Jane Wheatley speaks to a farming couple who actively encourage walkers to come across their land.
When Tom and Debra Willoughby took on the tenancy of a 388-acre farm near Loughborough, Leicestershire, they were taken aback to find a bridleway running straight through the farmyard. However, after their application to re-route it was refused, they realised that meeting walkers crossing the yard was a great way to connect with their new neighbourhood. They have since created several permissive paths across their land.
Mrs Willoughby is one of a number of access-friendly farmers and landowners forming a working group of Right to Roam, which campaigns to open up the English countryside to the public. At the Oxford Real Farming Conference earlier this month, she joined a panel of fellow members and told her audience: ‘Farming can be isolating, so it’s really nice when we get people through the yard; the positives far outweigh the negatives.’
Visitors are also welcomed on the Hardwick estate in the Chilterns where Romilly Swann is a tenant shepherd and orchardist. ‘In the drought of summer 2020, thousands of young trees were dying,’ she recalled. ‘Lots of locals came regularly with buckets to water them. It set a precedent for other things; now, we do ragworting together and wassailing.’
“Strangers become neighbours and friends, and can alert landowners to fly tipping and uncontrolled dogs”
Chairing the discussion, Amy-Jane Beer from Right to Roam noted that ‘farmers need to reconnect with their communities as much as we need to reconnect with Nature’. Strangers become neighbours and friends, she added, and can act as friendly spies alerting landowners to fly tipping and uncontrolled dogs.
Guy Thallon is head of natural environment at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire; like the Willoughbys, he has opened new permissive paths across the 8,896-acre estate and encouraged volunteers to help with conservation work. ‘We are making changes in response to the combined climate and biodiversity crises and towards Nature regeneration and resilience for the future,’ he explained, adding that improving access is ‘the best way for the public to understand what change is happening and why’.
There is already about 140,000 miles of rights of way in England and Wales, much of it across privately owned land. The 2000 Countryside and Rights of Way Act offers freedom to roam uncultivated land such as mountain and moor, but excludes woodland and riverside. Farmland occupies 65% of England, which Right to Roam claims is vital for connectivity.
It would be better if farmers were paid for open access, believes panellist Sarah Langford: ‘There is a cost and time to allowing people on your land; farmers don’t have the bandwidth for it.’ Mr Thallon agreed, suggesting that landowners be offered financial incentives to create new public access through environmental stewardships schemes.
