Trespassing: why do people do it?!

[sandi_84]

You know the world doesn't end if someone walks through a field....a bit of grass might get a bit flattened but that's about it. Reading this thread makes me glad to be in Scotland where you can ride, walk, cycle just about anywhere. My horses are in a hilly field above a village and dog walkers use it regularly, the horses don't bother and it's a nice place for a walk. Really don't see what the problem is, live and let live !

I'm from scotland I wouldn't mind but I find all sorts in my field, found a battery today of all things What happens if they damage my fencing? and what happens if for some weird reason one of my horses hurt someone? It's never happened before but I expect that if it did I'd be sued!
So yes it's not illegal but I'd prefer to discourage people - politely - from coming through my horses field.

Also what about the nice but no idea people who might try to feed the ponies (even though there are notices up saying not to!) the tasty looking poisonous plants?!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Just a note to all hackers out there. If you see a nice grassy stretch, or some woods with fences in, or a stubble field, please get the owner's permission before you ride on it. It's only polite.

I have only once galloped a stubble field and that was because the LO asked why we were walking on the gravel farm track (bridleway) and not enjoying the stubble. Replied (unknowing he was the LO), that we didn't have permission to go on the fields, to which he replied 'well you do now'! LOL couldn't believe our luck! Shame we move yards not long after.

 

[Honey08]

I don't think it is a tame argument. Whats the difference in wandering across someone's crops or hay (that will cost them money) or wandering across someone's garden that is just for pleasure??

 

[piebaldsparkle]

I don't think it is a tame argument. Whats the difference in wandering across someone's crops or hay (that will cost them money) or wandering across someone's garden that is just for pleasure??

^^^ Agree

 

[Patterdale]

It DOESN'T work in Scotland.

Maybe I'll come and clean all my tack and walk through your place of work in my muddy boots? And when it disrupts your life and livelihood ill just say 'hey, what's your problem, live and let live!'

Have seen your comments before on these types of threads bonny, and all I can say is I pity the poor landowners who you live near....

 

[bonny]

It DOESN'T work in Scotland.

Maybe I'll come and clean all my tack and walk through your place of work in my muddy boots? And when it disrupts your life and livelihood ill just say 'hey, what's your problem, live and let live!'

Have seen your comments before on these types of threads bonny, and all I can say is I pity the poor landowners who you live near....

What was wrong with me saying that dog walkers go through my horse's field regularly and I'm pleased to see them ? I don't make the law but I do think it's sensible and it works .....

 

[lauraandjack]

The countryside is a food factory, it is not a pretty place for town people to come and play.

Would you take your kids and dog for a run round and picnic on the shop floor of, say, a car factory? I would suggest probably not..........

There are plenty of waymarked and passable public rights of way around.

 

[Patterdale]

Nothing bonny, but that wasn't the part I paraphrased, was it?

 

[bonny]

The countryside is a food factory, it is not a pretty place for town people to come and play.

Would you take your kids and dog for a run round and picnic on the shop floor of, say, a car factory? I would suggest probably not..........

There are plenty of waymarked and passable public rights of way around.

Did you know that 50% of the uk is owned by 0.01% of the population ? Why should people who live in towns, many of them with no chance of ever owning anything other than a garden be restricted from often huge tracts of land which pass down the generations ?

 

[case895]

I recently cleared 2.5 wheelbarrows worth of debris from my hedgerows dumped by the filthy pigs who walk on the footpaths which go past and through my fields. Crisp packets, beer bottles, drinks tins, clothing and used condoms. The weirdest was someone emptying a whole sack of spuds in to one hedge.

I have intercepted on horseback one dog walker trespassing. One cheeky woman let her 3 dogs off their leads in the middle of one of my hay fields and was throwing a ball for them. Both were politely informed where the footpaths are and asked to return to them.

 

[bonny]

Nothing bonny, but that wasn't the part I paraphrased, was it?

No, but that's what I said, that I was happy to see dog walkers in my horse's field, I didn't say I go anywhere so why would you feel sorry for landowners around where I live ?

 

[Patterdale]

That's life bonny. You've obviously got a massive chip on your shoulder. There are plenty of ways for the non landowning people to enjoy the countryside without trespassing.
If large chunks of land weren't owned by one person, the countryside would look very, very different.

 

[case895]

Did you know that 50% of the uk is owned by 0.01% of the population ? Why should people who live in towns, many of them with no chance of ever owning anything other than a garden be restricted from often huge tracts of land which pass down the generations ?

So what? We are not a communist country. Property ownership is a protected right. If people want to own land to walk around, they should buy some for themselves! Nobody is stopping them.

 

[bonny]

That's life bonny. You've obviously got a massive chip on your shoulder. There are plenty of ways for the non landowning people to enjoy the countryside without trespassing.
If large chunks of land weren't owned by one person, the countryside would look very, very different.

What makes you say that ? I can't say I ever give it much thought other than I think it's sensible the way it works here and fair to everybody.....what's wrong with that ?

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

That's such a tame argument, there is a world of difference between someone's garden and grass fields. By law here you can go wherever you want apart from someone's garden unless your garden extends to an estate in which case anyone can walk there.....it works !

I think there's a different set of pressures in overcrowded England Bonny. It works up here because there is a fraction of the population per acre. And, to be frank, in many places, people know everyone and so any bad behaviour gets addressed as its easy to track down the perpetrators. Also unlike in Scotland, there are set routes for horses.

I don't think many of the English posters have so much of a basic theoretical problem with people who quietly walked alongside the hedge of a field occasionally. But they have learned to be fed up because of being overrun by people who damage or abuse the land they decide to walk on, with litter, crop damage, out of control dogs or gates and fences damaged.

 

[Goldenstar]

Land can be blocked to riders in Scotland if the landowner deems it necessary to manage the land for instance to prevent a wet area being damaged.

 

[Dogrose]

I have to admit over the years me and my partner have done a good bit of what he calls 'gentle trespass' in our quest to visit ancient sacred sites, they are often on private land and have no public access. We have never gone anywhere that appears to be personal space (gardens, land around someone's home), or anywhere that is not easy to get to - we would never break a fence or wall or damage a lock or gate. We never leave anything behind and avoid crops and treat all property including the land with respect. We have never been challenged, maybe landowners with sacred sites on their property expect the occasional visit. In fact we usually take a rubbish bag to remove any non degradable tat that seems to accumulate at these places.

 

[Honey08]

I think there's a different set of pressures in overcrowded England Bonny. It works up here because there is a fraction of the population per acre. And, to be frank, in many places, people know everyone and so any bad behaviour gets addressed as its easy to track down the perpetrators. Also unlike in Scotland, there are set routes for horses.

I don't think many of the English posters have so much of a basic theoretical problem with people who quietly walked alongside the hedge of a field occasionally. But they have learned to be fed up because of being overrun by people who damage or abuse the land they decide to walk on, with litter, crop damage, out of control dogs or gates and fences damaged.

Very well put!

 

[Patterdale]

Bonny - I think we are on completely different wavelengths here. Hope I haven't offended you - I certainly didn't set out to

 

[Arabelle]

In fairness to bonny, I live in Scotland and the Land Reform Act does appear to pretty much work - obviously nothing is perfect, but that is life.

Land in Scotland is a very emotive issue. Access to the land is perceived as a common birthright that was prevented by absentee landlords and a feudal system that the Land Reform Act also addresses.

Most landowners and land users are reasonable and we can all rub along.

 

[JFTDWS]

It works in Scotland, why not everywhere ?

Because Scotland and England are very different places - the nature of the land is different and the number of people likely to access it is considerably lower, north of the border.

Round here there is no space that isn't town, arable or equestrian, with a few livestock fields here and there - and you walk on any part of that and you risk injury to or by the livestock or damage to the crop. Farmers round here may own vast tracks of land, but they have to work damn hard to turn a profit from them and idiots chipping away at that profit by trespassing (and other means) hardly helps the situation.

 

[Lolo]

At home, when I walk the dogs, it's not grassy hills I see but acre after acre of crops. People walking across them causes damage.

And the land that is set aside is private, and often people aren't allowed to ride across it for a reason. Pheasants being reared, the land being fragile and if it gets churned up the harvesting machines struggle... Etc, etc. It's not because people are going "mine, allll mine" but because people churning it up or scaring the birds can be really damaging to livelihoods.

 

[madmav]

I would just like to say Kinder Scout here. Without that rebellious rabble, we 'ordinary folk' wouldn't be allowed to put a foot on their lordship's land.

 

[Goodshipblossom]

THANK YOU. When there are plenty of excellent, well marked paths there is no need to wander elsewhere, or start sending hate mail when the landowner dares to inform you that this is not a public RoW!

 

[case895]

I would just like to say Kinder Scout here. Without that rebellious rabble, we 'ordinary folk' wouldn't be allowed to put a foot on their lordship's land.

I think Robert Mugabe and his Zanu 'war veterans' got inspiration from them.

 

[Dubsie]

You know the world doesn't end if someone walks through a field....a bit of grass might get a bit flattened but that's about it. Reading this thread makes me glad to be in Scotland where you can ride, walk, cycle just about anywhere. My horses are in a hilly field above a village and dog walkers use it regularly, the horses don't bother and it's a nice place for a walk. Really don't see what the problem is, live and let live !

Frankly, while it isn't the end of the world, it does get more than annoying - our field backs onto a public dogwalkers park. Even through a margin around our field is fenced off for wildlife so effectively double fencing us, we still get dogs through (where the rabbits/foxes have made holes) and their owners following over the fences breaking them in the process. Our fence is largely barbed wire, so of course once through they want to walk through our garden and under the car port to the road, and get most indignant when I say they will have to go back the way they came 'but we had to climb two fences and jump over a steam' or I already ripped my jacket on the barbed wire' And our front garden has a wooden fence that's continually being climbed over as a short cut, in 15 years that's the ONLY fence panel we've had to replace - four times now.

 

[jrp204]

Did you know that 50% of the uk is owned by 0.01% of the population ? Why should people who live in towns, many of them with no chance of ever owning anything other than a garden be restricted from often huge tracts of land which pass down the generations ?

Its fairly simple though, do what my parents did and work bloody hard, sell your soul to the bank and buy some land or what we do, pay a huge amount of rent to someone. These huge tracts of land that pass down generations will often be tenanted by families who have been tenants for many many years. Farmland is not there for pleasure it is a factory and supplies all these people who live in towns with no chance of ever owning other than a garden. Lucky for them they can walk into a shop and buy British produced produce.

 

[holeymoley]

I would never , it's just rude. Even in Scotland where you can sort of go where you wish, it's always good manners to ask first.

 

[Maesfen]

Don't know if it is the same in other areas but the OS map I have for our area is covered in footpaths but with very few bridle paths. Also, the way the Bridle paths are printed over the footpaths makes it quite difficult to see where the bridle paths stop. So to be on the safe side I just stick to the ones I know for definite rather than go off exploring and get it wrong!

Have tried finding clearer OS maps online but not had much luck, so if anyone has any links to the free OS maps online it would be much appreciated

You need the OS Explorer series which is 2.5 inches to the mile rather than the normal 1.25 to the mile; far better detail than the normal ones. They show every field so no room for error at all!
If you look for dash4it on ebay, they have deals on them.

 

[RunToEarth]

You know the world doesn't end if someone walks through a field....a bit of grass might get a bit flattened but that's about it. Reading this thread makes me glad to be in Scotland where you can ride, walk, cycle just about anywhere. My horses are in a hilly field above a village and dog walkers use it regularly, the horses don't bother and it's a nice place for a walk. Really don't see what the problem is, live and let live !

To be fair, I probably would be happy to live and let live if I were in your shoes and I were just tramping over land I didn't own. However, when you derive a livelihood from the land you may feel very differently. I am happy to not have to live in your part of the world, most of the people that are around here understand the hard work that goes in, and are respectful of our land.

Did you know that 50% of the uk is owned by 0.01% of the population ? Why should people who live in towns, many of them with no chance of ever owning anything other than a garden be restricted from often huge tracts of land which pass down the generations ?

So? Why should people who live in towns who will never own land have the right to walk across something they don't own? We are buying land at between 8-10k an acre at the moment, if you want to walk across it buy your own. This is not a communist country and why should we share it with everyone when people like you are so ungrateful and disrespectful of something you don't own?

I would just like to say Kinder Scout here. Without that rebellious rabble, we 'ordinary folk' wouldn't be allowed to put a foot on their lordship's land.

Their lordship who paid for it? Their lordship that owns it? Let's face it, most PROWs started life as a way of the farm labourer cutting across the landowner's field to get to work.

These days they are awash with people who are for the mostpart ignorant about life in the countryside. Walkers with dogs off of leads putting birds up, knocking crops about and crapping everywhere.

There are a lot of decent "ordinary folk" who are very respectful of their rights across land, but equally there are a lot of people who use PROWs and haven't even bothered to educate themselves on the basics such as cows with calves at foot, OS maps and littering. The bank holiday weekend of the Royal Wedding we had s serious moor fire at home, two helicopters and 6 fire engines because people had a throw away BBQ in the middle of the moor. We lost countless grouse and vegetation, and in my mind that was enough for me to think that people who are really that poorly informed need to stay in the town.