Stand up now, diggers all!

Description

On April 1st 1649, a small group of men and women moved onto wasteland at St George’s Hill, near Weybridge, in the parish of Walton-on-Thames in north Surrey, and began to dig over the land and plant vegetables. The True Levellers or ‘Diggers’ occupation was revolutionary – they advocated collective use of land, for need, not for profit, in defiance of landlords, church and the law.

Their groundbreaking communist experiment faced violence and prosecution from the authorities and landowners. They were dispersed – but still their vision lingers on…

An account of the events of the True Levellers’ 1649 land squat, their ideas, and the repression they faced…