28 October 2008

Magna Carta revoked


Not the entire document, mind you - just the part about collecting firewood:
The right of people to collect wood from Britain’s forests that was created under the Magna Carta has been overturned due to health and safety fears. The Forestry Commission has scrapped the right, enshrined in the “Great Charter” at Runneymede in 1215, in order to stop people picking firewood from woodland.

Instead they suggest people buy wood from local firewood merchants allowed into the forest...

“The Magna Carta states that a common man is allowed to enter forests and take deadwood for firewood, repairing homesteads, fixing tools and equipment and making charcoal.” He added: “Now they’ve stopped issuing licences and they are giving the reason as health and safety issues."
More details at Arbroath, where there are a bunch of other good things today, so I've linked to the homepage, not the specific article.

(The image above is not a woods in Britain; it's my favorite woods in northern Minnesota, where there is an abundance of "windfall" wood available.)

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