Do farmers look more kindly on tarps as opposed to tents?

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British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
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Knocking on a few doors and asking will normally reveal the Iocal farmer or landowner. A polite request will often allow a nights camping. To not even bother asking is lazy and rude.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
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Scotland
Knocking on a few doors and asking will normally reveal the Iocal farmer or landowner. A polite request will often allow a nights camping. To not even bother asking is lazy and rude.

Very true and not something I was advicating bypassing. Get permission. If you approach it properly you'd be surprised how many folks say yes.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
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Cornwall
As you do not seem to understand the point I was making I will try again.
It is not your property . just because it is a field or a wood you do not have the right of public access.
And you would be leaving without your property.
Of course I understood your post but you do not seem to understand the law of theft.
 
Jul 30, 2012
3,570
224
westmidlands
Knocking on a few doors and asking will normally reveal the Iocal farmer or landowner. A polite request will often allow a nights camping. To not even bother asking is lazy and rude.
I would like too a great deal, but 2 hours (1 hour each way and confusion time of asking) with a 15 kg backpack at the end of an 8 hour day seems a lot of hard work. Like everything else it seems largley down to the problem you cause. I dare say a lot of landowners are more than understanding, TO THE RIGHT SORT OF PEOPLE. You get wronguns on sites too!
As you do not seem to understand the point I was making I will try again.
It is not your property . just because it is a field or a wood you do not have the right of public access.
And you would be leaving without your property.
As red says they may not object. There is an attitude people have to there personal land/family property and there working land. I would not like to invade any folk by even half a mile. But as to the legality, which I do not really wish to get into, as I was really thinking of the scottish situation where places have been ransacked and laid waste by campers, is a tarp less threatening by its sheer temporary nature.
The legality is ;
the land isn't registered as a dwelling thus you cannot be hurt by it yourself as you yourself do not exist there
Squatters rights (vagrants are just the same)
Civil understanding amenabilities ( whithin due reason/necessity)
Is it actually beond your rights to camp on the side of a right of way as long as the provisor of transit is there and not squatting, after all the footpat belongs to the landowner I believe.
Was there any justification for the complaint ie landgrabs or damage
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
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Very true and not something I was advicating bypassing. Get permission. If you approach it properly you'd be surprised how many folks say yes.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

...and often a lot more besides. When I was young, I recall a lovely farmers wife bustling out to me and my brother with two huge fry ups on plates after we camped in their field. Wouldn't hear of "chillum" paying either. She was a lovely lady and we sent her a letter of thanks. We camped there for years as we grew up and I remember it fondly. I remember her daughter fondly too many years later, but that's another story.
 

Goatboy

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Jan 31, 2005
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Scotland
...and often a lot more besides. When I was young, I recall a lovely farmers wife bustling out to me and my brother with two huge fry ups on plates after we camped in their field. Wouldn't hear of "chillum" paying either. She was a lovely lady and we sent her a letter of thanks. We camped there for years as we grew up and I remember it fondly. I remember her daughter fondly too many years later, but that's another story.

:D
I'm not the only person to have had a similar experience then. One thing I'd say is that though haylofts seem romantic you end up awfully itchy.
Aye in the past I've taken courteuos folk to interesting out of the way places on the estate as they had manners. And like you say a farm cooked breakfast of fresh eggs, bread and ham is better than almost anything.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

Harvestman

Bushcrafter through and through
May 11, 2007
8,656
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55
Pontypool, Wales, Uk
...and often a lot more besides. When I was young, I recall a lovely farmers wife bustling out to me and my brother with two huge fry ups on plates after we camped in their field. Wouldn't hear of "chillum" paying either. She was a lovely lady and we sent her a letter of thanks. We camped there for years as we grew up and I remember it fondly. I remember her daughter fondly too many years later, but that's another story.

Talk about getting more than you expected out of a camping trip! ;)
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
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Wonderful place it really was. The farmers wife did the most amazing cream teas. Each person got a pint bowl of clotted cream, ten scones, a pound of her raspberry jam and a huge pot of tea...with full cream Jersey milk. Your arteries hardened just looking at it :).

If I ever make our homestead such a lovely place my work is done. I'm convinced it was always five degrees warmer there and the sun always shone :)
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Wonderful place it really was. The farmers wife did the most amazing cream teas. Each person got a pint bowl of clotted cream, ten scones, a pound of her raspberry jam and a huge pot of tea...with full cream Jersey milk. Your arteries hardened just looking at it :).

If I ever make our homestead such a lovely place my work is done. I'm convinced it was always five degrees warmer there and the sun always shone :)

But didn't the sun always shine in our salad days? :D
What I wan't to say to my English chums is that pretty much since 1066 is that free access to the land is out of the question. Presedence is truely set. Enjoy it legally. You thinl that north of the border we have it made. Its just a different set of rules. And without getting political change it through legal routes. Legal change is all the sweeter.
I've found through living both North and South that "asking gets you places."

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
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I wouldn't want it changed for a moment Colin, all that "right without responsibilities" is very much not how I believe things should work. Fine in a true wilderness, but there hasn't been any of that for a thousand years. Indeed all that sort of stuff is why we pulled out of the place we were looking to buy in Scotland. I suspect most English people still prefer the notion of private property and polite request. As you say it has worked for a thousand years.
 

sunndog

Full Member
May 23, 2014
3,561
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derbyshire
I would like too a great deal, but 2 hours (1 hour each way and confusion time of asking) with a 15 kg backpack at the end of an 8 hour day seems a lot of hard work

well you are asking for a favour from a stranger. so you cant really complain about a bit of effort on your part
Or go in advance without a mountain of gear on your back and seek permission for a future date...surely camping with permission would be more relaxing?

Either way its better than just helping yourself because you cant be arsed to ask.....sorry mate but that is a bad attitude to have when theres a chance you'll have to deal with hard working farmers, it will just get thier backs up
 

Quixoticgeek

Full Member
Aug 4, 2013
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Europe
ok you come out of your back door one morning and there is someone camping in the middle of your lawn.They have chopped down branches from your garden and had a fire ,pulled branches off the trees and tied them up to make a `shelter`.
How do you feel?

The very fact you have asked this question worries me.

I had this scenario last week in our woods plus loads of tins and rubbish.

ps, you can be `escorted` off the property minus your kit.

I think my first reaction would be "You found enough flat ground in my garden?" Followed by "Is that you birchwood" :p

Sorry, couldn't resist :p

J
 
Jul 30, 2012
3,570
224
westmidlands
well you are asking for a favour from a stranger. so you cant really complain about a bit of effort on your part
Or go in advance without a mountain of gear on your back and seek permission for a future date...surely camping with permission would be more relaxing?

Either way its better than just helping yourself because you cant be arsed to ask.....sorry mate but that is a bad attitude to have when theres a chance you'll have to deal with hard working farmers, it will just get thier backs up
You can't stop me sleeping on the foot path mmwah hah hah hah
 

Quixoticgeek

Full Member
Aug 4, 2013
2,483
23
Europe
Just to play devils advocate. You knock on the farmers door, ask for permission to sleep in the corner of the empty field over there -->. He says yes, and you go and put up your camp.

The next morning you're greeted by a farmer asking who you are and why you are in his field. Turns out that in the dark you got it wrong and drifted off into the wrong field, you're on the wrong side of the dry stone wall. An innocent mistake. Is it better to do so in a tent or a bivvi bag?

J
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
I wouldn't want it changed for a moment Colin, all that "right without responsibilities" is very much not how I believe things should work. Fine in a true wilderness, but there hasn't been any of that for a thousand years. Indeed all that sort of stuff is why we pulled out of the place we were looking to buy in Scotland. I suspect most English people still prefer the notion of private property and polite request. As you say it has worked for a thousand years.

As is oft quoted Red in both England and Wales is that."an.Englishmans home is his castle."
Very few would want someone camped out in their mwtaphorical back garden.
Yes its different up here. But we have a culture of difference. It may not seem like much but it envagles at an almost genetic level; very hard to define. Its almost an inate knowing.


Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Forestry commission land... They don't wander around the woods at night.

Yes we do, often armed and in number. I nearly slotted a squadie one night as he was where he shouldn't have been. We ended up having tea and sarnies but it could've gone very much the other way by his being where he shouldn't be.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

Quixoticgeek

Full Member
Aug 4, 2013
2,483
23
Europe
Yes we do, often armed and in number. I nearly slotted a squadie one night as he was where he shouldn't have been. We ended up having tea and sarnies but it could've gone very much the other way by his being where he shouldn't be.

Conversely, if you can get a good relationship going with your local warden, there's a higher chance they just suggest you put the kettle on...

J
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Conversely, if you can get a good relationship going with your local warden, there's a higher chance they just suggest you put the kettle on...

J

I.totally agree. I've had some of the best talks in the woods with relative strangers. They've either been good campers or folks who've asked and we've had a brew and a chat.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

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