SCHEDULE OF DOCUMENTS
 

Covering letter Four pages *
Plea and presentation of person One page
Line of decent for Ivo de Taillebois One page
Camlann document Nineteen pages
Conde and counter conde Eighteen pages
The Issues and their Resolutions Seven pages
Earth Resources University Four pages
Geological Map One page
Area Map One page

Return

Addendum. One envelope containing a three-page document from Australia. This is a version of a document that is circulating in America. It was the acquisition of this document that formed the basis of my work.

* All page lengths refer to page lengths contained within the original document, not web pages.

May it please your Majesty, if your humble and obedient subject be permitted to present your Majesty with the results of a fact-finding mission, one that I was requested to conduct at the close of the foot and mouth epidemic last year, by the direct and personal request of certain members of the farming community, who had found themselves without a voice, in a political world where they felt unrepresented, and un-respected by those in authority. I am mindful of your Majesty’s keen interest in such matters; therefore I request permission to present my findings.

Ma’am, initially the farmers who contacted me, requested that I would try and find out what had really happened to their way of life and why. At first I was completely baffled by the request, and unsure where to start, so a limited company and I toured around the United Kingdom, discreetly visiting the areas that were just recovering from the foot and mouth virus, to observe and talk to individuals about the crisis. What I was to discover so disturbed and distressed me that I was emboldened to write directly to you, my Queen, as I felt that there were far too many vested interests embedded in the chain of command, to entrust this communiqué to a more tortuous route.

Ma’am, for me it is a hard thing to bear, to have a number of telephone calls made to one, from members of the Cumbrian farming community. These were hard and tough hill farmers of whom I have a lot of personal respect, who had been reduced to telephoning a near stranger for help. I could hear by the tone of their voices that these men were near to tears as they talked, and I believe that they were telephoning me in an act of desperation, as they felt that they had no one else to turn too. These poor people had seen their life’s work, deliberately destroyed by a Government that to them seemed only be interested in destroying their farms, so that the Army could buy their land at a disparaged and blighted price.

Ma’am, it is with deep regret that I have to inform your Majesty, that your military forces have not acquitted themselves with the decorum that is expected of such a force. With due deference I would inquire if your Majesty, was aware that her forces were employed, to deliberately destroy the hill barns belonging to the hill farmers, on the grounds that “it was cheaper to pull a barn down, than to disinfect it”, thereby making it impossible for the farmers to store vital winter fodder. Was your Majesty aware that when the farmers objected to such action, members of your own forces took the ‘offending farmers’ aside, and spoke to them in terms that can only be described as life threatening? In the same vein I am sure that your Majesty is aware that these same forces, repeatedly lost their way and went to the wrong farm, and shot the wrong livestock.

This is to me astounding, as the selfsame forces have boasted of having used the whole area as their playground, for over fifty-eight years. I, as an ordinary bystander am forced to ask, who do the armed force now serve, apparently not the people: - as they have been widely and accurately reported in the media, as having committed these atrocities, and of the farming community are now afraid of their own soldiery, and are afraid to formally complain to any authority for fear of reprisals. These poor farmers have had to endure soldiers pointing their guns, and threaten to shoot them or harm their families, if they interfered with the army, as it deliberately and I believe illegally, pulled down the hay barns and shot the livestock, or if they refused to sign the Defence of the Realm Act, in a stupid move by the Army, to hide their criminal activity, in a foolish belief that they cannot be brought to trial.

I realise Ma’am, that by my action here, that I am opening myself up to the same abuse, in fact it has already started by my phone line being tapped, and my computer being very professionally ‘Hacked’. My computer engineer had to spend the best part of a day removing a number of illegally embedded automatic diallers, from deep within the programme that had been illegally planted there so as to spy on what I was reporting to you Ma’am. He also warned me that he is doubtful, that he was successful in removing all of the diallers, as he thinks that some are embedded in the hardware. I also realise that there will possibly be, other less charitable measures taken against my person in the future, unless something is done to prevent it. Nevertheless, I would not be your loyal subject, if I were to let such activity against the interests of the Crown, and the people pass unreported.
 

-o0o-
 

On taking up this request it was decided that in the interests of objectivity, we initially should conduct a nationwide research programme into the problem, and use this as a comparison to the Cumbrian situation as a special case. The results showed that the foot and mouth ‘epidemic’, as confirmed by the Government own figures, was dealt with in an exceptionally severe manner throughout the Pennines but especially around the gunnery practice range of Warcop, this observation is confirmed by MAFF’s (DEFRA) own findings where they record a kill rate of 100,000 animals for every single case of so called ‘proven’ foot and mouth. All 6 ‘proven’ cases were on one farm only, resulting in the death of 600,000+ animals: - killed on the adjacent six hills. However, the more we researched the problem, the more obvious it became that there was a very serious second agenda running behind the cull.

While not disagreeing necessarily, with the design of the Government strategy in containing the outbreak, one is forced to question the rationale behind its execution. I also accept that the problems that beset the Upper Eden Valley are typical of several other similar rural situations, where the local population is by its unique geography, excluded from the greater economy of the region. It therefore requires that there should be a little more strategic investment, in those regions, to guarantee the same level of public services, as are enjoyed by the rest of the United Kingdom. Unfortunately in the Upper Eden Valley this is not the situation, quite the reverse is true. Which underlines the possibility of a second agenda running here. Admittedly, the local council has done everything within their power and more, and in consideration of their budget restrictions they have done their best, and in this opinion cannot be held responsible for the situation that has developed, as other bodies are far more directly involved with the forced decline of the Upper Eden Valley than they.

The problems experienced in the Upper Eden Valley lie mainly with its geography and land usage. Climatically, the Upper Eden Valley can expect up to one hundred days of snow cover in winter, and many of these in Artic temperatures, which is obviously a great hardship on the local population, as the Upper Eden Valley is served by only one major road the A66, and it is often snowbound in winter and impassable. The road situation is exacerbated by the fact that the A66, is still in part not made up to a fully modern dual carriageway, but retains features of its original Roman construction. This is unfortunate, considering the vast seasonal traffic that uses the A66 annually, on its visits to the Lake District twenty miles away. Although the seasonable traffic is heavy, the local population doesn’t receive, or derive much benefit from the vast bulk of this holiday trade, just daily inconvenience. Which is again unfortunate as along with the collapse of the farming industry, and the mining industry, plus the subsidiary rural support industries. This has left the holiday industry, as the sole surviving growth industry in the district, and here is the crux of the problem.

The Upper Eden Valley was formally served with a good rail connection, including a useful branch line that served Appleby, the Warcop gunnery range, Kirkby Stephen, Barnard Castle and onward, with an alternative means of transport, which was described as one of the most beautiful railway lines in England, that was when it was running. However, the MoD in their military wisdom thought otherwise, and saw fit to deliberately close the last remaining section, without consulting or considering the needs of the local population. Now no heavy goods can move in winter, when there is heavy snow cover. Nor are the modern road surfaces designed for the excessive loads presented by the modern battle tank and its transporter (Up to 100 Tons all up weight) that the army are thinking of bringing in.

However, this is just the start of the problems that were to beset the families, who have traditionally lived in the Upper Eden Valley for generations. There has been a big influx of people, who are looking for a second or holiday home, and were prepared to pay anything to purchase one, they have by this willingness, driven the house prices to the point of insanity, where it is not uncommon for a simple farm workers home, to have a price tag of nearly £200,000 placed on it, simply because it is in a pretty village. The result of this insanity is that the local farming population are being faced with a declining future for their children, and are being forced to sell up and move away, and this is exactly what some Government offices want. It is true that the families who do move away no longer show up in the local unemployed register, which is convenient for a Government, who wish to demonstrate the effectiveness of their employment policies, by presenting employment figures that seem to demonstrate a local decline in unemployment, but in fact only record a migration of the indigenous people away from the land, a people who are needed on the land where they were born, to provide for the people of this nation important things such as food. Not for these selfsame people to show up in the cities, as yet more unemployed near vagrants. But this is not the common opinion held by certain members of the Governments work force.

Mr Elliott Morley for instance, the Environment Minister who on May 12 last was quoted at a public meeting in Penrith, as saying to the farmers who have just had their livestock needlessly shot by his Government, "You people have got to realize that we do not need your sheep. We can import all the meat we need." What he didn’t say was anything about buying in vast quantities of Argentinean meat, to bolster the Argentineans failing economy. Meat that incidentally, carried the stabilised form of the Foot and Mouth virus, the presence of which was supposed to render a British carcase as un-saleable.

Secondly, the unreasonable house prices are creating a dilemma for the future generations. One asks how will the next generation of rural employees, be able to buy or rent a home at such inflated rates? The truth is that they cannot. With a declining workforce, who will tend the land? Who will be there to service any industry that would want to move into such a depleted area? In short none. Without the hill farmers, who will keep the land in good heart, and as pretty as the holiday homebuyers like: - who? To this dilemma and with your Majesty permission I would like to demonstrate why is it happening, who is trying to profit, and offer a possible solution to some of the most immediate problems that can be readily implemented, and happily it is within your Royal command to do this.

Written this 23rd day of August 2002 by your most humble and obedient subject.
 

Richard Anthony von Hymir de Dufton         
 

Go Back

If your Majesty, would you allow your humble and obedient servant to present himself. My name is Richard Anthony von Hymir de Dufton, I am the Clan Chief of the House of Doves, which now-a-days is totally unheard of, still we exist. We genus from the same source as the first house of Lancaster. The first Baron de Dufton was the Great-uncle of Geoffrey de Lancaster, and so we hold both blood kinship and honour to that house. Once our lands contained within their boundary, the original county of Old Westmoreland, before it was enlarged to encompass the Baronies of Appleby and Kendal. As this plea is to do with the what is happening on our former estate, practically on the range at Warcop, which by its geography is totally encompassed within the boundaries of what was the Barony of Dufton, and as I have a keen interest in the well being, and happiness of the people of that area, it behoves me to make this plea. Although, I acknowledge that we now no longer own any land on our former estate, we have inherited a passionate care for the land and its people, and it is this passion that has prompted me to present my plea to you my Queen.

Your Majesty may I be permitted with this presentation of my person, that I be permitted to present to you my simple plea, that the lands and property in the Upper Eden Valley that are currently held by the MoD, are handed over and to the care of the environmental charity Deep Forest Green, and that of the House of Doves, so that the land may be converted to other uses, for the good of the local population and of your nation at large.

I remain your most obedient and loyal subject.

Written this 23rd day of August 2002 by.
 

Richard Anthony von Hymir de Dufton             
 

Go Back
 

Line of decent for Ivo de Taillebois

(click image to enlarge)
 

Go Back