Our Land
Directed by Orban Wallace
★★★★☆

THE Commons Preservation Society, Epping Forest in the 1870s, the 1932 Kinder Scout trespass — Morning Star readers will know England has a rich tradition of popular struggle to increase public access to the countryside.

This inspiring, often moving new documentary focuses on the Right to Roam campaign, founded in 2020 by the authors Nick Hayes (The Book of Trespass) and Guy Shrubsole (Who Owns England?).

With 92 per cent of land and 97 per cent of rivers in England not legally accessible, the grassroots group is pushing for England (and Wales) to follow Scotland and establish a “‘Right to Roam’: a default of responsible access to land and water to replace the current default of exclusion.”

Speaking at a mass trespass — one way the group tries to advance their cause — Shrubsole provides a mind-blowing statistic: just 1 per cent of the population own half the land in England.

Beginning with a short animation section by May Kindred-Boothby and Robert MacFarlane, interestingly much of the documentary focuses on this 1 per cent — four landowners, giving them time to talk about their vast estates and views on public access.

There is a range of positions, with Francis Fulford, who owns 3,000 acres in Devon, comically aristocratic and unapologetically elitist. “This is my garden and it’s fucking big,” he brags at one point. Later: “Remember… how thick and stupid most of the general public are, and completely ignorant of rural ways of life.”

In contrast, the activists are keen to stress that they want “responsible access” — one of the first acts of the Right to Roam campaign was highlighting how little the government has been spending to promote the Countryside Code.

“What I’ve discovered by trespassing is just how beautiful England is,” Nadia Shaikh, who works for Right to Roam and is one of the stars of the film, says. Indeed, there is lots of stunning aerial footage of the landscape, taken by a drone, I presume.

With the 2023 State Of Nature report finding “the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth,” Shaikh argues more access is essential for protection: “What nature needs is more people being in nature and loving it.”

And there is also an argument for more access based on the common good, with lots of studies pointing to the mental and physical benefits of time spent in nature.

The campaign to safeguard wild camping on Dartmoor is covered in the last section of the film, after multimillionaire hedge fund Alexander Darwall tried to ban it on his 4,000 acre Blachford Estate. In response, 3,000 people undertook a mass trespass in January 2023 to highlight the issue, and in May last year the Supreme Court ruled wild camping was still allowed on Dartmoor.

What’s happening in parliamentary politics? In May 2023, the then opposition Labour Party pledged to introduce a Scottish-style right to roam law in England. But, surprise, surprise, just six months later Starmer’s party U-turned in the face of opposition from landowners, saying they were looking at other ways to improve access.

However, the prize is being kept alive by the Green Party of England and Wales, who continue to support an English Right to Roam Act.

While the campaign will be opposed all the way by powerful, deeply entrenched interests, it feels like an issue with the potential to attract a winning broad-based coalition, from the aforementioned Green Party to direct action types, The Ramblers, socialists and even Middle England.

“Change is coming,” says Shrubsole as the crowd around him on Dartmoor chant “Whose land? Our land!”

Our Land opens in cinemas on May 8, with special screening across the UK in late April and May https://www.ourlanddocumentary.com/screenings