'We have been dispossessed': Nick Hayes on land rights and a peaceful revolution at the real Toad Hall
The co-founder of the Right to Roam campaign and author of The Book of Trespass discusses the Oxfordshire riverside community he calls home and how Hardwick Hall has been taken back by the people
TL;DR
- Nick Hayes, an artist and activist, is promoting a reconnection with land in England, which he believes has a lost land culture.
- Hayes's new book, 'The Medicine Tree,' details the transformation of the Hardwick estate into a charity run by tenants, representing a 'peaceful revolution'.
- The book contrasts England's situation with Indigenous societies that maintain strong spiritual and cultural ties to their land, suggesting England has been dispossessed.
- Hayes co-founded the Right to Roam campaign, advocating for greater public access to the 92% of land in England and Wales that is currently excluded.
- The article highlights issues like privatized sewage discharge into the Thames and private toll bridges as examples of exclusionary systems.
- Hayes believes that with freedom, rights, and responsibilities on the land, a new community and land culture can grow organically.