The wall around Richmond Park has been much fought over.
300 years ago, the attitude to royalty was not as sycophantic as
today. In 1625 King Charles moved the court to Richmond to avoid
plague
and so liked hunting in 'his' park that in 1637 he built a nine
mile wall all around the park to keep the peasants out and the deer
in. Almost immediately it became apparent that the wall was being
torn down not least because the park was a short cut to various
local villages whose inhabitants had gathered firewood locally for
generations.
Charles compromised and assigned two
rights of way across the park.
Ladder-stiles were made to give access over the wall. After he
was beheaded the park briefly passed to the control of the City of
London (which still controls many
open spaces outside London.)
As soon as Charles the Second was back on the throne, the City of
London handed back the park to the crown. Charles denied free
access to the park but the rights of way were still permitted to be
used. The arrival of the Dutchman,
William
of Orange , with liberal continental attitudes to freedoms and
royal prerogatives restored the free right to roam over the park
enjoyed before the first King Charles.
It was not to last. By the time George II was on the throne, the
'riff raff' were kept out of the park which became the local home
of the royal hunt. Worthy and respectable burghers could purchase
tickets to spectate the hunt to view prime-minister
Walpole
cantering with the king. Walpole dies and the king's daughter
Amelia is appointed chief park ranger, who decides that even the
rich upper classes should be kept out of the park. In 1751, the
local Church of England vicar Thomas Wakefield asserts his rights
to 'beat the bounds of the parish' and with a large party of local
residents breaks into the park. Amelia locks the park and and
patrols against all-comers except guests of the crown.
Locals petition the crown several times up to 1754 to restore the
rights seized by the crown. In that year a public spirited Richmond
local, John Symonds, predictably loses a high court action presided
by the Chief Justice to regain access to the park. But all is not
lost.
In 1755 local brewer
John Lewis tries to force entry at Sheen Gate by
following a ticketed 'carriage' through the gates. In the ensuing
turmoil he has the gates slammed in his face and he brings a legal
action against the gatekeeper, Martha Gray, for assault. (In those
days a court action against the crown itself was bound to fail as
the crown, being the highest legal authority in the land, could not
sue itself.) It took three years of dogged determination by John
Lewis to see the case come to court at Kingston Assizes.
Shrewdly the court case was presented not as a fight for historic
access locked in the mists of time denied by a local royal
gatekeeper, but a simple exercising of the access privileges
granted by the first King Charles and unlawfully restrained by the
gatekeeper. The case was victorious and the ladder-stiles returned.
However Amelia, devious as ever, assembled the ladder-stiles with
rungs missing and so far apart that they were for most persons
unusable and the courts again became involved with Justice Sir
Michael Foster remarking that he too had had trouble using the
ladder-stiles, and ordering Amelia to comply.
John Lewis dies in poverty bankrupted by court cases and a flood at
his brewery. His last few years in penury were mitigated by a small
annuity from the same vicar, Thomas Wakefield, who had led the
original assault on the wall.
The
Richmond Park website, being of course a royal affair, does not
fully reveal this history. The 16th May 2008 was the 250th
anniversary of the re-establishment of the rights of way in the
park. This is remembered now by a plaque at Sheen Gate.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com (fuzzy solution accurate to 30 meters) and then
narrow it down to 8 meters if you want or you might even try to
get it spot on!.