Guy Shrubsole: 'Somerset's land ownership is mysterious'

His latest book released last month, titled ‘The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside?’, explores the bad practices of a small number of landowners across the country and highlights the communities fighting back.

Speaking about what he discovered in writing the book, he said: “There’s some great farmers doing great stuff, but they are too few in number. In order to have a serious debate about how we fix the nature and climate crisis through the land, we need to have an honest debate about what is happening to the countryside at the hands of bad landowners.”

He cites several examples of bad land ownership, including the historic release of invasive species such as muntjac deer and grey squirrels, and the burning of carbon-rich heather moors. But it’s pheasants that Guy is concerned about, in places like Exmoor: “Every year, landowners release close to 50 million pheasants into the British countryside. The chance that this huge influx of pheasants is having no untoward impact on the countryside is close to zero.”

In Somerset, the debate over land ownership has also been seen on the Levels and Moors. This was particularly so in the early 1980s, when the Nature Conservancy Council dared to designate part of the area a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and farmers responded with straw effigies of conservationists and set them alight.

However, Guy reflects that “understanding has moved on since the 80’s. The flooding of 2013-14 was absolutely devastating for farming and people living on the Levels. I got this real sense that people there had to dredge their way out of it. But I’m not sure that’s going to be tenable anymore given the levels of rainfall we’re having and that’s forecast for the 2050s.”

“We’ve got to be doing more to adapt to this. We need to have the hard conversations about how we use the Somerset Levels.”

Lowland peatland, which dominates 60,000 hectares of the Somerset Levels and contains almost 11 million tonnes of carbon, is another topic Guy discusses in his new book. He comments: “The problem we face with lowland peat is its agricultural usage, as peat exposed to oxygen creates carbon dioxide and washes out to sea through drainage channels. Again, it’s reached a stage where we need to ask how much longer this can be sustained?”

So, who owns what land in Somerset? Guy’s previous book released in 2019, titled ‘Who Owns England?’, mapped land holdings in the county. Vast swathes are owned not just privately, but also by bodies including Somerset Council (with its diminishing number of county farms), the RSPB, and the Crown Estate. Even the Duchy of Cornwall owns acres, including near Curry Mallet, and also at Ham Hill near Yeovil.

(Image: Who Owns England, Guy Shrubsole and Anna Powell-Smith)

But, as he identifies, “Land ownership in Somerset is mysterious because there’s a lot of pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that are missing. It’s infuriating as the government can answer the question by opening access to the Land Registry. But they’ve now doubled the cost of accessing the information to £7, meaning it would cost £168 million to find out who owns what land in England. Land has always been interwoven with power and wealth.”

One such example of this ‘mysterious’ land ownership is Exmoor National Park. Just 8.6% is owned by the National Park body, with the remainder being in private ownership. It raises questions about how much powers National Parks have? And what are meant to be the purposes of National Parks? As Guy explains: “They’re places people can access for enjoyment and are meant to be protected and enhanced. But what powers do the government now have to ask landowners to restore their land? Places we thought were accessible to all of us, with thriving nature, very sadly are suffering as badly as the rest of the countryside.”

So, what can individuals to do help care for the countryside? He recommends one solution is for people to “pay more attention outside.” If you spot invasive species, such as Himalayan Balsam, “don’t walk by, note where it is, try to find the local landowner, and even ask ‘do you want a hand getting rid of it?’.” Guy adds: “We are more powerful if we act together. I think it’s important for people to join groups, such as River Guardian groups that are linked to campaigns for access to rivers. We are more powerful if we act together.”

Guy Shrubsole will be at Taunton Waterstones on Thursday, October 3 at 7pm to discuss his new book ‘The Lie of the Land’. Tickets for the event can be booked online or by phone at: 01823 333113.