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nigelswift 8112 posts |
Edited May 18, 2011, 08:09
May 18, 2011, 07:07
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"if we want freedom of access to stones on farm land we should be prepared to abide by the rules!" Quite. And one of them is that occasionally a landowner will say no, for their own reasons, perhaps very good and heritage-friendly ones, and will have a legal right to do so. All this "right of access to stones" talk is an aspiration, or wishful thinking but it doesn't actually exist in law and it's hard to see how you would draft it sensibly. If you live in a house once lived in by Dickens should the law give people the right to climb over your fence and into your garden? The Law of Property is complex and we all benefit from it so are we to say just a bit of it, where old stones are involved, should be amended to suit our particular hobby? I can just see the next cry: "It's everyone's heritage so there should be Freedum to metal detect"! ;)
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Littlestone 5386 posts |
Edited May 18, 2011, 08:42
May 18, 2011, 07:39
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Definitely! There have to be restrictions on where we can go otherwise we end up destroying that which we value. In my own lifetime I’ve seen access to Silbury, Stonehenge, The Hall of Dreams, and the Moss Garden curtailed, and all curtailed for the same reason – ie that visitor numbers were threating the very fabric of the site. No doubt the trend will continue and we'll see more restrictions come into place. Meanwhile, we should respect site owners' requests, whether they're farmers, English Heritage, the National Trust or the MOD. If we're concerned with the long-term conservation of places, and the sign says stay off, then stay off. Simples!
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nigelswift 8112 posts |
Edited May 18, 2011, 09:04
May 18, 2011, 07:59
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Nicely put. Yet the Right of Free access mantra is so deeply embedded that we have EH still frit to say what must surely be the case - that when the changes come at Stonehenge there will still have to be some sort of controls in place.
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tjj 3606 posts |
May 18, 2011, 08:10
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moss wrote: [quote="moss I would also pose the question do we have a right to demand to see every prehistoric monument - just because it happens to be there?[/quote] Well I'll answer my own question; it suddenly struck me looking at the Countryside Code, that in pursuit of stones we often have to go across farmland to seek out stones, barrows, etc. Sometimes arable but often fields with animals in, and the farmer has every 'right' to demand of us that we don't frighten cattle, sheep, etc and cause an accident, we don't leave gates open, and we don't scrabble under barbed wire thereby makin it loose. After all this is his livelihood. He has a 'duty of care' to his land, a set of restrictions, as we all do, that is what I was getting at, its a contractual understanding, if we want freedom of access to stones on farm land we should be prepared to abide by the rules! No responsible person with disagree with a farmer's right to ask walkers to keep their dogs under control, shut gates behind them and not damage fencing. The Ramblers Association which has many years fought to keep 'rights of way' open generally do not allow dogs on their walks - a deterrent to some people joining but it is for the reasons you state in your post. I spent much of last summer walking around the Cotswolds following footpaths marked on OS maps - which are 'rights of way', what maps don't show, however, is that private landowners often fence of large swathes of woodland simply because they want to keep it for shooting grouse or just don't want people walking through it. I often scramble under or over barbed wire and in theory am probably trespassing - I'll continue to do so. I've never caused damage in doing so nor trampled on wild flowers or frightened the animals - for my efforts I've caught rare glimpes of wild deer running through the trees. I don't think they care too much about fencing, they just go over it. What I never do is walk across a cultivated field, always staying close to the field edge. If and when I come across a long barrow, its always approached with respect, if its surrounded by a crop I look at it from the nearest point I can get to without damaging the crop. You make a good point though Moss, especially now the Wiltshire crop circle season is upon us. A timely reminder about the farmer's right not to have his crop damaged.
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Rhiannon 5291 posts |
May 18, 2011, 08:39
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wow moss garden mmmm that looks amazing Littlestone. I want a moss garden to meditate in.
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Littlestone 5386 posts |
May 18, 2011, 08:46
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Aye... beautiful place. What the pics don’t give you is the damp, earthy smell of the moss, and the soft silence such a thick and wide covering creates. Best time to go is after a rain fall - sorry, best time to go was after a rainfall :-(
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Littlestone 5386 posts |
Edited May 18, 2011, 09:53
May 18, 2011, 08:50
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Littlestone wrote: Aye... beautiful place. What the pics don’t give you is the damp, earthy smell of the moss, and the soft silence such a thick and wide covering creates. Best time to go is after a rain fall - sorry, best time to go was after a rainfall :-( Correction: the good news is that - "Until 1977, the temple was open to admission to the general public, but currently visitors are admitted only by prior application (by return postcard), and the fee to visit the temple (¥3,000) is the highest in Kyoto. You will be given access to the grounds for 90 minutes. As of May 2010 they prefer for the application to arrive up to 7 working days prior to the intended visit at the temple. Before being permitted access to the garden, visitors must engage in zazen and hand copy and/or chant the quite long sutras. It is OK not to finish tracing the whole sutra, but you will be asked to write down your wish and your name and address. The monks keep all the sutras in the pagoda and continue to pray for all. It is said that these regulations were put into place in order to protect the delicate moss from the hordes of tourists that plagued the temple prior to 1977." From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saih%C5%8D-ji
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goffik 3926 posts |
May 18, 2011, 08:55
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Bloody hell - THAT doesn't sound very relaxing! :D G x
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Littlestone 5386 posts |
Edited May 18, 2011, 10:58
May 18, 2011, 09:17
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goffik wrote: Bloody hell - THAT doesn't sound very relaxing! :D G x Oh, I dunno Goff, imagine the same thing at Stonehenge - thousands of solstice revellers being asked to meditate and/or copy out long tracts from the King James’ before sunrise – might quieten them down a bit (or put ‘em off going in the first place ;-)
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StoneGloves 1149 posts |
May 18, 2011, 10:14
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I've been watching Zahi Hawass in action, on an american reality TV show, Chasing Mummies. His nickname is 'Pharoah' and he is kindly and autocratic in turns. In one episode he was measuring the RH inside the Great Pyramid and, up near the top, it reached 80%. He shut it to visitors from then on. You couldn't imagine that happening in the UK. Every so often I would get a daft lad wanting to learn drystone walling. "Bring me stone", I would say. None of them lasted except for a handful of post grads, in a formal structure. I occasionally wonder how their ability to place stones has surfaced in their lives.
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