The Diggers
In 1649 when St. George's Hill remained Common Land, still unfettered by the enclosures of private dominion, Gerrard Winstanley set off to cultivate this land to feed the starving landless; the dispossessed peasants of the republic.
Within a year Cromwell's troops had cleared these dangerous revolutionaries off the land once more.
Within a year Cromwell's troops had cleared these dangerous revolutionaries off the land once more.
If Gerrard Winstanley were to walk in an English town or city today, he might think his dream had come true.
Allotments - small plots of land (up to .25 acre) leased by local councils for urban farming - have been a part of the cityscape for over a century.
They were originally intended to fulfill Winstanley's wish: to provide the landless poor with an opportunity to grow their own food. Over the years, while the cities grew upwards and outwards around them, they have become a refuge from the hurried pace of modern society, a place where life can slow right down to the speed of nature.
Allotments - small plots of land (up to .25 acre) leased by local councils for urban farming - have been a part of the cityscape for over a century.
They were originally intended to fulfill Winstanley's wish: to provide the landless poor with an opportunity to grow their own food. Over the years, while the cities grew upwards and outwards around them, they have become a refuge from the hurried pace of modern society, a place where life can slow right down to the speed of nature.
In 1660 Winstanley moved to Cobham and later became a Quaker and worked as a merchant in London. Gerrard Winstanley died on 10th September 1676.
In January 1649, Gerrard Winstaley published the The New Law of Righteousness. In the pamphlet he wrote: "In the beginning of time God made the earth. Not one word was spoken at the beginning that one branch of mankind should rule over another, but selfish imaginations did set up one man to teach and rule over another."
Soon after publishing The New Law of Righteousness he established a group called the Diggers. In April 1649 Winstanley, William Everard, a former soldier in the New Model Army and about thirty followers took over some common land on St George's Hill in Surrey and "sowed the ground with parsnips, carrots and beans."
Digger groups also took over land in Kent (Cox Hill), Surrey (Cobham), Buckinghamshire (Iver) and Northamptonshire (Wellingborough). Local landowners were very disturbed by these developments. In July 1649 the government gave instructions for Winstanley to be arrested and for General Thomas Fairfax to "disperse the people by force" in case this is the "beginning to whence things of a greater and more dangerous consequence may grow".
Oliver Cromwell is reported to have said: "What is the purport of the levelling principle but to make the tenant as liberal a fortune as the landlord. I was by birth a gentleman. You must cut these people in pieces or they will cut you in pieces." Instructions were given for the Diggers to be beaten up and for their houses, crops and tools to be destroyed. These tactics were successful and within a year all the Digger communities in England had been wiped out.
Soon after publishing The New Law of Righteousness he established a group called the Diggers. In April 1649 Winstanley, William Everard, a former soldier in the New Model Army and about thirty followers took over some common land on St George's Hill in Surrey and "sowed the ground with parsnips, carrots and beans."
Digger groups also took over land in Kent (Cox Hill), Surrey (Cobham), Buckinghamshire (Iver) and Northamptonshire (Wellingborough). Local landowners were very disturbed by these developments. In July 1649 the government gave instructions for Winstanley to be arrested and for General Thomas Fairfax to "disperse the people by force" in case this is the "beginning to whence things of a greater and more dangerous consequence may grow".
Oliver Cromwell is reported to have said: "What is the purport of the levelling principle but to make the tenant as liberal a fortune as the landlord. I was by birth a gentleman. You must cut these people in pieces or they will cut you in pieces." Instructions were given for the Diggers to be beaten up and for their houses, crops and tools to be destroyed. These tactics were successful and within a year all the Digger communities in England had been wiped out.
Today with seemingly deliberate spite, the propertied have developed a rabbit warren of private roads and exclusive mansions, guarded by gated-access and a private security force to protect its fearful inhabitants and their exclusive golf courses from the dangerous rabble beyond.
St. Georges Hill is today the supreme English epitome of Private Enclosure, Wealth and Privilege so starkly challenged by those Diggers 350 years ago; as clear a statement as any from the powers-that-be against the social aspirations of the many.
St. Georges Hill is today the supreme English epitome of Private Enclosure, Wealth and Privilege so starkly challenged by those Diggers 350 years ago; as clear a statement as any from the powers-that-be against the social aspirations of the many.
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