I was talking to a lady today as we drove to get her shopping and she mentioned that farming was all about money and I mentioned the enclosures of the 17th century. She had never heard of it.
In brief there were a series of Acts of Parliament which enclosed common land, creating legal private property rights to land. Usually going to people who had something the king enjoyed. These acts actually started in 1604 and in the end had taken almost 7 million acres of land from the people to give to individual families.
While I think privacy is vital for mental health and well being and just in civil society I think one person denying access to others over a couple of thousand acres because their ancestor please a monarch is absurd and puerile. We actually are only stewards of the land and the more people who learn how to look after nature the better.
#enclosures
#parliament