasses that were organised to support government proposals for a limited right to roam in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000)… and in the tradition of the famous Kinder Scout mass trespass of 1932.
Come join us for fun and celebration of our threatened Downland wildlife…for:
‘What the eye cannot see the heart cannot grieve over’
WE WANT OUR LANDSCAPE OF FREEDOM BACK!
In person event: Mass trespass and picnic
TIME: 10.30am
LOCATION: TO BE ANNOUNCED NEARER THE TIME
WATCH THIS SPACE: landscapesoffreedom@gmail.com
https://landscapesoffreedom.com/
To stay updated, please also visit our social media sites and the hashtags #LandscapesOfFreedom and #Right2Roam