The vigilante mowers of Rayneham Road in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, don’t look like dissidents. Ranging in age from 49 to 68, most have adult children and comfortably sized houses in a quiet corner of the East Midlands. They are not people you might usually associate with a picket line. But when the council stopped mowing the communal green space opposite their redbrick houses as part of a borough-wide rewilding scheme, it wasn’t long before mutiny took hold.
The grass reached hip height. Fears about dog poo, litter and ticks spread. Residents felt there was nowhere for visiting grandchildren to run amok or play football. “It was up to my daughter’s nose at one point,” says 54-year-old teacher Marnay Dudley. “I found it so depressing,” says her retired neighbour Moira Barclay.
