What's acceptable when interacting with sites?

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nigelswift N
nigelswift May 18, 2011 07:07:07
Replying to moss

"if we want freedom of access to stones on farm land we should be prepared to abide by the rules!"

Quite. And one of them is that occasionally a landowner will say no, for their own reasons, perhaps very good and heritage-friendly ones, and will have a legal right to do so. All this "right of access to stones" talk is an aspiration, or wishful thinking but it doesn't actually exist in law and it's hard to see how you would draft it sensibly. If you live in a house once lived in by Dickens should the law give people the right to climb over your fence and into your garden? The Law of Property is complex and we all benefit from it so are we to say just a bit of it, where old stones are involved, should be amended to suit our particular hobby? I can just see the next cry: "It's everyone's heritage so there should be Freedum to metal detect"!

;)

L Littlestone
Littlestone May 18, 2011 07:39:58
Replying to nigelswift

Definitely! There have to be restrictions on where we can go otherwise we end up destroying that which we value.

In my own lifetime I’ve seen access to Silbury, Stonehenge, The Hall of Dreams, and the Moss Garden curtailed, and all curtailed for the same reason – ie that visitor numbers were threating the very fabric of the site. No doubt the trend will continue and we'll see more restrictions come into place. Meanwhile, we should respect site owners' requests, whether they're farmers, English Heritage, the National Trust or the MOD.

If we're concerned with the long-term conservation of places, and the sign says stay off, then stay off. Simples!

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 18, 2011 20:29:47
Replying to nigelswift

nigelswift wrote:
The Law of Property is complex and we all benefit from it so are we to say just a bit of it, where old stones are involved, should be amended to suit our particular hobby? I can just see the next cry: "It's everyone's heritage so there should be Freedum to metal detect"!

;)

Actually property law has nothing to do with access by the public, or to do with trespass. The law of property only deals with creation of estates and interests in land (i.e. ownership, private rights, mortgages, etc), it doesn't really have any bearing on public rights of access, which are covered by an entirely different set of legislation.