The Ground beneath Our Feet: A Path through England’s Lost Commons

A historical and literary journey through England's embattled 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 via resistance, rebellion, resignation and resurgence from Norman hunting forests to the deserted villages of the eighteenth century and forward 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 our landscape.