The Land is Ours

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]

Not to be confused with This Is Our Land.

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. 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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