No

Farming near a town must be very stressful.

Warning Signs - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

It’s not just the dogs being walked near sheep.

Warning Signs - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Although that’s stressful enough.

There’s the irritation of a public footpath across your farm which people love to cycle on. That’s how I got here.

Warning Signs - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

There’s the fury at Google for showing a footpath where the landowner thinks there isn’t one.

Warning Signs - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

There are the official Devon County Council signs.

Warning Signs - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

And the farmer’s own.

Warning Signs - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

I meet a relative of the landowner and she tells me about the nightmare of the first lockdown, of people sunbathing on their land, of people sitting and having picnics on the public footpath, of unauthorised metal detectorists, and of bmx bikers. She refers to it as her back garden. It’s the only accessible space for thousands of people on a crowded estate, and those same people are paying taxes to a Government which pays the landowner to keep unproductive, nature-destroying sheep here and then warn them off the land. I’m pondering just how wrong this is when she wanders off, back to the farm. I look at Google Maps. The farm house must be the one with the huge swimming pool.

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