A Right to Roam?

First, a story. Perhaps an over-simplification, and there may be inaccuracies (history and facts are not my strong points), but this is how I see things.

Since the invasion of the Normans (in the eleventh century), we in this country have become separated from nature. Firstly, the Normans instituted their feudal system which parcelled out huge chunks of land (like Cornwall) and concentrated land ownership in the hands of the few. Then in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, these few decided to take for their own the common land which ordinary people used for food and fuel. They fenced it off and instituted a more intensive form of agriculture which meant that many lost their homes and livelihoods. With the advent of the industrial revolution, these destitute country people moved to cities to look for work (where they lived in poverty and squalor and probably never saw even a blade of grass).

We are still suffering the effects of these events, to the extent that less than 1 per cent of the population of England owns half the country (Who Owns England? by Guy Shrubsole, 2019)* and about 85 per cent of us are urban. We are excluded from 92 per cent of the land and 97 per cent of its waterways (The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes, 2020).

This is not healthy, either physically or spiritually. We need fresh air and exercise. We need nature for the world to make sense. We need the sense of freedom that wild nature brings. We need to know about nature so that we care for it and protect the planet.

The Lockdown emphasised this, as nature was all we had left. Many more people than before went out for walks in the country and, unfortunately, some farmers and landowners reacted badly to this, enclosing footpaths with wire fences and padlocking gates. Making the situation even worse.

I call this sort of structure a gulag. The bridge is for animals.

Enter the Right to Roam , an organisation started in 2021 by Hayes and Shrubsole which campaigns for England and Wales to have the right that Scotland already does.

The Ramblers organisation is also campaigning for more access to the countryside. An Act of 2000 gave us the right to walk freely over mountain, moor, heath and downland. They want that expanded to cover woodland, watersides and more grassland. Woodland alone would more than double our freedom.

A right to roam wouldn’t mean that people can walk wherever they like without consideration, but it would mean that we might be able to enjoy more of our beautiful country – swimming in rivers, camping out under the night sky, exploring wild places, going off-piste.

A Duchy of Cornwall wood, with access barred by the sign above. So enticing.

An overgrown watermeadow, currently out of bounds. Is there anything more beautiful?

There would of course be responsibilities on both sides. We would need to respect crops and farm animals, and avoid damaging the countryside with, for example, litter and fires. There would be exclusion zones around places such as houses. Landowners on the other hand couldn’t needlessly obstruct access.

But, in the end, it could be of benefit to us all. The public would be better educated about what to do and not do when out and about. We could share guardianship of the countryside with farmers and landowners, which might help safeguard nature. Farmers could make friends with their communities and feel less isolated and misunderstood. We’d all be happier and healthier.

That is my dream.

And here are a couple of pictures of things going right, of farmers engaging with visitors – a taste, I hope, of things to come.

Devon, 2020

Kent, 2025

*I read elsewhere that in the UK as a whole 1 percent of the population owns 70 percent of the land, but I'm checking this figure.