In 2020, a Right to Roam campaign was founded by the writers Nick Hayes and Guy Shrubsole. Since then, it has organised a series of “mass trespasses”: on Dartmoor, in Cumbria, on the South Downs; on the 12,000-acre Berkshire estate of Lord Benyon, who was at the time the minister responsible for access to the countryside.
At the most recent event, at Cirencester Park in Gloucestershire in March, more than 500 people marched in protest at plans by the Bathurst family, which owns the park, to impose an entry charge for the first time in more than 300 years. The campaigners argue that much more privately owned land in England should be open to the public, so that they can have “easy access to open space, and the physical, mental and spiritual health benefits that it brings”.
100%! The US has a lot of public lands, but it would be great if people could cross private land to access the public lands more easily. Sweden had the right idea.
As an American, I’d be much more receptive to the idea if I knew it would be Swedes, rather than Americans, trespassing on my land.