Stop Thief

The Midlands of England is parcelled, divided, bought and sold, above all, Enclosed. It is housing, or it is commercial, or it is fenced and farmed with some intensity. Not for us the wildernesses of the Celtic fringes, the high moors of south west and the Pennines or the historic enclave of the New Forest. All the more precious then, this mini moorland on the fringe of Oxford: the recreated wetland of Otmoor

Two hundred years ago, this was common land - a means of subsistence and supplementary income for landless local labourers. In a familiar story, the landowners decided it should be Enclosed, its commons rights abrogated and the wetland drained. This met fierce resistance from the independent-minded local population. The initial drainage scheme caused floods and led to night-time raids to attack enclosure banks and fences. Charged with the damage, 29 local farmers pleaded that the banks were a public nuisance and the local magistrate acquitted them

Events escalated, troops were deployed but met a sullen lack of co-operation from the villages surrounding the moor. Eventually, on 6 September 1830, 1000 people defiantly marched the perimeter of the moor in daylight and destroyed every fence they encountered. The Riot Act was read and some 40 'rioters' were dispatched to Oxford gaol (now a luxury hotel - you can stay in a cell if you wish!) In that year, 6 September was the first day of St Giles Fair - an annual fair in central Oxford since the year 1200, which continues to this day. The prison carts were attacked by the crowds and the 'rioters' were freed

In the way that these things go, the authorities eventually had their way and the protests subsided. The landlords' victory was Pyrrhic, however: after redrainage and additional expense, their return on investment was poor. Less than 100 years later, in 1920, the Moor was bought by the RAF, for use as a bombing range. Some of it remains in military hands as a firing range but, in 1997, 400 hectares were taken over by the RSPB as a wetland nature reserve. It has become renound for its starling murmurations and is now home to otters, white egrets, hen harriers, cranes, golden plover and lapwing

We did not see anything remarkable on our visit, but enjoyed an exquisite autumn day and the sense of the ancient that hung about the place. We did see some Canada and Greylag geese. Prior to the Enclosures, the rearing of geese on the wetland was one source of income for the commoners, and gave rise to the now well-known sardonic rhyme:

The fault is great in Man or Woman 
Who steals the Goose from off a Common; 
But who can plead that man's excuse 
Who steals the Common from the Goose