Enclosures
Episode 13 of the Local podcast, hosted by Alastair Humphreys, titled "Enclosures" was published on January 24, 2024 and runs 12 minutes.
January 24, 2024 ·12m · Local
Summary
The Right to Roam, Enclosures Acts, and the issues of accessing the countryside.Rain was still falling hard a week later when I cycled past a garden with two life-size sculptures of giraffes, towards a modern red-brick Catholic church. On the church wall was a statue of a bored-looking Saint George stabbing down at the dragon with about as much enthu- siasm as a community service litter picker. Old George up there took quite the journey to sainthood in rainy England from his beginnings as a soldier in the Roman army. He is the patron saint of not only England but also Georgia, Ethiopia, Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, and Corinthians FC in São Paulo. I turned right at the church into a maze of terraced streets. In one house I saw a dozen trophies shining in an upstairs window. A child’s bedroom, I guessed, proud of their efforts and achievement. An enor- mous railway embankment towered above the houses and overshad- owed the streets. It led onto a viaduct whose ten arches were visible from grid squares for miles around. I was understanding the lie of the land better now, getting a clearer idea of how all these places fitted together.
Episode Description
The Right to Roam, Enclosures Acts, and the issues of accessing the countryside.
Rain was still falling hard a week later when I cycled past a garden with two life-size sculptures of giraffes, towards a modern red-brick Catholic church. On the church wall was a statue of a bored-looking Saint George stabbing down at the dragon with about as much enthu- siasm as a community service litter picker. Old George up there took quite the journey to sainthood in rainy England from his beginnings as a soldier in the Roman army. He is the patron saint of not only England but also Georgia, Ethiopia, Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, and Corinthians FC in São Paulo.
I turned right at the church into a maze of terraced streets. In one house I saw a dozen trophies shining in an upstairs window. A child’s bedroom, I guessed, proud of their efforts and achievement. An enor- mous railway embankment towered above the houses and overshad- owed the streets. It led onto a viaduct whose ten arches were visible from grid squares for miles around. I was understanding the lie of the land better now, getting a clearer idea of how all these places fitted
together.
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