The Ground Beneath Our Feet: A Path Through England's Lost Commons (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781836392828)

A personal history of enclosure in England that explores the meaning of belonging in the landscape.

What can it mean to belong to a place when it doesn't belong to you? The Ground beneath Our Feet tells the story of how common land all but disappeared in England. It traces the legal and social process known as enclosure--one that reimagined shared land as private property and put up fences to keep people out. The journey takes us through resistance, rebellion, resignation, and resurgence, from Norman hunting forests to the deserted villages of the eighteenth century, and onward to the stump of Sycamore Gap. Camilla Cassidy brings together the voices of lawmakers and lawbreakers, the high and mighty, and the commoners, poets, and artists to explore tradition, belonging, and alienation in the British landscape.