Will’s World: We can all relate to going ‘full Greenwood’

A folk hero, the Oxford English Dictionary tells us, is simply “someone who is admired by the ordinary people of a country or region because of something special they have done”.

When you think about those legendary individuals through history who’ve met the criteria, they’ve often been a step or two outside the law, to say the least.

Robin Hood, Owain Glyndwr, Billy the Kid, Ned Kelly, and Bonnie and Clyde are just a few who spring to mind. Loathed by the ruling classes, adored by the working masses, every one of them.

See also: Video – Farmer enlists geese to sound alarm over trespassers

Well, cometh the hour, cometh the man. There’s a new name to be added to that list of legends, and it’s Lancashire farmer Neil Greenwood.

Don’t even think about entering or nominating anyone else for next year’s Farmers Weekly Farming Champion of the Year Award, as you’ll be completely wasting your time – it’s surely already been gloriously and emphatically won by the new rural people’s prince.

In case you missed it, Mr Greenwood is the farmer who made national headlines recently when he apprehended two trespassers on his land, hog-tied them both with bale string, threw them onto a quad bike and delivered them in person to the nearest police station, where tragically he was promptly arrested for false imprisonment and assault.

Ripping yarns

Sounds like something from the TV series Yellowstone, doesn’t it?

Except that Rip Wheeler would have taken them to the train station instead, and the whole sorry affair would have had a far more clean and satisfactory ending.

(That’s a joke, by the way, in case there are any members of our stalwart law enforcement community reading this, or some of those permanently furious right to roam advocate types.)

To get serious for a minute, I do understand that individuals can’t take the law into their own hands, no matter how much sympathy I have for the man in question, or how much I enjoyed reading about it and seeing the picture of the two young scrotes tied up on the quad bike.

No doubt there’ll be much whingeing, whining and claims of angelic innocence on their part, too.

The thing is, though – and I suppose this is the reason that there were thousands of comments supporting Mr Greenwood below the various online reports – this case is emblematic of a wider societal problem, where people in rural areas are so besieged by crime and antisocial behaviour, and feel so abandoned by the police, judiciary and government, that they see no other choice but to fight back themselves.

At the limit

I feel sure that there were good reasons why Mr Greenwood took the actions he did, because people don’t tend to react like that unless they’re pushed to their very limit.

Apart from a few minor incidents of fly-tipping and the odd bit of cut barbed wire, we’re fortunate to rarely have any problems here.

But I know several farmers, especially those who live on the urban fringe, who are fighting a seemingly constant battle against trespassing, hare-coursing, livestock-worrying, arson, criminal damage, theft, intimidation and, in some cases, violence.

And I can’t begin to imagine the stress and worry that causes them and their families. Farming’s tough enough as it is, without all that going on as well.

Ultimately, I suppose there are no winners here, but I sincerely hope the Peelers go easy on Mr Greenwood, and that when he’s out and about, he’ll never have to buy a beer again.

There’s certainly one on me.