BACK TO THE LAND IN BRITAIN

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by ROD CHADWICK

A. The foothills of the Knockmealdown mountains, one of the best inland spots in Ireland to seek inexpensive land and established farms.
B. Lough Erne, strewn with uninhabited islands.
C. The Western Isles of Scotland, another happy hunting ground for island buffs.
D. East coast Scotland south of Aberdeen, a good source of inexpensive mainland properties.
E. A vast area of near-to-nil population.
F. The twin towns of Lancaster and Morecambe. Lancaster is on the road and rail routes to just about everywhere and is particularly useful as a jumping-off point for the Lake District. Inexpensive hotels and apartments are abundant in Morecambe and Heysham, a few minutes south, is the ferry departure point for Ireland.
G. The northern and southern limits of "Mid Wales", an area isolated from the resort development of the north and the industrial development of the south.
H. The region in which most of England's inexpensive hill farms are located. It centers on an area not usually marked on maps known as the Rossendale Valley.
I. The beautiful Devon and Cornwall area, somewhat isolated from the mainstreams of commercial farming.
J. Weymouth, the departure port for Jersey and the other 'Channel Islands'.
K. Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands and the closest to France.

The distant and foreign acreages of Alaska and Canada have received a lot of coverage in the American back-to-the-land journals and even Australia and New Zealand are now being mentioned. But the British Isles have so far been left out of this English-language grouping . . . understandably but mistakenly. For, while Britain has no "free" lands or acreages open to homesteading, the United Kingdom does offer opportunities for the purchase and rental of small and inexpensive farms.

England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are often represented as terribly overcrowded countries where open stretches of territory no longer remain. In fact, the British Isles have many such uncluttered landscapes.

For example, 2,250,000 acres sown to wheat; 18,000,000 acres in arable production; 12,000,000 head of grazing cattle . . . are figures for where? Canada? The U.S.? Not at all. These are recent figures for England, Wales and Scotland . . . the totals for Ireland not included. To complete the "wide, open spaces" concept, we would have to add in even larger national park and wilderness areas.