Category Archives: News

Scotland’s post war ‘Tinker Experiment’

Here is a 30 min BBC radio documentary about the British state ‘helping’ Scottish gypsy travellers to ‘settle’. Nothing problematic here at all folks… move along, get along. Go, move, shift…

“The idea that the UK Government, working in partnership with Scottish local authorities and church groups, could take children from their families and put them into residential homes to ‘knock the Tinker out of the child’ is now considered to be cultural genocide.”

Charlie McCarthy, Bylines Scotland

BBC radio show – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p77p?fbclid=IwAR1eXXX76R4FUJoz_7ti46uqAzfPKCjQrhYBYqX4VYb39O331yxvK6paXH

And here are some articles about it –
https://bylines.scot/lifestyle/history/the-tinker-experiment/

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/tinker-experiment-campaigners-accuse-scottish-government-of-ignoring-them-3785329

Good article on Scottish land reform progress

Just two communities bid for right to buy neglected land in five years

Jamie Mann from The Ferret in fine form: https://theferret.scot/communities-bid-right-to-buy-neglected-land-5-years/

Just two communities have applied to take neglected land into public ownership since the Scottish Government launched the initiative more than five years ago, The Ferret has found.

Since 2018, communities have been able to bid for the compulsory purchase of land that is abandoned, neglected or detrimental to the local environment or area, meaning that ministers can force owners to sell, even if they have no plans to do so.

Local communities can apply for the right to buy neglected land and property including greenspaces, woodlands, retail and industrial units, churches, halls, lochs, bridges, canals and foreshores.

However, just two groups have attempted to do so, and neither were successful, according to official data. Community ownership campaigners said the initiative set “too high a bar” for applicants to get past. An overhaul is needed to make it work for communities, they argued.

Read the rest on their website here – https://theferret.scot/communities-bid-right-to-buy-neglected-land-5-years/

(2019) Sing ORFC

We’ve just come back from a delightful Oxford Real Farming Conference which is always a good way to start the year.

We hosted a singers circle of songs about land and farming, and Robin and Roo penned lyrics for a song that Darla Eno performed closing the conference.

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Sing ORFC
by Robin Grey and Roo Bramley
(to the tune of Sing Ovy Sing Ivy)

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Our Ruth and Colin had an idea (sing ovy, sing ivy)
To gather good folk from far and from near (sing holly go whistling ivy)

A place for enlightened ideas to grow
And host this whilst they schemed up the road

A few years did pass, the gathering grown
At Oxford Town Hall we found a new home

The answers here, new wisdom and old
A future for farming, our visions are bold

Good food produced with healthy soil
Fair wages paid to all those who toil

A seasonal harvest, the fat of the land
Godspeed to the plough and the watchful hand

In partnership with worms and with bees
Flourishing herds in pastures of green

The ministers and the media come
To find out about the things we have done

So here’s to the future in uncertain times
Let’s nurture the land with our children in mind

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(cc) This work is reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

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New ‘support us’ page is now live

Over the years we’ve had a number of people expressed interest in being patrons of the show, so we are really happy to announce that we now have a ‘support us‘ page where you can make a one-off or monthly donation.

Much of our work is now happily paying us a living wage, but there are always projects which require subsidising, such as training up new apprentice performers, developing the Welsh show ‘Gadael Tir‘, starting to record material from the show and occasional gigs which aren’t able to cover our full performers fees in remoter places.

If you feel inspired and able to support us with money we are hugely grateful and promise that we will work ardently to make the most of your contribution.

http://threeacresandacow.co.uk/support-us

Kathleen, Pip, Roo and Georgie sing together in the final performance of the youth apprentice residency week