FINISHED READING - The Book Of Trespass by Nick Hayes

"We need space for the mind to rave, to wander and to dream. Access to land is access to experience and access to nature is access to our own wild, spiritual mind. And while the current logic of property forbids our experience of land unless it is sold, we are expected to buy weekend tickets to access our own wild creativity."*

It is a telling statistic that 92% of land and 97% of waterways in England is in private ownership, and hence out of bounds for ordinary folk to walk or sail on without paying for permission or permit. That is only the starting point for Nick Hayes excellent exploration of that most English notion of private property as akin to a divine right. You are not allowed to question how this ownership came about either. Hayes notes that when common public land has been openly stolen by landowners, once it becomes their own private property any discussion broaching on that illegality, becomes as off limits as how the landowner came by his original estate in the first place. Because actually the parcelling out of land to a select group of individuals, well, none of that stands up too well to close historical scrutiny.

The lions share of our present land ownership distribution has its origins in 1066 and the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror gave land to his nobiity who'd helped win that conquest. Kicking out the Saxon chiefs and putting in his own men. These brought with them their own culture, that loved to hunt in forests.  So they set about creating new forests with a hunting 'chase' built into them. Land that previously had been open for all to forage and hunt, became private land that you might lose your life if you were caught trespassing or 'poaching' upon it. This fencing off of what was once common land, was the first of many such thefts of collectively owned land for individual private benfit and profit. And so this has continued, common land continues to be constantly accrued by the wealthy landowner, corporation or investment  company. Acts of Enclosure began in the 17th century, greatly accelerated in the 18th, and carried on until just before World War 1. The destruction of feudal land use and peasant livelihoods ranged wide and deep, which led to a slow building exodus from the countryside into the industrial towns in the 18th-19th century.  To own property and land was to gain access to unimaginable privileges, advantages those of us who don't own land can never acquire. 

" Property decides what is proper. It decides what land is for and who land is for. If you can't afford to pay for access to city clubs or country festivals, or if you don't own property spacious enough to create your own community gathering, if no landlord will give you permission, there is simply nowhere for you to commune. As long as what happens on the land is governed by a select few there will never be a society that reflects the values of anything but a tiny minority of its citizens. If we are truly to discover what we have in common, we must be allowed to gather on common ground. "*

When a local council brings in a developing company to revamp a public space, this often entails the selling of the land to that company. And hence once common land held for us by our councils, becomes private land. If you wanted to start a march or protest in this once public space, you'd be very promptly turfed off, because this is now private property and there are no rights of assembly here. Gradually common land and public spaces are being eradicated, and our sense of belonging to this land that surrounds us is consequently diminished. The ability of ordinary folk to disscent and protest is being kettled and corralled, into ever tighter defined areas. This lack of available space and freedom to breath easily or publicly vent, leads us into ill health and a crisis in the nations physical and mental wellbeing. Property law becomes then a major way the establishment limits the effect of dissent, which unfortunately even people kept outside of the establishment fence, aspirationally buy into.

This impoverishes ordinary lives, where ease of access to walk the land we were brought up in, to breath its sea air, and swim freely in our rivers, are all carefully ring fenced by signs that warn Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted. Nick Hayes has been one of the founders of The Right To Roam campaigning movement. It's aims modelled upon the Scottish Right To Roam law which was introduced in 2003. Other European countries have the right to roam in law as part of their birthright - Norway, Sweden. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Czech Republic and Switzerland. So it's not the batshit crazy, neo- marxist idea English landowners would like to make it out to be. In The Book of Trespass, Hayes cleverly mixes facts, statistics, historical research and his own adventures in trespassing. As an artist, he is often in search of the forbidden, the out of reach places, the woods and landscapes we cannot see because they are behind a literal wall of exclusion. He wants to draw and paint these things simply because they are so rarely seen. And through out the book we see are shown some of his stylish artworks. He is also an excellent painter in words, very vivid pictures of the qualities of a particular forests, the pleasures in lighting fires outside, of gazing up into the night skies above delapidated architectural follies, or the experience of kayaking down the Thames towards Runnymede, or the jeopardy involved in searching for mythic oak trees. He shows us what we are all missing out on, because it's hived off behind a barbed fence, with an equally barbed sign.

"More often than not, I and whichever friend I could persuade to join me met not one other soul on our trip. We walked, sat around, talked, took in the day, lit a fire, slept, cleared away our rubbish, and left. And the most striking discovery of all this rambling was just how wide the world is, how many hills, lakes, woods and dells there are to this land. If England is full, it is full of space. And the walls that hide it."*

A friend loaned me this book, after seeing the documentary Our Land about the Right To Roam movement, that Nick Hayes is a part of. I found myself being unexpectedly captivated and completely enthused by it.  Part polemic, part the diary of a true nature lover, and a very deep and thorough dive into the scurrilous nature of property and land ownership rights in England's green and pleasant land. Lack of land, or access to land, being a canker on England's sense of individual liberty and view of who we are. Highly recommended.

CARROT REVIEW - 7/8

* All quotations taken from The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes, 

   Published by Bloomsbury, 2021