We are well into the new year, and Yorkley Court is still here, living and growing on the land. 2015 was a year dominated by the possibility of unjust eviction, and yet we have survived thanks to our determination to fight for what is right, and also thanks to the support and help we have received from hundreds of people in the local area. And yet, despite surviving, 2015 was a difficult year in many ways – the amount of time and resources we could allocate to farming was curtailed by the immediate necessity to protect ourselves and the land we are on. Furthermore, we were forced into building our famous tower at our front gate, which, while impressive, completely blocks vehicle access. 2016, we hope, will be a year of moving forward from these problems and developing our situation at Yorkley Court for the better.
Remember that this is only possible because of the Forest of Dean – both the people and the place. The Forest also had an interesting 2015, not least with regards to fracking. The district council, in October, took the unprecedented step of unanimously voting in favour of a motion in which they declared their opposition to this terrible process. And yet in December the government granted a licence to two companies to start ‘exploratory drilling’ in and around the Forest. It would appear that the government has disabled all the democratic options which could allow a local population to stop this process – and so the people of the Forest can rely on nothing other than themselves. We at Yorkley continue to declare our support for the Foresters in this struggle.
We would like to reassure the people of the forest that while Yorkley Court is a home to us, we also want it to be yours. We have always intended for it to be a ‘community farm’. So please come down and visit, pretty much anytime – especially during our open day and workshop events! (We have one planned for February, announcement soon. We also encourage people to think about the possibility of using the land at Yorkley Court for their allotment space.) Ring the number that is displayed at the gate if there is no-one to let you in.
We hope you had a great festive season and hope to see you soon down on the farm.
This morning two council officials entered the farm asking questions about the number of pregnant women and children on-site. We recognise this as a sign that an eviction attempt is likely to happen in the near future.
We are strengthening our defences and preparing ourselves for what may come.
We need support.
It would be great to have even more people on site in the coming days .. there are lots of practical and other jobs to help with, including building, cooking, climbing, first aid, legal observation and moral support. Come and learn and share skills and get stuck in!
We also need support with getting materials onto site, including:
-building materials
-climbing materials and polyprop rope
-spare bedding, tents and tarpaulins
-tinned food
-any other useful materials/tools (list will be updated/added to)
This piece of land means everything to us. It is our home, it is the source of our water, food, fuel and shelter. It is an open space where people from the wider local community of the Forest of Dean meet, make friends and share skills. It also provides habitat for a rare diversity of plant and animal life, which if destroyed would be irreplaceable.
We will not allow this land to be taken by someone to whom it means nothing but extra millions in their pocket. Someone who plans to build multiple housing developments that will urbanise this quiet rural area.
If you feel as we do then we urge you to get in touch or just come down. Visitors, as ever, are always welcome.
We will keep you posted on any news.
If you wish to join our emergency contact list, please send a text to: 07522 025 889
To contact us,
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 07522025889
Website: yorkleycourt.wordpress.com
Facebook: YorkleyCourtCF
Yorkley Court Community Farm
Yorkley
GL15 4TZ
Respect existence or expect resistance!
Saturday 5th September 12 – 4pm
as part of the Forest Food Hunt ..
1pm: Wild food foraging walk
2pm: “Food Revolution” discussion hosted by Corporate Watch
All afternoon: Delicious seasonal food, face painting and fun!
Parking is very limited, so if you are able to, please park in Yorkley and walk down.
Hope to see you there!
Check out the Food Hunt –
http://www.forestfoodhunt.co.uk/
Saturday 6th June from 12 midday..
Bring food to share, friends, family and sunshine!
Also bring musical instruments if you like, our new little stage will be open for anyone who would like to perform.
All in the front field..
hope to see you there xx
Join us from Friday 1st May for a week of workshops, activities and skill-shares on all aspects of sustainability.
Confirmed workshops so far are: bike generators, solar power, bio-char carbon sequestering, foraging for food and medicine, barricade building, clay oven making, basket weaving, tree house building, gardening..
Do you have a skill you want to share?
Let us know and bring it along!
If you would like to help in the preparations for the camp, come down anytime from now on.
If you are planning to drive here and have space in your car, please let us know.
Hope to see you here!
[email protected]
07522 025 889
website: yorkleycourt.wordpress.com
facebook: YorkleyCourtCF
wishlist: https://yorkleycourt.wordpress.com/wish-list/
financial support: http://www.gofundme.com/%08mr9arc
look here for directions: https://yorkleycourt.wordpress.com/visit/how-to-find-us/
The Land Is Yours.. What’s it worth to you? Continue reading
Over the past couple of weeks, employees of Brian Bennett have been busy cutting down and grubbing up trees and parts of hedgerow in areas of the farm, in bird nesting season.
Over 40 species of bird can be seen on the farm, including endangered species such as hawfinch, song thrush, lapwing and skylark.
Bennett’s workers have been making huge bonfires out of the trees they cut down, both in situ, and moving them to burn in another part of the farm which is known to be an important nesting area.
One of the areas where they have been cutting trees is a diverse and wildlife rich meadow, which has been described by the Dean Meadows Group as
“..not only full of attractive flowers but great habitat for invertebrates and therefore other wildlife that feeds on them. Linked to the scrub and woodland in the rest of the valley this is a valuable and locally unusual area of significant size.”
Parts of it have now been wrecked by the heavy machinery that has been used for pulling up the trees, and by the bonfires.
What do you think Bennett would do to the beautiful piece of woodland we are occupying, if he managed to get his hands on it…?
THIS CAN NOT HAPPEN.
We are standing our ground. Land can provide for all of our needs, but only if we nurture a respectful relationship with our surroundings. We continue to resist, whilst experimenting with all aspects of low impact living and sustainable food production.. come and see, get involved and help resist!
Community before profit! Trees before greed!
The way food is produced distributed and consumed in Britain today is shaped by a complex history spanning 1000 years of struggle.
Understanding this history is essential in understanding the way things are today, not just for land workers but for all of us. It is a social history that leaves a divisive legacy across our landscape, our people, our food and our daily work, entrenching poverty and privilege in Britain. Any serious attempts to create local, sustainable food systems must address it.
The history of Britain has been driven by the dispossession of land based communities as the ownership of fields, forest and commons has been progressively concentrated into the hands of a few powerful landowners.
Over the centuries our ancestors have faced enclosures and clearances, the loss of common land and grazing rights and the development of a culture of exclusive land ownership and prohibitive land prices, all intimately connected with the process of industrialisation and colonialism. From this history we look out today on a country where over 75 % of the land is owned by less than 1% of the population, where the average age of a farmer is over 60 and where less than 1% of the population work on the land.
Corporate business dominates all levels of our food system, resulting in complicated and fast moving supply chains where prices for producers are squeezed and scandals such as contamination, gang labour and health scares are increasingly common.
The relationship between land ownership and food systems is clear. Between 2007 and 2013 the EU lost over 25% of its farms because an agricultural industry based on chemical inputs, large land holdings and a high degree of mechanisation is the only farm capable of surviving in a food system dominated by a few big retailers. That kind of agricultural industry leads inevitably to the exploitation of the land, the producers and the health of those who consume its products, whilst making it harder and harder for people with alternative ideas to get a foot hold on the farming ladder.
A just and more sustainable food and farming system would involve short supply chains and a multiplicity of small scale sustainable food producers. Such a system can deliver healthy nutritious food with responsible environmental stewardship and the creation of more meaningful land based livelihoods. However, to do this we need a change of perspective on land and food: we need to understand that the right to food and the right to land go hand in hand.
The story is told in different ways in different places but essentially it goes like this: a destitute man wearily stumbles down a country lane on winters evening and finding a field sheltered from the wind by a good sturdy fence, climbs over and beds down for the night.
In the morning, he wakes with a start, a lady is prodding him with her cane.
“What do you think you are doing here?” she demands, “this land is private property!”
“Is it?” the man asks, waking up.
“It certainly is, I own it!” the lady snaps.
“Well, says the man, rubbing his eyes, “how did you come by it?”
“What a silly question!” the lady exclaims “why, my father owned it”.
“And how did he come by?” the man enquires.
“His father owned it” she replies continuing impatiently “and his father before his, and his father before his and his father before his all the way back to the Norman Conquest.”
“I see and what of your fore fathers at the time of the Normand Conquest, how did they come by this land?”
“Well they fought for it of course”.
“Right” says the man getting to his feet and rolling up his sleeves, “then I’ll fight you for it”.
The story exposes the absurdity of our system of land ownership. Whether by direct violence or making a killing in business there is something crazy about anyone laying claim to large tracts of land for private amusemnet or gain while the majority of us cannot lay claim to “one handful of earth”.
“The earth was made a common treasury for all” declared Gerrard Winstanly of the 17th centrury Diggers. To them the land should be worked communally and it’s fruits divided equally. A co-operative alternative to the Diggers’ collectivist approach might be that, at the least those who wish to live and/or work on the land should be given control of that which they can manage in a sustainable and productive way: no more, no less.
These are just two “models” of a fairer system of land distribution; there are plenty more voiced and yet to be voiced. What they all have in common is that they throw into stark relief the fact that the current land ownership system continues to reward downright theft and is ultimately a cause of many of our current environmnatal, social and economc ills.
The Movement for Food Sovereignty
All over the world people are finding ways to take back control of their food. In 1993 small organisiataions defending the livelihoods of peasant farmers in South America united to form La Via Campesina. Now a global organisation representing over 200 million small sale farmers and producers, La Via Campesia developed the concept of food sovereignty as a practical basis for rebuilding our food system.
Food sovereignty calls for the right to food controlled by and for people and communities not for big business elites and private profit. The purpose of the food system should be to feed the population in a way that is sustainable and equitable and this can only happen by building local food systems – bringing producers and consumers closer together in a system that is locally controlled by them, that reduces food miles and environmental damage, values food providers and builds knowledge and skills around food growing. The demands of food sovereignty inevitably call for new patterns of land ownership and land distribution as part of this shift to local democratic control of food production.
Britain could be self sufficient in food fuel and fibre if the right decisions were made about land use and consumption. The biggest blocks in making these decisions are the structures of ownership, planning law and corporate monopolies that prevent people from engaging in food growing as a viable livelihood.
We are working to better weatherproof our stable in the front field, to have a nice cosy space for indoor activities on Thursday, especially important with the wild weather we are having at the moment!
If anybody has any of the following to spare, they would be really useful:
– wood for cladding the sides of the stable
– nails + tacks
– rugs/carpet
– curtains/big pieces of fabric
Thank you!
Yorkley Court Community Farm 