I have spent the last few days putting up a fence. I enjoy the physical work, I love working with wood and I like to see something tangible at the end of a days work. But...
I hate fences.
As I work, I wonder what England would be like if we didn't have any. Their absence need not change the ownership of the land and it's nice to be able to have private space - achievable without putting up fences surely. The gardens would join up. People in the garden would be able to, would have to talk to the people near them. Private space could be created with clever planting and other garden architecture, but it would be approachable. As physical boundaries were blurred, would the boundaries between peoples lives be? Some people might decide to design and use their space together. So a series of small gardens would become one large shared one.
Fences separate. Fences create loneliness and help to destroy community rather than build it up. Fences stop conversation and sharing. We retreat behind our sustainably grown softwood panels in the name of privacy at what cost? Community?
I realise that the fences are just a symptom - that to be able to live in this way something deeper must be shared. That trespass and vandalism must be tolerated and that there must be a high degree of trust between neighbours.
It will take some brave people to do without them. I have thought hard about whether it could be us, but we live on an A road and have four small children it's a risk too far!
Very thought provoking. I was sad when our new neighbours moved in and built theirs 3 feet higher. Apparently this was so that their cats would not be too scared by our dog to venture out, but the dog died the following week and the fence remains. Our children used to be able to talk over the 2-foot wall but now they can't. :( We also have the main road/ toddler problem. Any other ideas for knocking down fences - proverbially perhaps?
Posted by: Pootle | April 20, 2008 at 01:56 PM
Where we used to live there were short walls between gardens, about two or three feet high. So if you went out to hang up the washing you could easily chat to neighbours one, two or even three houses away.That was in one direction. On the side where the Muslims lived there was a very high fence, I suppose so that there womenfolk would not be visible.
It's interesting to ask just what sort of community we want. I think we want to have our cake and eat it: community and independence. Maybe we can't have both.
Posted by: Viv S | April 23, 2008 at 09:26 PM
Viv, nice to hear from you. I think you're right, there's a cost to creating community.
Posted by: David | April 24, 2008 at 08:45 AM
how do you feel about hedges? And... how do you keep the life-stock off the lawn? :>
Posted by: | April 30, 2008 at 03:57 PM
I love the hedges! and maybe having livestock on the lawn would save the need for mowing - I'm all in favour of that ;)
Posted by: David | April 30, 2008 at 08:29 PM
All very "pre-enclosure acts" bring on the communal farming and ridge and furrow! http://www.diggers.org/english_diggers.htm#leve
Posted by: treefrogbandit | May 02, 2008 at 03:38 PM