I dreaded walking: John Clare

Trespass is an important theme in John Clare's poetry. The Enclosure Acts transformed the landscape around his native Helpston, and places where he had wandered freely as a child were suddenly forbidden territory, as land previously held in common was divided between rich landlords. The act of trespass was a more dangerous thing than it is today: the penalty for poaching was still transportation, and John Clare's journal recounts an episode when gamekeepers nearly did take him for a poacher, when in fact he was merely seeking solitude. Indeed, man-traps had only recently been made illegal, and were probably still in use in parts of the country.

This was filmed in beech woodland near to Wayland's Smithy, on the Oxfordshire-Wiltshire border. These woodlands have always been open for anyone to enjoy, but recently, a landowner has erected signs forbidding entry. I assume the reason for this measure is that the landowner wishes to keep game in the woods, and does not want them disturbed. These are the same people who raise pheasants in coops and then release them in enormous numbers to eat all the lizards and slow-worms. The pheasants spill out into the countryside, and onto the roads, where there is mass carnage. The survivors are then shot. In my experience, the real reason why these big landowners try to restrict people's right to roam is because they do not want people's prying eyes to intrude on their dragpole snares, their piles of shotgun cartridges, and the litter of bird bones they leave behind.

I, for one, will continue to walk in these woods where people have always walked. I am not the only one, apparently. The landowner's new signs have been subject to a systematic campaign of vandalism, and for once, I am entirely on the side of the vandals, whoever they may be.