Dig
AQUILA
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light from the train at Weybridge station and jump into a cab. As you head along Golf Club Road the houses become mansions and the environment changes. When you reach your destination at the top of St Georgeâs Hill you enter one of the most exclusive private estates in England. This area has many names. The British Beverly Hills and âCelebvilleâ. Residents over the years have included footballers, actresses, oil tycoons and even former Beatles. âThe Hillâ (as those lucky enough to live there like to call it!) epitomises the aphorism that an Englishmanâs home is his castle. Houses guarded by electronic gates, fences monitored by CCTV, roads patrolled by private security. The message is clear. Private. Keep Out!
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Victory âAll the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And Godâs grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there was no needy person among them. For from time-to-time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostlesâ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.â
As you can imagine the landowners at the time were far from impressed with this ragged band of Christian idealists. They took to the courts to evict the Diggers. When that process began to drag, the pacifist Diggers were subjected to a campaign of violent intimidation and arson.
But this was not always the case. St Georgeâs Hill is The Diggersâ occupation of St Georgeâs Hill failed. The group disbursed but the most ironic of sites for their vision lingers on. It resurfaced in the anarchist movements of the 19th an area now dominated Century who claimed that all property is theft. We saw it again recently in the by exclusive multi-million Occupy Movement, who camped outside Wall Street and St Paulâs Cathedral pound properties. For in the campaigning for a fairer economic system. Mid-17th Century a unique The Diggers believed in a new world order. Their idealism still appeals and social experiment took place their story echoes down the ages. The Diggers remind us that boundaries in its environs. In April 1649, are not just physical but mental and spiritual. They call on all of us to common land on the hill was work for a fairer and better future, one where, to quote lyrics from occupied by a radical Christian a song chosen by Tony Benn when he appeared on BBC Radio 4âs movement known as the Diggers, Desert Island Discs, who began to farm there. The Diggers were proto-Marxists who This earth divided believed that all land should be free for We will make whole everyone to use. Their belief in economic So it will be equality is based upon a specific passage A common treasury for all in the Acts of the Apostles: N McKain, Head of RS
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