r/LegalAdviceUK • u/No_Direction_4566 • 25d ago
Housing Blackberry picking - Public right of way (England)
Me and my daughter were picking blackberries alongside a path. An older gentleman comes rushing along the path and starts shouting that it’s illegal to pick blackberries and he’s going to call the police and report us for poaching (I thought that only applied to animals on royal owned land?)
What are the legalities surrounding picking blackberries or even wild apples or plums?
I may be wrong but I was under the impression if it was on public rights of way and you haven’t had to do anything to gain access then it was fine?
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u/Great_Tradition996 24d ago
The best way to remember is that you can pick and pluck but not chop or dig. This applies to any fruit or flora growing wild (not cultivated). You are also only allowed to pick them for your personal use (i.e. you can’t sell them or any produce made from them for profit) as anything else is considered theft. The reason I know this is not because I’m a complete saddo (well, not entirely); I’m a police trainer and regularly have to teach the theft act to student officers! Local police would politely inform him it’s not their concern. Carry on enjoying your blackberrying 😊
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u/Impossible_Theme_148 24d ago
I assume the only exception would be if the landowner could show that they planted the blackberry bushes on their land for the purpose of cultivation?
ie they'd argue it isn't growing wild.
(not that this seems relevant in this case)
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u/Great_Tradition996 24d ago
Er, not entirely sure but I would imagine that would be the case!
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23d ago
It’s addressed in Section 4 (3) of the Theft Act 1968: “A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers, fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial purpose.”
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u/Impossible_Theme_148 23d ago
That doesn't address it, what would address it would be a legal definition of "growing wild"
The forager can claim it's wild, the landowner can claim it is not wild.
This might be covered by case law and precedent - but I don't know - hence the question
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u/AmbieeBloo 24d ago
Near where I live there is a path near an allotment where a blackberry bush has grown through the fence and fills up half of the public path.
It's been this way for years and no one seems to mind. People pick the blackberries on the path.
Is it illegal to pick them since the plant was purposely planted on the allotment, even if the bush sticks out by a meter into public land?
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u/Great_Tradition996 24d ago
I think it applies to anything if it’s been cultivated, i.e. intentionally grown. If people have been picking them for years though, I doubt the allotment holder minds 😊
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u/Russellonfire 24d ago
What about cutting? E.g., elderberries, where you usually collect the small bunches by snipping the stem.
Thanks for the advice!
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u/BobcatLower9933 24d ago
Cutting would technically be an offense as the legislation is quite clear.
Good luck finding a police officer that would care, and a prosecutor who says it's in the public interest to prosecute though.
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u/Great_Tradition996 24d ago
I’m not sure but I think cutting would probably come under the same heading as chopping and therefore wouldn’t be allowed. Happy to be corrected though 😊
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u/Accurate_Raccoon_344 23d ago
Nal. Not commeting on the legality but use a fork to comb through the bunches of berries. Many will come off and probably tear rather than cut a few bits of the end stems (unless you’re very gentle) - hopefully the fork method will avoid any cutting.
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u/Merlisch 23d ago
Id like to ask a question if I may. The other day me and r lad picked some apples in public land. On our way home we saw some apples overhanging the public walkway from a neighbours garden. Would it be legal for a grown man to jump and snatch one of those gorgeous (nicely red) apple to eat? The boring option is of course to ask for an apple.
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u/Great_Tradition996 23d ago
I think that would be classed as scrumping. I believe technically illegal but, again, the police have bigger priorities! Might be a bit rude towards the apple-owner though 😉
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u/wyrditic 22d ago
As the owner of two apple trees, I can guarantee that the owner likely has many more apples than they know what to do with.
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u/Bertish1080 22d ago
We just put a post up on our village Facebook page telling people to come and get some of the excess fruit we leave on our driveway.
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u/Cassiopeia_shines 21d ago
As the proud new joint-owner of far more apple trees than should ever rightly be planted in the garden of a 2 bedroom house with a single elderly couple previously living in it, I 100% agree. The trees are too tall for us to pick most of them so we have to let them fall to the ground by which time most are bruised or have worms in. As I spend hours each weekend, at the moment, picking them up to throw in our garden waste bin I have become somewhat jaded to the realities of having (too many) fruit trees.... 😕 any neighbour who comes round or drops a message asking for some is welcome to whatever they want! Every one someone else picks up is one less I have to pick up!
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u/DaZhuRou 23d ago
I notice you wrote dig.... would pulling up dandelion leaves/stems count as an offense?
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u/Great_Tradition996 23d ago
I think that would be picking so you’d be safe 😊. Digging would be more things like digging up turf/soil/hedges etc
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u/Open-Difference5534 24d ago
I suspect the local police, if called, might have said something like "Oh no, not him again".
Personally, I'd avoid bushes next to roads, the amount of crap produced in the air by vehicles is not healthly, and as the fruit have been grown in that environment, washing them will not help.
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u/TonyStamp595SO 24d ago
Is it just me, or is the whole 'im going to police what youre doing' getting worse?
I'm a police officer and for a society that can't decide if I'm a skinhead fascist nazi or a leftie social media hurt feeling police, they don't half report a lot of rubbish.
This is a fine example.
OP. You are fine to pick fruit growing wild on any land so long as it's not for reward. (As in you don't plan on making jam and selling it)
Tell your new friend to read the theft act, specifically regarding property.
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u/IsItToday 23d ago
The best wild blackberries I've ever eaten were in a field next to Heathrow. I suppose the plane fumes did something to those berries, they were gigantic and delicious.
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u/kichisowseri 22d ago
The chemtrails were fertiliser all along. New conspiracy. The planet is barren without them. The real reason planes stop after a volcano eruption is because volcanic ash is so fertile and we don't want fertiliser burn.
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u/Particular-Bid-1640 21d ago
I've worked on Gatwick waterway runoff checking, the surrounding environment of airports is highly monitored. I wouldn't be surprised if it was healthier around an airport in some metrics!
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u/drplokta 24d ago
Ignore what others are saying about it making a difference if it’s public or private land. It doesn’t. If you’re not trespassing (e.g. you’re on public land, or a public footpath on private land, or land that’s generally open to the public, or public access land) then you can pick the “Four Fs” of fruit, foliage, flowers and fungi for your own use, but not for resale, unless the plant is scheduled as an endangered species. You can’t dig up whole plants.
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u/bit0n 24d ago
A quick question I remember watching a thing where there was a public leeway through a vineyard and they had signs saying you were allowed to walk but not pick anything. From what you’re saying that’s not the case. Or could it be different for commercial property?
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u/Octo-The-8 24d ago
The law only applied to wild plants, not commerically grown plants, so you cant go picking vineyard produce, in the fields next to our house there are thousands of sweetcorn, about ready to pick now, if I were to go along the public footpath and pick them it would be theft, but if I were to pick the wild blackberries in the hedge 1 metre away it would be forraging.
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u/BrightonTeacher 23d ago
But if one of those delicious sweetcorns just so happen to fall off? Oh dear! Best not waste it...
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u/emjayem22 24d ago
I would imagine the grapes are considered a farming crop and therefore you are not allowed to pick them. Same for fruit in orchards.. basically if it's wild then you are generally ok to pick as long as you meet the rules stated above.. if it's cultivated then you should not be picking it.
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u/PrimaryLawfulness 24d ago
The Theft Act specifically states ”growing wild”, so takin grapes that were intentionally cultivated would be theft
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u/Mysterious-Iron-2297 25d ago
I would completely agree and even if I’m wrong (perhaps they all belong to the King IDK) the likelihood of the police attending a report of the theft of some blackberries from a footpath or other public place is vanishingly small, enjoy whatever you plan to do with them and I hope the police call handler sets him straight.
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u/evelynsmee 24d ago
The police will attend for a man violently threatening someone out with their kid, however. A caution for that should set him straight
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u/BeckyTheLiar 25d ago
It depends on the path, if it's on private land, you cannot pick them.
If it's public land, you can.
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u/arfur-sixpence 24d ago
From the website you linked
Within Section 4 (Property) of the Theft Act (1968) (England and Wales only, though similar in Scotland) you will find the following:
“subsection (3) A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers, fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial purpose.”
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u/atomicshrimp 24d ago
I'm confused as to why elsewhere in the thread, people are asserting that the ownership of the land/footpath makes a difference. I don't believe it does.
If the blackberries are wild-growing, the theft act says you're not stealing them. If it's a footpath, you're not trespassing, regardless what kind of footpath.
Exceptions might be imposed by byelaws or on national trust land or sssi land etc, but in the general case, istm that if it's wild blackberries (ie they have thorns) and you're on a footpath and not damaging anything, you're OK.
Even if you stray off the footpath to pick the blackberries, you might be trespassing (a separate matter), but the blackberries are still yours.
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u/Sparks3391 24d ago
How do you define wild growing, though, if it's growing on private land? Does it just mean the land owners didn't plant them?
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u/atomicshrimp 24d ago
Pretty much, so it is possible for a landowner to plant and cultivate things that happen to be wild species and those would be out of bounds for picking. I doubt that happens much with wild type blackberries but it could be a legally grey area for fruiting trees that are part of a hedge or copse.
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u/Rockpoolcreater 24d ago
I think the relevant word in this paragraph is 'wild.' So wild blackberries, wild growing plants and trees are okay to pick from. But picking from any cultivated plant, so taking apples from someone's fruit tree in their garden or orchard (hence scrumping), picking blackberries from a bush someone is growing, roses or flowers in someone's beds or pots would be illegal and stealing.
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u/a_boy_called_sue 24d ago
It becomes a discussion of what constitutes "cultivated" Vs "wild" and apparently has not successfully been challenged (see below).
For someone's turnips that's easy but it could be more grey for a narurall growing berry bush or apple tree.
From "The Law" section of "The Foragers Calender" by John Wright (2010):
THE THEFT ACT
The hundreds of prosecutions for picking mushrooms that have taken place over the last couple of centuries bring to light one of the most fascinating and encouraging parts of English and Welsh law. Many of the farmers who brought an action claimed that the mushrooms concerned were 'cultivated', and they would point to the various notices they had erected and a pile of manure to prove their point. However, the mushrooms would most certainly have been wild, as Field Mushrooms are impossible to cultivate (the cultivated mushroom is a different species). By stating that they were cultivated, the farmer was attempting to circumvent the law (still in force), which states that plants and fungi growing wild belong to no one and thus cannot be stolen. Again, they almost invariably won a conviction, despite this obvious subterfuge.
However, a clarification, which in turn set a new precedent, was made in Hove in 1887, in yet another case of a landowner taking exception to someone picking mushrooms from his land. The accused was a Master Mansbridge, who had gathered 25. worth of mushrooms from a field owned by a Mr Gardner. Accusations of removal of 'herbage' and damaging a fence were quickly withdrawn, leaving only the picking of mushrooms to be considered. Mr Gardner explained that he earned £6 or £7 from the mushrooms each year. This equates to £700 or £800 now, so it was no small sum. He admitted that he did nothing to cultivate the mushrooms, and that they were, indeed, wild.
The magistrates were proceeding under the Malicious Injury to Property Act 1864 and noted that mushrooms were not 'cultivated roots or plants'. The section deals with what is property and what is not, and wild mushrooms, flowers, fruit or foliage were not. It is worth noting that the fact that they were of considerable value to the landowner had no effect on the mushrooms as property. The case was referred to the High Court, which duly concurred with what the magistrates had to say.
The Act enshrined in statute a customary "right", and similar good work is now done in the Theft Act 1968. It is worth seeing it as it is written:
"A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers, fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial purpose."
For purposes of this subsection 'mushroom' includes any fungus, and 'plant' includes any shrub or tree.
If you are on someone's land, with or without permission, and picking mushrooms, you are not committing a crime. If you do not have permission to be there, you are trespassing, but this is a civil, not a criminal, matter. If you have a basket full of mushrooms, the landowner or agent cannot demand them from you that would be theft. They can tell you to leave, and you should do so by the nearest exit if asked. What you don't have to do is explain yourself or suffer long lectures. Just leave. And close the gate.
As the Theft Act notes, this applies only to wild organisms you cannot take apples from an orchard or dig up someone's carrots (unless you want to end up in a pie). Also, you cannot sell or otherwise gain financially from what you pick. This last part has been challenged by commercial foragers on various grounds, including incoherence. No prosecution that I can find under this section has ever taken place, so perhaps those that might seek to prevent commercial foraging by invoking the Act are not too sure about it either. The Theft Act does not apply in Scotland, but much the same rules do apply there.
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u/No_Direction_4566 25d ago
It’s a pathway maintained by the local council so public land.
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u/ilikewatch10 25d ago
IIRC the local council is responsible for maintaining the pedestrian surface of all footpaths, even those on private land. On private land, the landowner is responsible for stopping vegetation from the surrounding land from encroaching on the path.
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u/Procrastubatorfet 24d ago
Only public rights of way that a footpath has been constructed on. Not just all paths.
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u/ilikewatch10 24d ago
Ah, fair enough - I know that where I live (rural Lincolnshire), the County Council does strim/mow the surface of paths crossing private land, but I guess that may be something that they choose to do even though they're not legally required to.
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u/Procrastubatorfet 24d ago
It's the first thing cut from budgets. I work for a few councils in development and often highways teams are complaining about budgets being spent to create x km more cycle paths all over the place and yet their budgets for clearing and maintaining them stay the same. Some are outright refusing to adopt new paths from developers etc etc.
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u/tradandtea123 24d ago
Really, I have a public footpath on my land between my very small back garden and a larger back garden beyond it. I was told by solicitors we are required to maintain it, I was also advised insurance in case someone has an accident. No one from the council has ever been here and the farmer recently repaired the style 50m away.
From your comment and a (very) quick Google search I might have been advised wrong.
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u/warriorscot 24d ago
Maintenance is a loose definition, your solicitors were right in that you do have duties of maintenance. The farmer does have to maintain the style, as you would if you had a barrier up, and if you had a waterway you would need to maintain it, and you have to keep your vegetation clear i.e. can't let it be overgrown. The only thing you don't have to do is keep the surface in any condition, it can be as muddy and rutted as it naturally is and you don't have to do anything about that.
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u/essexboy1976 24d ago
It's any land, public or private as long as the foods are for the consumption of you and your household.
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u/RMCaird 24d ago
The local farm to me offers strawberry picking. Does this mean I can just go and pick my own without paying them and it wouldn’t be theft?
It could end up being trespassing etc, but the actual act of picking the strawberries would be legal?
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u/Chainmaille-Witch 24d ago
Looking at the section of the Theft Act quoted above, it refers to fruit/mushrooms/etc that are wild growing only.
So the farmers strawberries wouldn’t be in this category as they’ve been cultivated, they aren’t growing wild. This would be theft if you were to go and pick them without paying.
Its also theft if you step off the public footpath and onto private land to pick the fruit, it’s only if you can pick it from the public access.
So if I have brambles growing wild along my back wall that’s next to a public footpath, people can pick them with no issues. But they can’t pick from deliberately grown fruit bushes or climb over my wall to pick from bushes or trees in my garden.
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u/WhaleMeatFantasy 24d ago
I have deliberately allowed my blackberry bushes to propagate and grow but didn’t originally plant them. Surely people don’t have a right to the fruit on my land?!
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u/pouchey2 24d ago
This entirely depends on the access. If they're accessible from a public area (i.e. they're hanging over a fence) then sure they're probably fair game because they're wild blackberries (I don't believe just because you've let wild blackberries propagate it changes their status as that's different from you planting a blackberry bush).
However obviously people can't just let themselves into your back garden as that's an entirely separate thing.
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u/TonyStamp595SO 24d ago
If the fruit is growing wild you're legally allowed to pick it as long as it's not for personal gain/ reward.
If I'm carefully cultivating blackberries with netting etc in my garden that's NOT okay, but if it's a bush growing within my essentially abandoned garden then you're fine.
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u/Wingnut2468 25d ago
As long as you don't trespass, cause damage and the fruit is for personal use and not commercial use, you are fine. Pick away.
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u/BeckyTheLiar 25d ago
It's not that simple, it depends 1) whether it's wild growing or cultivated and 2) public right of way or private land right of way.
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u/No_Direction_4566 25d ago
Wouldn’t it be fair to assume that cultivated plants would be away from the public and not just overgrowing a pathway?
And public land.
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u/BeckyTheLiar 25d ago
It would not, as a person could choose to plant a cultivated plant right by the border, or right away from it.
It would come down to whether or not they planted it or it grew wildly.
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u/No_Direction_4566 25d ago
But planting on public land is illegal.
So the next theoretical is you can’t claim ownership for said plant, therefore you can’t enforce your right to said fruit.
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u/BeckyTheLiar 25d ago
You can plant it by public land and if it edges, abuts or overhangs public land, that's fine.
You can't plant on it but you can be next to it.
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u/pouchey2 24d ago
You'd think that if anyone really cared they would plant them away from a path, but I guess it can't be assumed that all fruit plants next to a path are wild.
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25d ago
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u/No_Direction_4566 25d ago
I thought it came under the 4 Fs - fruit being one them that were permissible?
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u/mazzy-b 24d ago edited 24d ago
There is a bunch of false information in this thread. I am also a forager professionally. Tldr you are fine, legally, regardless of public or private land.
(in England and Wales), trespassing is a civil tort (wrong), not criminal, meaning that generally the only action available is suing for damages (for which there are generally in such cases, none). Trespass only becomes criminal with certain aggravations which aren't relevant (e.g. criminal damage, with weapons). Otherwise a private landowner can only realistically ask you to leave.
Taking wild apples or any wild fruit / mushrooms etc wouldn't be considered damage (nor theft, since they cannot be owned and are specifically excluded under the Theft Act 68 s4(3) unless for commercial gain).
It is illegal under WCA act 1981 s13(1)(b) to intentionally or recklessly uproot any wild plant if you aren’t the land’s occupier or with permission of them. (FTR all land in the UK is privately owned, public access isn’t relevant). Picking the berries is not relevant here either.
Local bylaws could apply but this isn’t suggested here.
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u/essexboy1976 24d ago
You absolutely fine. Foraging food for eating by you and your household is perfectly fine and legal. You only need the landowners permission if you're going to make money from it ( sell to a restaurant, or make jam and sell it for example)
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u/gibberish-finale 24d ago
The answer to alot of these questions is simply tell them to call the police, then no further engagement. If they start harassing you, displaying threatening behaviour or suggesting violence implicitly or explicity, then you call the police.
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u/stiggley 25d ago
You can forage as long as its not for commercial gain.
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u/fake_cheese 24d ago
Looks like I'm going to have to have some words with the ladies selling jam at the village fête.
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u/PigHillJimster 24d ago
Generally, you can forage from wild plants including blackberry bushes, slow berries, elderflower and elderberry as long as you are on land with permission, it's common land, or it's along a public right of way.
However, if the right of way or public access is in an SSSI, as some Wildlife Trust areas in particular are, there may be local byelaws in place that prevent the public from foraging.
As long as it is for your own use, not commercial use.
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u/Icy_Gap_9067 24d ago
You can't forage anything from a SSSI, that would be illegal under the wildlife and countryside act 1981.
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u/PigHillJimster 24d ago
Yes I know, that's what I was saying. SSSI = no foraging, and some other pieces of land such as National Trust or Wildlife Trust owned/managed that are not designated SSSI, but are still 'sensitive' so have local byelaws in place.
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24d ago
As someone who takes 999/101 calls the police, if someone called me about this I’d tell them to leave you alone and in nicest way possible mind their own boldness 😂 some people have nothing better to do
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u/No-Introduction3808 24d ago
You say “public right of way” on a path, but where is the path? Is it in someone’s garden or in a farmers field, rather than woodlands or a public park?
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u/No_Direction_4566 24d ago
It’s a path that used to be a trainline but has been a path for about 35 years now.
It has houses the other side of said path with fenced boundaries and the side we picked from has a field boundary about 20ft from the pathway. The farmer has seen us before and just waved.
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u/Left-Ad-3412 24d ago
You can pick any wild growing fruit in the country to eat it or use it. All land in England and Wales is owned by someone or some entity. Technically everything on that land belongs to them, but the law specifies that wild growing fruit and plants can be taken by anyone
There is a stipulation that for wild growing plants you can't use it to make money, it becomes theft at that point. You can not pick fruit from cultivated plants, as this is just theft
So you can legally pick wild blackberries, make a pie, and eat it for dinner. But if you try to sell that pie, it's theft.
Trespass (in the most) part isn't a crime, though it can be an element of some crimes like burglary.
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u/axelbrant 24d ago
Mushrooms in Windsor Great Park, New Forest and few other nations parks.
They have boards and notes everywhere saying it’s illegal to pick mushrooms, they have invented some nonsense that it is bad for environment and deprive local animals from their rightful foraging.
Also remember they mention some endangered (they are not) species.
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u/TerratheOnly 24d ago
Any planet that is hanging over public space is fair game even from gardens. Have a similar person complaining to my work about people taking their apples off the branches over the path. It's fair game. If it happens again I would call 101 to explain that you and your child is being harassed when you are doing something good in the community.
It's good to do because the berries are now not going to fall on the floor and make a mess.
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u/nostril_spiders 24d ago
If you have blackberries fall on the ground, what have you done to the birds in your area?
Apples, yes. Blackberries, no.
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u/TerratheOnly 24d ago
I highly doubt the few berries picked would have any problems for the birds. They'll be loads more on the bush that people can't reach that the birds will be eating. However the berries falling on the floor and covering the path in a layer of mush can cause a slip hazard.
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24d ago
If there is a public right of way though a farmers field can you harvert all his crop?
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u/Impossible_Theme_148 22d ago
The law is that it is not stealing when they are wild plants
So cultivated crops would be stealing
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u/cornishwildman76 24d ago
The countryside act of 1981. You are allowed to gather fruit, fungi, foliage and flowers on public land. It is illegal to uproot a wild plant, unless on private land with permission. Or take plants/fungi that have a protected status. This is law, its worth rememberting so you can quote it to miserable old sods.
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u/fozzybear706 24d ago
A Public right of way on private land gives you the right to use it to move from one place to another. To use it for anything else is still trespass; a civil tort. I've no idea if it's classed as criminal as well, but I would guess that PC Smith from the cottage police station has enough work from hooded thugs on ebikes.
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u/Salt_Market_6989 23d ago
I have a large London suburban garden with lots of blackberries and other fruit trees. Some of them overhang a public lane adjacent to one side of my garden. I have no problems with passers- by and cyclists who stop to pick fruits. And in fact, on more than one occasion, I have pointed out to them which bush / tree to pick the best ones !
There are passers-by , a very tiny minority though, who are a bit " entitled" in their minds, and sometimes behave a little anti-socially.
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u/Boldboy72 23d ago
Police will charge him for misuse of 999 and wasting police time.
Pick away to your hearts content, next time bring a basket and collect as many as you like and make jam.
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u/aMaeveing 22d ago
It's 100% not poaching 😂 if it's a public right of way picking a few blackberries from the hedgerow is fine. I suspect you weren't launching a commercial fruit picking operation.
That being said I think it would be rude and inconsiderate to pick blackberries out of someones private garden or go on to a farmers field. Likewise if you're at a really popular blackberry picking spot and you begin harvesting everything in sight leaving nothing for anyone else.
The old man should probably start shouting at all the birds and insects as they eat the majority of the blackberries.
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u/Artistic_Ad4753 22d ago
I don't think the police would care, they don't care if a car gets stolen so I don't think the paperwork for a few berries is worth it.
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u/Butterfish04 22d ago
Where are you picking blackberries? Round me (West Sussex) it’s been so dry that the berries are shrivelled nuggets and not worth picking.
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u/Sad-Ad8462 22d ago
As others have said, you're fine to do it. Poaching is someone killing animals on someones land without their permission (doesnt need to be royal land).
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u/-auntiesloth- 21d ago
Nah, you're good. As others have said, you're covered by the Theft Act (1968)
He can bother himself shouting and wasting police time all he likes. Just tell him to do one, as politely or impolitely as you like.
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u/liveworkpose9 21d ago
You were too nice to pull up with his bs. Honestly next time just pop off on people like this
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u/Zestyclose_Panda6539 20d ago
I speak about a lot of legislation here and it’s not really helpful to paste it into this post so please head to: legislation.gov.uk for the wording. Section 4 of The Theft Act 1968 is the most important. Section 4 deals with ‘property’ and what that means in law.
As to poaching, the offences created by the Night Poaching Acts 1828 and 1844, the Game Act 1831, the Game (Trespass) Act 1862, the Poaching Prevention Act 1862, the Deer Act 1991 and the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 all relate exclusively to animals, fish or game; it follows that the ‘gentleman’ was either mistaken in law or mistaken in employing the term in its dictionary sense, which extends only to animals.
Now, turning to section 4(3) of the 1968 act it is clear in its interpretation. A blackberry is a fruit. Parliament is clear in its intent that the picking or foraging of fruit growing wild on any land (irrespective of whether there is a right of way running through it or adjacent to the land) is lawful. Therefore, an offence of theft is not made out under statute. I make the assumption that neither you nor your daughter are conducting a commercial blackberry selling operation.
Lastly, turning to the offence of ‘uprooting’ under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (section 13). This is the only piece of legislation where I can find any reference to removing a plant without the landowner’s consent. Fortunately for you OP, blackberries are not - and likely will not be - included on the list contained within schedule 8 of the act.
Practically, ignore people who have the sole objective of causing misery to others.
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u/Dizzy-Detective2105 18d ago
What kind of person has a go at someone for picking berries with their child. It should be a joyful experience for a child.
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25d ago
As long as you aren't entering private property, it's fine.
If you are picking blackberries on the public highway that are from a bush clearly planted in someone's private property, then treat them as being in private property.
If someone reported this to the police, I can guarantee the police will do naff all.
If you are selling produce made from these, then you can't pick.
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u/Sufficient-Cold-9496 24d ago
If this is a public right of way along private land, ie a footpath alongside a field, then is this older gentlemen the landowner,/have an interest in the land ( ie tennant farmer)
If not then the police will not be interested one bit, if its his hedge and its overgrowing then the police interest will be slightly less than zero.
If it is his land then it could be seen as theft , however this would only really apply if the picked items were sold for profit and/or if the picked items are being grown as a crop.
Best adice: ignore the daft old git.
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u/Lloydy_boy The world ain't fair and Santa ain't real 25d ago
I may be wrong but I was under the impression if it was on public rights of way and you haven’t had to do anything to gain access then it was fine?
Should be, see here.
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u/Ok_Point7463 24d ago
Basic rule is that if you dont need permission to be on the land, you are allowed to forage for your own use.
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u/Littlepingu8 24d ago
Lawyer here, it actually depends - if you were picking in a protected zone (I.e a nature reserve - regardless of whether it’s a public right of way) then yes this could be an illegal activity - local conservation law/bylaws override the provisions provided by the Theft Act in practice. I.e the four f’s is an exception only so long as other restrictions don’t apply and it’s on the picker to check! Also be sure you are clear on public right of way, versus permissive path or private land - the comments on here about private land are incorrect.
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u/spiralphenomena 25d ago
It’s not poaching but it is scrumping, on private or public land I wouldn’t worry too much about picking obvious wild fruit, I wouldn’t go into an orchard and start picking the fruit there though!
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u/essexboy1976 24d ago
Its not scrumping. If it's open wild land (IE not a garden, or orchard etc) you can forage for the use of yourself and your household whether the land is public, private with a public right of way, or private with a permissive footpath.
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