Really good succint article.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2022/4/21/the-birth-of-britains-environmental-rebellion
Really good succint article.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2022/4/21/the-birth-of-britains-environmental-rebellion
I was doing a little updating of this site recently and realised that I hadn’t posted about Nick’s remarkable book yet. Nick is a dear friend and I had the joy of arguing with him on the finer details of an early manuscript as well as accompanying him on one of the book’s trespasses. Well that is not quite true, I was on the train with him and then decided not to go along as his description of the landowner freaked me out too much to want to risk it.
If you are on this website, you’ve probably already read it, but if not, please acquire it at your soonest convenience and pause your life until you’ve had the change to drink it down.
This book is basically the spiritual companion to our show.
Compelling 2006 BBC documentary by Dan and Peter Snow about land rights in the UK. Section on how much of central London is still owned by aristocrats is excellent.
A great introduction to land rights in the UK made by Marion Shoard in 1987… sadly very little has changed. Do read her excellent books This Land is Our Land and Right to Roam.
Exceptional documentry on 80s land rights: rave culture, house music, new age travellers, the miners strike, Stone Henge and much more.
This event is now SOLD OUT – please consider coming to our next London show on 19th November.
Reserve your place here – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3-acres-a-cow-a-history-of-land-rights-protest-in-folk-song-story-tickets-56477503734
Facebook event here – https://www.facebook.com/events/1245906705575556/
The author of the excellent Farming Whilst Black book is interviewed by Farmerama and it makes for a really good half hour of listening.
Tickets – https://www.quarterhouse.co.
Facebook event – https://www.facebook.com/events/316531048885794/
Advanced sales are now closed – there will be tickets available on the door
Facebook event page – https://www.facebook.com/events/625894571082257/
Tickets https://www.threeacresandacow.co.uk/nottingham
Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/1832707520094413/
BBC Radio Scotland on the 15th anniversary of the 2003 Scottish land reform act, interviewing many of the people key to the reform bill happening – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrtq1/episodes/downloads
It is primarily focused on the right to roam aspect of the act and it gives the best insight into how key battles were won of anything i’ve seen, heard or read.
****advanced sales have been closed – there will be tickets available on the door****
facebook event page – https://www.facebook.com/events/1988656644738157/
tickets from https://app.etickets.to/buy/?e=14911
Severine from The Greenhorns just sent me this ace song about the Land Corporation of Ireland by Duncan Bourne.
Bill Finney was an ancestor of Duncan’s. His son (William) was born in Ireland and for a long time he thought that the Finneys were of Irish decent. Given that Finney is also an Irish surname. However further research revealed a long standing Staffordshire branch of Finney.
The Land Corporation of Ireland arose out of the 1879 – 1882 Land War, which saw the rise of Irish Nationalism and gave us the word “boycott”. From the summer of 1879 the Land League carried out various activities aimed at preventing the forced eviction of tenants who had fallen into arrears due to recession. These activities ranged from ostracism (the boycott), protests at the sale of leases, riots and, although not officially sanctioned, assassinations. One organiser Michael Boyton advocated that land grabbers (people who took the land of evicted tenants) should be “given the pill” ie. shot. By 1882 the Land League had been suppressed and the Reform Bills of 1884 & 1885 gave voting rights to tenants as well as the promise of reduced rents, though these did not always materialise. The Land Corporation of Ireland was set up to work land that had fallen idle due to evictions but due to the Land War it was nigh on impossible to recruit from the local population and so “caretaker” farmers were recruited from England through letters sent to local parishes. Bill Finney was one such farmer.
Lyrics
I come from Wootton, Staffordshire Bill Finney is my name
And I sought employment where I could you name it, I was game
I started down the Holly Bush serving in that drovers inn
And through talking with those droving lads my travels did begin
Come all you eager labouring lads keen for some work to do
The Land Corporation of Ireland has just the job for you
I tried my luck in the Potteries towns but my efforts came to nought
So I travelled up to Middlewich and worked there with the salt
T’was there I saw a letter requesting men to farm
For the Land Corporation of Ireland and I thought, “well what’s the harm?”
Come all etc.
We’ll pay you ten to fifteen bob to work some idle land
Where used to live a family evicted out of hand
You’ll have a house and garden and a free allowance of fuel
But don’t expect a social life your reception may be cruel
Come all etc.
So I went to Tipperary away from England’s shore
And I learned about the hardship caused by the old Land War
I learned about the ‘Boycott’ and the giving of the ‘Pill’
And of the broken promises caused by the Reform Bill
Come all etc.
And so I am a caretaker on land of sorrows shame
Don’t blame me for being English sir there’s Irish in my name
My name it is Bill Finney come drink with me a while
The Land Corporation of Ireland are the ones you should revile
Come all etc.
Robin being interviewed on Greenhorns Radio by Severine Von Tscharner Fleming about music, land rights, Three Acres And A Cow and the upcoming Land for What? weekend.
You can have a listen to the show here – http://heritageradionetwork.org/podcast/robin-grey/
We are super excited to be heading North in December for a trio of shows in Nottingham, Leeds and Sheffield. For the Leeds show we will be joined by guests Boff Whalley and Brendan Crocker.
Tickets can be perchance purchased via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3-acres-and-a-cow-tickets-19205227352
We are super excited to be heading North in December for a trio of shows in Nottingham, Leeds and Sheffield. For the Sheffield show we will be joined by Sally Goldsmith, Tim Ralphs, Naomi Wilkins and Kate Thomas’s singers.
Tickets can be purchased online via – http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=13213
crackbook event page here – https://www.facebook.com/events/1427585850882801/
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