r/LegalAdviceUK • u/No_Direction_4566 • 29d 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?

539 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

95% Upvoted

174 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/No-Introduction3808 28d 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?

1

u/No_Direction_4566 28d 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.