Michael Segalov uncovers the story of Yorkley Court Community Farm:
“The pattern of land ownership is complex, but in the UK today, it’s all owned by someone. It’s enclosed,” Frank White tells me as I’m helped over a series of fences and chains, past a 25-foot watchtower that wouldn’t look out of place on the Game of Thrones set. “You can’t just walk onto land if nobody is using it and grow produce, graze cattle, or collect firewood. Someone will own it.” White is right, of course, except that’s exactly what he—and around forty other people—have done, right in the heart of the Forest of Dean.
Yorkley Court Community Farm was established in the Gloucestershire woodland back in June 2012 when a group of environmental activists arrived at the site. At the time, the land was sitting empty and “there was increasingly an air of neglect,” according to a book documenting the farm by locals and residents.
