Sitting on a slice of the good earth

Weekend Telegraph Saturday September 23, 1995
(Thanks to Keith Sheen)

Twenty years ago Manfred Mann (left) brought out an album which entitled every purchaser to a square foot of land in the upper reaches of a Welsh mountain.  Roger Dobson finds out what happened to it.

It was the late summer of 1975 and a green revolution was sweeping the country. The United States had recently pulled out of Vietnam, the Ecology Party had just been formed, Friends of the Earth was celebrating its fourth birthday and in a small office in London's Old Kent Road Manfred Mann and his band were drawing up a complicated plan to give away part of a Welsh moor.
While other albums in the environmentally friendly, post-flower-power era came with free gifts including paper flowers and peace balloons and song sheets made of recyclable paper, Manfred Mann's Earth Band decided to buy part of the upper reaches of a Welsh mountain and divide the land into parcels of one square foot.
Their album, The Good Earth, came out in September 1975. Its cover showed a square foot of turf, complete with wild flowers, snails and fungi. Each copy carried a seal with the message: "The owner of this album is entitled to rights over one square foot of the earth situated at Llanfrechfa in the County of Brecon, Wales, Great Britain, subject to registration by December 31, 1975."
It is not known how many album-buyers have formally registered their claim to land or been to see the little bit of Britain they acquired in their youth. Over the past 20 years the area has been visited by the occasional middle-aged tourist. The 20th anniversary of the album's release is expected to increase the number of visitors - Andy Taylor, who runs the Manfred Mann fan club, finally made it there earlier this month.
But they face a problem: it is more than 1,OOOft up in remote moorland in Powys and extremely difficult to find.
A few clues were provided by Tom Proctor of the Economic Forestry group, which sold the land to the band's company, Petbrook. In a note to album-buyers he wrote: "The land is near the head of the Irfon valley and is particularly wild and desolate with rocky crags overshadowing the single-track road. The road is one of the ancient drove-roads along which cattle were driven from the coastal plains of Cardiganshire through the Welsh hills to the markets of London."
It was, he said, purple moorland abounding with wildlife and frequented by the red kite, hawks and buzzards. For those wanting more detailed instructions, maps and pictures were kept at The Workhouse Studio in the Old Kent Road.

The precise location is in fact on a 10-acre unfenced field bordering common land several miles from the nearest huddle of buildings at Abergwesyn, near Llanwrtyd Wells.
"It is remote and I can't now remember how we came to buy that particular piece of land, it just seems to have happened;" says Manfred Mann, who is still based in the Old Kent Road. "I do recall that we only paid a few hundred pounds for it. We thought it was a good idea and we wanted to give people a bit of land that was going to be untouched and it looks as though we found the right piece of land."
The idea generated much enthusiasm in the United States. Band member Mick Rogers, who never actually got to see the land, says: "We did a tour of America and there was a lot of interest. I don't think anyone had ever done that kind of thing before or since. We didn't do it to sell the album; we just thought it would be nice for people to have.
"I think someone just suggested we find out if we could legally give away a bit of land.
Someone went up to take a look and saw a lot of sheep and bought it. The band member who knew where it was was Chris Slade, our drummer, who came from Wales, and is now with AC/DC.
.The album cover was a real legal document and everyone owned rights to a bit of land. Why the land was in Wales, I don't know. Maybe it was because it was the cheapest bit of land we could get."
Local farmers say the area is occasionally visited. Richard Davies says: "We all knew about it at the time and you do see a few people about but you can't tell whether they are those who have got a bit of land or not. It is now open land grazed by sheep."
Roger Thrupp, secretary of the Abergwesyn Commoners' Association, whose common borders the land, recalls that there was other celebrity interest at the time, too: at one point Diana Dors owned land in the same area.
Tony Emmerson, who in 1975  was with the Economic Forestry group, now Tilhill Economic Forestry, says: "We sold land to their company and they put the deeds on the back of the LP. After that we never heard any more about it. It was a piece of land surplus to our requirements but you get quite a spectacular view from there down the valley and people do visit the area."
Andy Taylor still treasures the album-and the concept. "It was a great idea, not a gimmick," he says. "It was saying that this is a bit of beautiful land where the birds can fly over, where animals can live and flowers grow, without being polluted or killed.
"It was the good earth and the message that came with the land was: `Let's not completely ruin our countryside'. Here at least is land that will be safe. And it seems to have worked. It is still remote and spectacular and unpolluted.

[Top]

[Top]