The Land is Ours is a British land rights campaign advocating access to the land, its resources, and the planning processes set up in 1995 by George Monbiot and others.[1]

History

Their first campaign was the occupation of the disused Wisley Airfield in Surrey by 400 people in 1995, from which there was a live broadcast on the BBC's Newsnight programme.[2] Nearby St. George's Hill is symbolically significant as the site of a 1649 protest, when the Diggers planted vegetables on the common land there.[2]

Throughout the summer of 1996, the group set up Pure Genius!!, an eco-village on a derelict former distillery site owned by Guinness in Wandsworth, London.[3][4] The squatted community was evicted the day before the London Wildlife Trust were meeting to officially designate it as a conservation site containing many species of flowers and birds classed as extremely rare in London.

On 1 April 1999, on the 350th anniversary of Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers' occupation of the same hill, The Land Is Ours organised a rally, then occupied land at St. Georges Hill near Weybridge, Surrey.

In April 2004, The Land Is Ours occupied Castell Henllys, a tourist site with reconstructed Iron Age roundhouses, in protest at Pembrokeshire Coast National Park's decision to demolish That Roundhouse at nearby Brithdir Mawr.[5][6]

Influence

In 2009, a group inspired by The Land Is Ours opened Kew Bridge Eco Village, a squat on land owned by property developers St George; this was evicted on 27 May 2010.[7]

The Land Magazine

The Land Magazine is a magazine, published by The Land Is Ours, about landrights, at Monkton Wyld Court, Dorset.[8][9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Monbiot, George (22 February 1995), "A Land Reform Manifesto", The Guardian, London, archived from the original on May 17, 2008, retrieved 2008-08-06
  2. 1 2 Keiller, Patrick (1999). Robinson in Space. Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781861890283.
  3. ↑ Davies, Anna (2012). Enterprising Communities: Grassroots Sustainability Innovations. Emerald Group Publishing. ISBN 9781780524849.
  4. ↑ Billingham, Peter (2005). Radical Initiatives in Interventionist and Community Drama. Intellect Books. ISBN 9781841500683.
  5. ↑ "Picket ends to save eco-house". BBC News. 14 April 2004.
  6. ↑ "Eco Homes Land Occupation Protest - UK Indymedia". www.indymedia.org.uk. 9–14 April 2004.
  7. ↑ Mason, Ian (27 May 2010). "Eco-villagers evicted from Kew Bridge home". Richmond and Twickenham Times.
  8. ↑ "The Land Magazine". The Land Is Ours. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "Contact us". The Land Magazine. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
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