Hi ,
St George's Hill in Surrey is a private gated community that's been home to Elton John, John Lennon, and Cliff Richards. The tennis club there was opened by Prince Alexander and Princess Alice of Teck. Photos show a patchwork of pools and mock-Palladian palaces, all with authentic 18th century 4-car garages. At the beginning of June 1649, this is where the Diggers issued their manifesto: A Declaration From The Poor Oppressed People Of England.
The Diggers were a radical political and religious group that had begun growing vegetables in the common land on St George's Hill. In the hard times after decades of civil and religious wars across the British Isles, they invited all to join them and share their food and clothing. Their goal was "making the earth a common treasury for all, both rich and poor." But this wasn't just about communal survival: the Diggers had come to understand that the hard times and inequality weren't new, but part of a deeply unfair system. Ever since the Norman conquest, they argued, the common lands had been increasingly privatised by the aristocracy, leaving people impoverished and more importantly, powerless. The commons weren't just a source of food, but also a way to protect people from inequality and live in harmony with the natural world: “true freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation."
The most obvious relevance of the Diggers, 376 years later, is that despite their attempts land is still wildly unequal in the UK. Half of England is owned by just 25,000 people, mostly aristocrats and corporations. In Scotland, 433 people are estimated to own half of private rural land (work looking at Welsh landownership is ongoing). Despite quite a lot of history happening between 1649 and 2025, the UK remains a country where the Duke of Buccleuch can sell a village wholesale.
But like the Diggers realised, turning the commons over to powerful people is something that undermines all parts of life. Privatisation has removed swathes of daily life from public control. Giving up the earth to the richest has created an ongoing ecological collapse that threatens everyone. Indigenous peoples and climate protest camps are removed by the powerful so that the resources we all own can be privatised and exploited in much the same way the Diggers were ultimately removed from St George's Hill.
The question of who owns the commons is crucial to real democracy – because if shareholders of Thames Water or BP can decide for us that our future is bleak, and if the richest can wield their wealth to prevent popular change, do we really live in a democracy?
But there's also a lot of hope in the Diggers. The celebrated author Ursula K Le Guin wrote that “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings." The Diggers' movement was characterised by the times they lived in (with an extreme focus on the Bible and God's order) but they also saw through a deeply unjust human system and resisted it. We can too! |
