Bristol Radical History Group pamphlets

brhgI have been really enjoying reading a number of pamphlets which I picked up recently from ‘Bristol Radical History Group‘ who seem to do a lot of great work down in the south west.

This one on Anglo-Saxon Democracy is of particular interest, although there are many others which I will write up at some point soon.

These few paragraphs are good food for thought, the italics in the last paragraph are mine:

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The Rise of the Church

If the major cause of the retreat of Anglo-Saxon democracy is the increasing use of charters to create bookland beyond the control of the local courts and thus the local community then it also has to be accepted that the use of charters to gain rights and privileges at the expense of the local populace was first introduced by the Roman Catholic church and all of the charters of pre-Conquest England were denrived from the form of the private charter of the later Roman empire. Continue reading →

Green Earth Awakening – A field – near Wellington, Devon – 22/05/15

http://www.buddhafield.com/?events=green-earth-awakening-camp

Quote unquote…

A five day camp exploring how Buddhism can help us along the path towards community and sustainability. With green crafts, engaged dharma, social change, forest school, healing area and a daily timetable of workshops, talks, meditation, yoga, qi gong, dance and music. An intimate gathering to deepen into ourselves and a wider awareness. Tools for the mind, skills for our future.

Transform, sustain, thrive: through our intentions we can engage in the world with a deepened awareness. We can mindfully sustain ourselves in our daily lives, in community and in the wider world. By seeing the interconnection of all things and feeling the benefit of sustaining all life, we can become empowered to thrive.

Three Acres And A Cow – GalGael, Glasgow – 07/04/16

Thursday 7th April
Glasgow – http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=13608
Gal Gael –  15 Fairley St, Govan, Glasgow, Glasgow, G51 2TS
http://www.galgael.org/
£12 (£5 concessions)  – entry by donation for all Gal Gael volunteers and workers

Please note, this show is mainly focused on English history with some Scottish and Irish content. We have been invited to showcase it in Glasgow with a view to supporting the creation of a new show with similar spirit, focused on Scottish history.

Three Acres And A Cow – The Fishermen’s Chapel – Leigh-on-Sea – 21/05/16

Three Acres And A Cow, A History Of Land Rights And Protest In Folk Song And Story
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Saturday 21st May – Leigh-On-Sea

The Fishermen’s Chapel – Methodist Church, New Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, SS9
6pm potluck for a 7pm start – please bring a dish

http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=13611 or https://threeacresandacow.co.uk/leigh

£10 (£8 concessions) + £1 online booking fee

Tickets can be bought locally from Adam without the £1 booking fee via squeezebox.folk@gmail.com.
A limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets for low income people are available – please contact cow23@threeacresandacow.co.uk

(2mb) poster – https://www.dropbox.com/s/zn473dr1mkb4848/3A%26aC%20Leigh%20-%20high%20res%20for%20posters.jpg?dl=0
(300k) web flyer – https://www.dropbox.com/s/v21wyxyfmnu2kv9/3A%26aC%20Leigh%20-%20low%20res%20for%20web.jpg?dl=0

3A&aC Leigh - low res for web

Edward Thomas writing about the state of the land and rights of access

southcountryEdward Thomas writing about the state of the land and rights of access taken from ‘The South Country’ (1906).

You can buy a lovely edition of the book from Little Toller here – http://littletoller.co.uk/bookshop/nature-classics/the-south-country/ or see a digital version here – https://archive.org/stream/southcountry00thomuoft/southcountry00thomuoft_djvu.txt

CHAPTER XVI

255-7 THE END OF SUMMER KENT BERKSHIRE — HAMPSHIRE SUSSEX THE FAIR

The road mounts the low Downs again. The bound-less stubble is streaked by long bands of purple-brown, the work of seven ploughs to which the teams and their carters, riding or walking, are now slowly descending by different ways over the slopes and jingling in the rain. Above is a Druid moor bounded by beech-clumps, and crossed by old sunken ways and broad grassy tracks. It is a land of moles and sheep. Continue reading →

Private Eye piece on land and housing in the Cotswolds

Remember, we don’t have a ‘housing crisis’, we have a distribution of land and housing crisis.

private eye cirencester

 

Private Eye

No. 1384 23 January — 5 Feb 2015

FINE AND GRANDEE

LAST month Cotswold district council (CDC) published its long-overdue local housing plan. Four years late, the draft was put together with the help of external planning consultants, costing the Tory council £321,594.

It reveals that the district’s entire housing shortfall will be resolved by building 2,350 homes on 300 acres of grade II arable land on the edge of Cirencester, owned by local Tory grandee the 9th Earl Bathurst (“Allen” to his chums). Allen owns 15,500 acres in total, so is unlikely to miss a few hundred. With planning permissions expected to be a mere formality from the Tory council, a multi-million-pound windfall beckons.

This plan to expand the area of Cirencester by 43 percent has not been greeted with universal delight by the citizenry. With accusations of Tory cronyism being bandied about, it was timely that the local Conservative Association abolished Allen’s role as honorary president in October.

When Lib Dem opposition councillors revealed that council leader Lynden Stowe had met the earl on six occasions before publication of the local plan, Allen told the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard loftily: “It is not as if I am going for dinner with Lynden Stowe every night of the week.”

Perish the thought. Far too oiky!

Cultivate Festival – The Asian Centre – Walthamstow, London – 26/03/15

Doors from 6.45pm – show starts at 7.30pm – there will be locally cooked and grown organic food by donation before the show.

Tickets are £5 plus a £1 online booking fee – you can buy tickets for £5 without the booking fee from The Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street, London, E17 9AH. Book online here – http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=12363

Here is the facebook page if you are that way inclined – https://www.facebook.com/events/417177085106233/

low-res-poster-flyer

The Truscott Arms – Maida Vale, London – 23/04/15

West Central London Green Party proudly presents
Three Acres And A Cow, A History Of Land Rights And Protest In Folk Song And Story

Thursday 23rd April @ The Truscott Arms, 55 Shirland Rd, Maida Vale, W9 2JD
Doors from 7.00pm – show starts at 7.30pm tickets from http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=12554

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‘Three Acres And A Cow’ connects the Norman Conquest and Peasants’ Revolt with current issues like fracking, the housing crisis and transition town and food sovereignty movements via the Enclosures, English Civil War, Irish Land League and Industrial Revolution, drawing a compelling narrative through the radical people’s history of Britain in folk song, stories and poems.

Part TED talk, part history lecture, part folk club sing-a-long, part poetry slam, part storytelling session… Come and share in these tales as they have been shared for generations.

web promo