Has anyone had people trespassing in your fields?

Yes....
We have a footpath running down the side of our yard gate, and down the side of one of our paddocks.
We have no issue with them being on the path, but had to chain the bottom gateway shut, as some were using it in preference to a stile, and not shutting it properly.
We've had people walk into the barn where the stables are to say hello to the horses (mum flipped her lid, when the alarm went off in the house, found a random bloke in there, and he lectured her for being unreasonable.
I found one man using our feedbucket brush to scrub his muddy boots in our clean water filled dustbin.
We've had blackberry pickers (stealing our blackberries) on the opposite side of the footpath -'it's a 3 acre field.
We got so fed up with everyone everywhere but the path (including dog poo in the arena) that we have now post and taped it. They've no excuse now.
However the most unbelievable act of stupidity and trespass was our other field that has no footpath/public access. A man stopped on the road, aimed a shot gun out of his window, fired it, climbed out and climbed to stone wall, collecting what he'd shot. My mum didn't report it, but I flipped. However she did collar him as he came past the house, and I think he was cacking himself for being seen - and the ramifications if he was reported (he was the local Gamekeeper and would have lost his job).
As for stopping to have a picnic, well footpaths are a right of way to pass through, and not a gathering point to have a group get together for the day.
 
Siennamum - there is plenty of free public space around (especially near Bristol - you have the Mendips/ Quantocks/ Cheddar gorge, etc)) - why would you think that it is OK for people to walk over farm land. People from towns do not in general have any idea of the Country Code regarding leaving gates as you found them; putting dogs on leads near livestock; not allowing children to chase to "fluffy little lambs"; picking up litter; lighting fires on dry ground, etc,etc.

There was a good example recently on the farm where I keep my horse. They were in the middle of lambing and had notices up on the footpaths around the farm asking people to keep dogs on leads. A lady from the village took her young dog for a walk off lead on the footpath; the dog ran off and tried to get through an electric fence into the sheep field; it got a shock and ran off. Cue hysterical dog owner screaming at the farmer, blaming him if her dog was injured (!). He told her fairly bluntly what he thought of her. Dog walker spent all day looking for the dog, which turned up fine later at her house. She has been told that if the dog is seen off lead in the sheep field again, it will be shot - but she still continues to walk it off lead on the path. Stupid, ignorant, or what! My OH knows her and has said to her it would probably be best to keep it on the lead as the farmer is so fed up with sheep worrying that he will shoot it - at least to make others in the village realise he means what he says. She has said in reply that it is her "right" to walk the dog off the lead wherever she likes!! Arghh.

I think landowners in the countryside would be more tolerant if they did not have to put up with blatant abuse of their land by those who think that all land is for their own use. If you have saved to buy a piece of land for your horse, then why should other people have access to that?
 
At my old field we kept finding dog crap everywhere and couldn't work out where it came from. The field had back gardens to two sides, the rest was thick hawthorn hedging with a barbed wire fence in it.

Found out it was one of the foul neighbours who was chucking his dogs over his fence into the field so they could exersise themselves and crap all over. When we spoke to him about it he said our dogs are always there so it was alright ??? We told him yes, we exersised our dogs on the field, and they were always with us when we were checking the horses, but we picked up after them. We started chucking the dog muck we found in the field over the fence into his garden.......... funnily enough, we stopped finding it quite quickly after that! :D
 
Siennamum - it is no ones 'right' to please themselves and go all over someone else's land. Much as it is not my right to come and have a picnic in your garden or walk my dogs on your lawn.

Dogs on a farm ARE a real nuisance. One was shot one day on our place. Someone was regularly walking their dog off the lead in with the sheep despite repeated warnings.
One day it decided to have a serious chase and killed 8 before it was shot dead.
Horrid for all concerned.

A farm isn't a playground, it's a carefully managed place of work, and someones livelihood.
 
patterdale said:
Much as it is not my right to come and have a picnic in your garden or walk my dogs on your lawn.
Click to expand...

I do sometimes wonder how people would react to me strolling on into their house and plonking myself down on their couch for a while, having a bite to eat. Maybe chase their pets around the garden a bit, after chopping down their shrubbery and perhaps burning some stuff ;):D

My neighbour was telling me he's offered to drop a few cattle off at peoples gardens before now to return the favour ;)
 
These stories, can't believe people coming into the barn and using all that equipment!

Bit concerning what you said about people claiming it as a right of way is nothing is done, how does that system work? Just do I can go back and tell the land owner
 
I arrived to find a couple of people going into one of the fenced off paddocks inside the main boundary, I said nowt as the 17.2 Shire X ran at them with his ears back and teeth out....

:D

My OH opened the gate to find a bloke ****ing on the grass, and told him if he didn't take it with him, he would find it on his windscreen before he managed to drive away...

Because it's a layby where the gate is, an unofficial one, we do get people hopping over the gate (barbed wire across the top) to relieve themselves. I ask them for their address so I can p*ss in their gardens, never seems to go down well. :p

Galloped down the bridlepath once to catch up with someone I saw sniffing around the tractor in the field. Got his reg and the police went round and read him the riot act, never seen him since.
 
..oh, and talking of dogs, OH was once chopping logs in the field.

Turned when he heard the chickens squarking, to see a dog there, in the field, attacking them, the owner squealing from the BP next door....

OH went running across legging it, as the owner had come into the field and was dragging the dog off, then jumped into the car and squealed off.

OH then realised he was still holding the very large axe....:p

Lost 6 chickens that day...:(
 
I don't think townies should be allowed in any rural areas, auction marts or near livestock under any circumstances - they are a terrible liability, particularly when they have ill trained dogs/children in tow. :-)
 
I arrived at the 20 acre field we'd rented for our shire horse one morning to discover the local hunt in it, drawing a covert. The landowner had given them permission to be there without telling us so it wasn't actually trespass, just a bit of a shock. The shire, however, (Ollie, jet black, 19.2 in his stockinged feet and always up for a party) couldn't resist joining them when when they all started cantering off to jump out of the field over a gate. Oh lovely lovely chaos! The term 'loose cannon' springs to mind, there were hunt horses shying all over the place, people waving whips, ponies bolting and hounds running for their lives as Ollie cavorted around in their midst. Luckily he didn't jump the gate with them (actually he could have just walked through it but we never told him that) and was left mournfully shouting 'come back...' in his foghorn voice as they disappeared. But, they never did, for the rest of the season, can't think why.
 
A friend of ours has big notices reading "Beware Adders nearest A&E Queen Elizabeth Hospital WGC" funny after posting these unwanted visitors have a most stopped.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top