Right to roam: the battle to access England's green spaces

In 2020, a Right to Roam campaign was founded by the writers Nick Hayes and Guy Shrubsole. Since then, it has organised a series of “mass trespasses”: on Dartmoor, in Cumbria, on the South Downs; on the 12,000-acre Berkshire estate of Lord Benyon, who was at the time the minister responsible for access to the countryside.

At the most recent event, at Cirencester Park in Gloucestershire in March, more than 500 people marched in protest at plans by the Bathurst family, which owns the park, to impose an entry charge for the first time in more than 300 years. The campaigners argue that much more privately owned land in England should be open to the public, so that they can have “easy access to open space, and the physical, mental and spiritual health benefits that it brings”.