Phillipa Klaiber

The Land is Ours

For four years, a group of eco-farmers and anarchists occupied an area of disused scrubland, with a dream to live off the land as a sustainable community. This land had an unclear history of ownership, which made their occupation possible, but meant they were under regular threat of eviction.

In their hands, disused scrubland and overgrown woods became thriving environments, with a careful balance between the prosperity of the land and basic needs of the people. The community believed that, until you live on the land and are truly reliant on it, you cannot hope to reconnect to it. A shift in perspective from the modern idea of a monopoly over land, to a more balanced relationship.

It was the sense of absolute freedom that drove them, freedom to live as they pleased and to be who they wanted, away from the constraints of the rest of society. That freedom was worth defending. It came with a level of responsibility towards the people of their community, and the environment they lived in.

Ultimately, it was an unattainable dream. They were building an arcadia while fighting a corruption of land ownership that was far more equipped than they were. The community were evicted, their homes bulldozed or set alight. They fled to the neighbouring woods, collected their remaining possessions and dispersed.

“The reasons I do what I do are a sense of injustice, an inability to compromise on how I spend my time and a drive to maintain hope in the possibility of change for the better.

The legal cases in the land registry, the planning office and in the courts were very draining on our resources and now they have all failed. We are fully illegal, we do not own the land, there is an eviction notice against us, our houses, kitchen, communal areas are all illegal, to be there is to be in contempt of court. So in the true sense of the word, we are outlaws.

I hope you never have to go through it but it is the most unpleasant experience to be attacked in your own home, to have someone enter your home, take you and your things out, make you homeless and then demolish your home. This was the reality of our experience last year, I can't convey the deep trauma and distress it caused me to live through the experience of the eviction attempt last summer thankfully they were unsuccessful. It will take me many years to recover fully from the trauma.

In the time leading up to the most recent court case, the possession order, the mood was bleak. We were preparing for all out eviction on the day of the court case. We knew it would not go in our favour and so we made our plans to resist eviction. We gave it a week to allow the people with vehicles to leave and then we blocked the road with a tower over the front gate, and numerous towers through the whole site.

We don’t know what the future holds for us at Yorkley Court, it may be a short time it may be a long time, we may be there forever. We are under a lot of pressure from all sides, we have to defend ourselves from all sorts of attacks. For me, the point of being here and the message I want to convey to people is to do with access to land and growing food. If you can provide for yourself, you can provide for your own needs, life takes on a different dimension. The planet we live on can provide for our needs, having access to land is one of the most simple ways you can provide for yourself and also to care for your environment."

- Frank White co-founder of the community.