How to | Trespass with Good Manners

Why reclaiming the countryside is as much about nurturing a relationship as it is about protest

Ninety years ago, the Kinder Scout Trespass saw 400 ramblers climb the Peak District’s highest point in protest for a greater public access. To tie in with that anniversary, activist, author and all-round countryside guru, Nick Hayes is campaigning to get more people out documenting their trespasses – his new book, The Trespasser’s Companion, serving as a call to action. “I’m putting my faith in the people,” he says. “I think there is power there.” 

There are, of course, important ways in which to be a better trespasser, not least political, “aggression is not good for our campaign,” he says. If you want to stage your own trespass, Nick recommends following the Scottish outdoor access code, where most land and waterways became open access in 2003. It’s also about respecting privacy. 

Confusingly, there’s currently “no distinction in the law between walking among 2,000 acres of deciduous woodland and someone’s urban back yard,” just one of the tensions underlining trespass legislation. Supporting the right to roam can be as simple as researching your local rights of way and making sure they’re not obstructed (visit whoownsengland.org, and slowways.org for routes that link towns and cities). Or using the draft letter on righttoroam.org.uk to write to your MP, or promoting the countryside code. 

To follow in Nick’s footsteps, plan your own, seeking deeper understanding by talking to the people who’ve lived on the land for years. “Ask about the legends and spirits that operate within it,” he suggests. “The stories you don’t find out from history books.” With his emphasis on close relationships to the land, it’s unsurprising that Nick also is infuriated by much-circulated pictures showing litter-strewn nature: not because he doesn’t think it’s an issue, rather he disagrees with it as a basis for limiting access. “It’s only by spending time in the countryside that we develop a connection with it,” he says, pointing to research showing the less litter there is, the less likely people will drop it. 

Rather than setting the wild swimmer against the fisherman, we all need to promote responsibility to the countryside – what better way than by encouraging greater access for all? “If we’re going to stop trashing the planet, we need a collective refalling in love with nature.” 

You can read the whole of our interview with Nick Hayes in our May issue, which is in shops now.

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More countryside fun…

More from our May issue…

How to | build a dry stone wall

Yearning to impress with a traditional craft? Hold our tea. We’ve got just the thing.

Obviously there’s a tiny bit more to the ancient craft of dry stone walling, or we’d all be building them, but here’s a simple explanation of the basics. Maybe keep your first attempts low and slow. The Simple Things accepts no responsibility for broken toes caused by collapsing granite.

• Source stones from a quarry, or ask at a gravel or sand pit. You want a mix of sizes.
• Dig a trench. Put down your first layer, using the largest stones.
• Use more biggies to make your ‘wall head’ ends. You’re actually building two walls in a standing up ‘A’ shape, wider at the bottom than the top, linked by ‘through’ stones.
• Carefully build up layers on both sides of the base, going from largest stones to smallest upwards. Place stones lengthways, keeping the layer as even in height as possible. Each stone should overlap a gap in the layer below (like in a brick wall) Add smaller rocks to fill in.
• Roughly every metre, add long ‘through’ stones to link both sides of the wall.
• Finish up with large, flat stones placed upright as ‘copping’ or ‘capping’ stones.

If that has whetted your appetite and you’d like to learn more, visit The Dry Stone Walling Association’s website where you can sign up to residential courses in dry stone walling.

You’ll find more miscellaneous fun and facts in our Miscellany pages of the September issue, in shops now.

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More ‘how-to’s to do

More from our September issue…

Tutorial | herding sheep

Come-bye, and we’ll tell you a little more...

We loved chatting to Amanda Owen (aka The Yorkshire Shepherdess) for our Wisdom piece in our July issue. (You can find it in the shops or buy it online using the link below if you’d like to know more). By the end, we were all imagining ourselves giving it all up and heading off to  enjoy the peace and quiet of a hillside somewhere green and silent. (We’re sure it’s definitely all as simple as that sounds.)

So in case you fancy a career change, too, we’ve collated a short guide to sheep dog commands to get you started.

Come-bye Go to the left around the flock (clockwise)

Away (or away to me) Go to the right around the flock (anticlockwise). Remember A is for ‘away’ and ‘anticlockwise’ and C is for ‘come-bye’ and ‘clockwise’

Lie down Lie on the ground

Steady Slow down a bit

Walk on Approach the sheep (often used at the start of herding)

On your feet Stand up and be ready but don’t move yet

Look back Check your workings! Used if they’ve lost a sheep or if the dog is working part of the flock and he needs to go back for the other part

That’ll do It’s clocking off time

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More from our July issue…

More about clever dogs…

Escaping: British cows

Off to the countryside? Find out who's who in the nation's fields this spring If you're out and about this bank holiday weekend, take our handy British cows identifier with you and spot our native herds - turn to page 109 of May's The Simple Things for the full illustrated guide.

Aberdeen Angus

Said to descend from early 19th-century bovine A-listers Old Jock and Old Granny. Tough, good-natured, with legendary calf-bearing abilities.

Belted Galloway

Look for the distinctive white belt around the middle. Shaggy of coat and calm of temperament - though don't nark a mother with her little 'uns.

Chillingham

If you see one of these little white ladies you can only be in Northumberland, home of the only known herd. Like many rare in-bred things, they live in a castle...

Dairy Shorthorn

A breed founded more than 230 years ago from a bull named Hubback. Produces quality milk in an economical manner. Pretty, too.

Hereford

One of the oldest breeds of beef cattle; can be traced back to Roman times. Characteristic white face and underbelly. Happiest when foraging.

Highland

The horns point up if it's a she, and forwards if it's a he. Straggly-coated, waterproof and nowhere near as scary as it looks.

Jersey

Channel Islands resident (well, that's what he tells HMRC). Available in various shades from fawn to nearly-black, but always has big doe eyes.

Longhorn

No relation to the famous Texas Longhorn. Horns once used to make buttons, cutlery handles and spoons; milk now used to make Stilton.

White Park

The Audrey Hepburn of cows, with its beautiful face. So ancient and protected, we shipped some to the US for safekeeping during World War Two.

Cycle lost lanes

Wind your way through the very best of the countryside, on quiet roads, off-road paths and tracks, always striving to follow the ways least travelled. It’s an endlessly rich network with unlimited opportunities for improvisation, variation and detours. Changing weather and changing seasons (Britain sometimes boasts all four in a single day) means no two bike rides are the same, even if they follow the same route.

The journey to become a cycling connoisseur of lost lanes is a simple one and comprises three steps. First, discover the lost lanes nearest where you live. Get out the Ordnance Survey maps (the Landranger 1:50,000 are best for cycling) and look for the thinnest yellow lines. For a bird’s eye view, go to www.twomaps.com and explore the twinning of detailed map and aerial photography. Next, get to know them in the flesh. Identify the wildflowers and come back a couple of months later to see what’s changed. Listen to the birdsong, spot the trees. Take a tramp about in neighbouring woodlands.

Third, and above all, just ride. At any speed, in all seasons, for the thrill of the new or the comfort of the familiar. Alone or with friends, pack a picnic or stop at a pub for lunch, have a snooze under a tree, take some photographs – even write a sonnet if the mood takes you. Savour the beauty and wildness of these perfect threads of common ground and celebrate the very best way to see them – by bike.

In issue 14 of The Simple Things, Jack Thurston shares hand-picked routes from his latest book.

LOST LANES by Jack Thurston is priced £14.99 from Wild Things Publishing. Buy a copy for just £12.99 (£9.99 – 33% off – plus £3.00 P&P) by entering the code ST13 at www.wildswimming.co.uk/lostlanes. Offer ends 30th September 2013.