Only shareholders have free access to the whole field. We have though also been trialling allowing access to whole field for those who contribute to the field in some way, this is usually as a regular contributor to working parties.

Shares in Kingston Hill Fields Ltd, when available, can be bought, subject to committee approval. Our current minimum holding is 2500 shares which up until now have been bought and sold at £1 each but the price is negotiated between buyer and seller. Most shareholders have bought many more than 2500 shares.

The aim of Kingston Hill Fields is conservation and as such having large numbers of people using the field is considered incompatible with this aim. We therefore must have some way of limiting the number of people who have authorised access to the fields. All the problems we've had in the fields, sheep deaths, hare chasing, disturbing ground nesting birds have been by people without authorised access to the fields.

During the Covid lockdowns we didn't challenge the many unauthorised people who started accessing the fields, provided they were sticking to the perimeter or central track and weren’t causing a problem. The high level of unauthorised use though continued after the lockdowns, so we started politely letting people know that if they'd like to continue using the fields, they will need to become a shareholder or contributor to the project in some way.