Letter: We Are Saddened By the High-Handed Treatment We Are Experiencing

Published on: 24 Mar, 2026
Updated on: 24 Mar, 2026

From Lorimer Burn

chair of the St Catherine’s Village association

In response to: I Back the Toil of the Farmer

Angela Richardson’s comments are disappointing, although I understand that she is trying to be even-handed. However, her understanding of the situation is, I believe, misguided.

Hundreds of local people have used this path for 20 years, some for 30 years and longer. I have heard stories of walkers taking the train from London to Guildford and walking up The Mount to simply experience the beauty of the walk along the top of this field.

Yes of course, we could get in our cars and drive somewhere else to walk, but it is this area which gives greatest enjoyment and is so uniquely special. It is this area which is local, that we walk to. And this is why we are so passionate about it.

Felled trees incorporated into the dead hedge. Lorimer Burn

We were confused and astonished when we realised on the February 8 that the hedge marking the northern boundary of the Loseley Estate was cut down to the ground in order to construct a Dead Hedge, incorporating barbed wire from the original fence.

Branches from the hedge were then used to block all the access points onto the footpath we’d enjoyed for so many years, subsequently supplemented with numerous large tree trunks.

The field has been extended across what was the path and into the original hedge line. Lorimer Burn

It added insult to injury to subsequently find that the tenant farmer has incorporated this newly revealed land into his field – a significant land grab of two to three metres along the northern edge of the field.

Drilling in this new part of the field was completed on Monday, March 23. I understand that the crop is spring barley.

This narrow strip of land on the northern edge of “Rutherfords, Chalkpit and Reservoir” fields (colloquially referred to collectively as “South Field”), is one of the least productive parts, being on increasingly arid chalk, and suffering significant predation by rabbits.

The “Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024” also state that a two metre strip from the centre of the hedge is to be left untilled and free of pesticides and fertilisers. This strip should never be part of the field’s yield in the first place.

We are asking for the restoration of a path along the northern edge of this special field which has been enjoyed by so many for decades. We are clear that there must be a fence to protect the field. The new stock fence down to Conduit Farm is a good example.

The community feel so strongly about this that crowdfunding is proposed to pay for it, if a grant is not available.

We do really want to work with the Loseley Estate and not against. The adverse publicity which the estate is inviting will be a completely unnecessary result if a compromise cannot be reached very soon.

We are all really proud of our beautiful local estate, but at present, are deeply saddened by the high-handed treatment we are all experiencing.

Responses to Letter: We Are Saddened By the High-Handed Treatment We Are Experiencing

Angela Richardson Reply

March 24, 2026 at 8:01 pm

I do understand amenity. The situation on the Loseley Estate is not unique.

My home in Ewhurst has direct access onto the Lukyns Estate. When we first moved there many years ago, the immediate field behind us wasn’t as actively managed and it was quite common to see people walking across it and around the edges instead of using the designated public footpath a couple of fields over.

That changed over a decade ago when the management intensified, signs and more fences went up, along with the verbal challenging of those crossing private land. Everyone had to adapt their routines and behaviours because it was a reasonable thing to do in light of the fundamental nature of land ownership but more importantly, the field was being used for annual production and harvesting.

We neighbours and villagers didn’t have a leg to stand on. The right to roam is a wonderful thing, but it is a limited right. It is very common to see trees placed across the access to fields to prevent incursions on farming land.

I’m certain everyone can think of barriers placed upon both private and common land to try and stop travellers even in our urban areas.

Angela Ricardson is the former Conservative MP for Guildford
John Dawson Reply

March 26, 2026 at 11:00 am

Having been brought up in an agricultural/horticultural family I am astonished that anyone feels that accessing private land by treading down wire fencing and then trampling on freshly sown and germinating crops, and doing so year after year, conveys any rights of access.

Whilst I admit to having walked along the top of the fields a few times in the past, it was only ever late in the season when the damage to the crops was already done or they had been harvested, but I must say that I never felt really comfortable doing so.

I cannot imagine how anyone could feel justified or comfortable being the first person to walk along there when the seeds had just been sown or were starting to germinate.

It was suggested that Loseley may have granted permissive rights in the past but if that is true then they are entitled to withdraw that.
- Alex Green Reply
  
  March 28, 2026 at 5:50 pm
  
  Neither Angela Richardson nor John Dawson seem to be all that bothered with the environmental and visual destruction of what was a jewel of Guildford.
  
  I have a right to leave used mattresses and all sorts of other waste in my front garden, but it makes our community much worse were I to do so.
  
  How can you possibly look at the “forestry management” that has taken place and think it in good faith? If it were the planting of fresh trees – fine; as it is the ripping out of decades old hedgerow and habitat, please acknowledge that.
  
  I wholly agree that people need to be aware of the obligations when roaming and it is infuriating to see people tread on fresh crops.