As a townie (edge of town) who as a kid used to range all over the countryside it was always a case of not avoiding the wild animals but the farm labourers or worse still the farmers.
Back then in the late 60s and early 70s there wasn't the expensive machinery, flash farmhouse or expensive crops/livestock getting damaged by small gangs of feral kids but the attitude was that we were invaders and shouldn't be trespassing in their gardens.
However that gets dressed up the countryside is still mostly out of bounds to townies and the average farmer, speculative or traditional still puts a lot of effort into keeping townies off their land with signage and block footpaths.
I do have a jaundiced view of farmers from personal experience and that's without delving into the various tax breaks and subsidies given to farming but what gets up my nose the worst is the Country file image of farming as a benign hobby when so much damage has been done to the countryside cunningly disguised by tidily cut hedges and cheerful bright yellow fields.
One good thing to come out of modern farming though has been the new reality, certainly here in Northampton, of there being more likelihood of seeing Kites, Buzzards, Kestrels, Peregrine's and, sadly, hundreds of wood pigeons on a daily basis where they've been driven from the surrounding countryside, yes we do get the odd refugee Pheasant, Partridge and Muntjac deer too that have managed to escape the shoot or someone's collection.
Back then in the late 60s and early 70s there wasn't the expensive machinery, flash farmhouse or expensive crops/livestock getting damaged by small gangs of feral kids but the attitude was that we were invaders and shouldn't be trespassing in their gardens.
However that gets dressed up the countryside is still mostly out of bounds to townies and the average farmer, speculative or traditional still puts a lot of effort into keeping townies off their land with signage and block footpaths.
I do have a jaundiced view of farmers from personal experience and that's without delving into the various tax breaks and subsidies given to farming but what gets up my nose the worst is the Country file image of farming as a benign hobby when so much damage has been done to the countryside cunningly disguised by tidily cut hedges and cheerful bright yellow fields.
One good thing to come out of modern farming though has been the new reality, certainly here in Northampton, of there being more likelihood of seeing Kites, Buzzards, Kestrels, Peregrine's and, sadly, hundreds of wood pigeons on a daily basis where they've been driven from the surrounding countryside, yes we do get the odd refugee Pheasant, Partridge and Muntjac deer too that have managed to escape the shoot or someone's collection.
