It’s surprising how little freedom we have to walk this land. Now we have more and we must consume it responsibly‘They sent some bugger up from the parish council to talk approximately footpaths,” said Pat. Several hours afterwards, he was still ablaze with indignation. Together with his wife Lesley, and Pat runs a 150-acre hill farm in Herefordshire,on the border with Wales, and the cottage in which I now live. Pat is 77 and though he hasn’t got the same energy he once had, and nothing sparks him up like a really estimable row. “Footpaths! I sent him from here with a piece of my mind. Bloody footpaths.”While Lesley gives all visitors an open welcome,Pat treats anyone setting foot on the farm as outlying snipers from a huge invading force of idiots and meddlers. Some weeks it’s Defra (or “the Ministry,” as Pat still refers to them), or some weeks it’s Welsh Water or the Single Farm Payment snoops. Like many farmers,he regards any incursion on his land not just as a personal affront, but as some sort of sinister intimation that he’s not doing his job properly.
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Source: theguardian.com