But that was derailed on Sunday when protesters visited the Englefield estate, calling on Benyon to open it up to the public and expand everyone’s access to green space across England. The Guardian saw around 150 people walking the estate, including Morris dancers (who came in peace, leaving their traditional walking sticks at home) and Nadia Shaikh, a conservationist and one of the organizers of the event. Members of the Morris Dance Troupe Photo: Peter Flude/The Guardian “This, what we’re doing now, is a freedom we should have,” he told the Guardian. “So we act as if we already have that freedom. We want the joy of meeting in public with music and the richness of all these conversations and different people. So yeah, I mean, what else can we do when you ask repeatedly, politely, and it’s still a no?’ When asked why he chose this particular estate, he said: “Well, it has access to the nature minister! So it seems entirely fitting that he should come and experience the freedom and land he has.” As minister responsible for access to nature, Benyon was involved in the Agnew review, which looked at widening access to the countryside, but which was shelved with little explanation. Just 8% of England’s land has open access, including coastal paths and moorland, and campaigners want this to change. The 12,000-acre Englefield estate, which has been in the Benyon family for hundreds of years and is the largest in West Berkshire, contains land that was once common before the Enclosure Act meant it could be absorbed into private property. Also, according to Ramblers, it contains lost paths. That is where the dancers and musicians were heading. Although the gathered were violating the civil law by trespassing, the game wardens did not intervene and watched the strange, mystical spectacle from the top of a hill from their SUV. Nadia Shaikh (centre), who helped organize the Right to Roam mass rally. Photo: Peter Flude/The Guardian Nick Hayes, the author of The Book of Trespass who helped organize the event, gave a history of the land: “Looking at maps from the 18th century, we can still read the names of commoners who had rights to farm the land . and looking at the archaeological LIDAR data we can still see the common people’s plows buried under the deer park. The ancestor of our current Minister for Access to Nature, also called Richard Benyon, began the process of inclosing his estate in 1802. “Over the next 20 years he moved an entire village away from the Englefield home to make way for his deer park. Then, in 1854, a stop order was given by his friends in parliament to close the public road that ran in front of his house. Today the Ramblers’ Don’t Lose Your Way website reveals a former footpath running through the estate which can be recognized on old Ordnance Survey maps but which has since been obliterated.’ The Right to Roam campaign sent the Conservative peer an open letter, asking him to open up his estate to the public and, in his capacity as nature minister, open up more of England for people to walk and picnic in – and maybe even and some ceilidh. Activists had previously met the minister to discuss their ideas to open up at least the publicly funded forests and green belt to walkers. They claim he said their suggestions made him feel “warm and fuzzy inside”. Protesters playing instruments. Photo: Peter Flude/The Guardian In their letter, they tell him they now believe “this was a warm and fuzzy way of telling us we were being ignored”. They added: “Access to nature is something you, as a large landowner, take for granted all your life. For the majority of England, however, it is not a luxury, but an existential necessity, denied daily by a system of foreclosure. a system you can change.” They claimed they did not want to encroach on his land but felt they “had to do it”, adding: “The urgent need for a greater public relationship with nature has been repeatedly stifled and ignored in government.” “It’s absurd to use the word ‘transgression,’” said Sam Lee, a musician and storyteller who performed a ceremony under the oak tree. “What we do is our birthright.” He told the Guardian: “We are here to playfully dig deep into the wisdom, the words, the melodies of this country and experience a sense of connection. We want to feel free from the burden of shame and indignity of what it means to be on someone else’s land.” The singer said Lord Benyon would be welcome to attend his ceremony, during which he told stories of the country and engaged the band in song. “Like everyone here he is welcome. This is not for him. And it is not in spite of him. But he’s a welcome participant, just like anyone else.” Protesters point out that, like many of the decision-makers in parliament, Benyon owns land – so he is unlikely to act against the interests of large private landowners. Protesters march on the Englefield estate. Photo: Peter Flude/The Guardian Jon Moses, another Right to Roam campaigner, said: “We are here today to reconnect with a culture that we have lost, a folk culture of the land that was taken away when the aristocracy shut down much of England. Over two-thirds of the land in England remains in the hands of the aristocracy, mostly in private estates like this one. And we are currently on the land of the nature access minister, who of course has no public access to much of his land. “This to us shows a system that is rigged. We were trying to get bills through Parliament, we were promised in the Agnew review, a “quantum change in the public’s relationship with nature”. This review has essentially been shelved. It’s been thrown out the window and we suspect the reason is because the landowners are the people who hold all the cards.” Richard Benyon has argued passionately in the past about the importance of green spaces and connectivity, pointing out that green infrastructure creates “stronger ecological networks, gives people better places to live, better health and better quality of life”. He has also argued for improving access to green space, pointing out that “research shows that people in the most disadvantaged groups in society are the least likely to travel to access the natural environment – so there is an even greater need to ensure that we improve quality of the environment where they are”. He was contacted for comment.
