There are two strangers sat in my garden eating their dinner

[Scrowy]

I've told them it's private property and not part of the footpath that passes next to it. Apparently they will be on their way soon.

I've now chickened out of saying anything else but I'm passive aggressively watering the hanging baskets about 5m away from them and they are very deliberately not making eye contact with me.

@LostinTime - we saw that notice once on our way down to our holiday in Devon, sometime in the late 50s/ early 60s. My dad took a photo, but it's got lost over the years, so I was really happy to find that picture on the internet!

My sympathies. I have had to put up a huge fence and borrow a bull to solve a similar problem (although largely bastard campervans rather than walkers). Could you borrow a billy goat? I think that would work better than a bull, due to the slope. Just make sure it's tethered properly, or your gooseberries will be history!

These days, people do occasionally wander into/around my garden, but my sheepdog soon sees them out.

Or perhaps a sign saying "This area has been recently sprayed with slurry, possibility of contamination" or somesuch.

@Seesawmummadaw

We get people parking on our drive because they don’t want to pay for the beach car park a couple of hundred yards away.

The cheeky fuckers are the ones that ring the bell to ask if they can use our toilet!

Can you park behind them then go off somewhere? A friend had a regular problem being quite near a sporting venue but one day someone actually drove into their garden, parked and left, despite being told it wasn't a good idea, their reaction was Moi?? Friend called another friend with an old Land Rover, parked it behind their car and went away over night! It didn't happen again although the parker did threaten them with legal action for false inprisonment.

Don't you have a fence?

When i was about 4 we lived in a house with a really long garden allfenced off but on a main road-one day we found two blokes just casually playing tennis in it

my dad said this is private proerpty didnt you notice you had to climb over a fence-oh th blokes said we though it was a park

It had a house at the end and looked nothing like a park-somepeople are just cfs

Oh dear I assumed that after they left that's this thread would no longer be of interest, I've been out pressure washing sheds all afternoon.

Yes they went. I think I said that about 3 posts in. I'm fairly sure they weren't Korean, one looked like a cross between James and Brian May and the other a bit like Paul O Grady. They had proper map books and glasses on string.

I have been on mumsnet long enough that I was here for the live screening of Elderly Korean Lady though so I am rather chuffed at how many times it's been referenced on this thread.

My username. The people who know what it means are correct although sadly I am a traitor to my roots as we farm in the Yorkshire Dales and have done for many years, it's a hand-me-down word from my parents and grandparents.

I didn't draw the diagram either sorry, if I had you wouldn't have been giving it any praise!

@Luzina

Say you’re going to call the police if they don’t move on. Take a pic or video of them. Go inside and lock the door and call the police

Please don’t waste the time of the Police by ringing them. They won’t come out anyway. It’s not a Police matter.

Tell them again to go and that this is your private property and if no response then phone community police.

Get a fence!

Just tell them to get lost. You need to assert yourself

I would have gone and droned on at them about really boring things to do with people they've never heard of and maybe including slightly odd behaviour until they went

They left about 6 hours ago.

No one ever had any intention of ringing the police or watering them.

Have you thought about fencing off your garden?

Somewhere I go walking quite near me has a similar problem OP. They have their garden and picnic bench on other side of path, which is right of way, from their house. I notice this year they now have a sign up stating No Access that side of path as its a private garden

I’d put several signs up making it absolutely clear what is what.

“Private property” on the bench/table itself!

Buy a sprinkler system

Just read this. I am glad they've gone. Great diagram. Maybe time to start carrying a pitchfork when you politely point out it's private land.

water all the garden -sprinklers perhaps
put radio on playing some really ghastly musac (?spelling?)
or
Move now before I cough over you I am isolating

@yellowsubmarines

Sounds like they thought they were following a 'public footpath' sign OP? There are some nutters around my way who meet regularly to search for old rights of ways and then post them on the local FB page encouraging people to go through what looks like private land to exercise their 'right to walk'. When confronted by the land owners these walkers get somewhat aggressive talking about their 'rights'. Is there any way you can mark off your private land with some sort of boundary to distinguish it from the footpath?

Nothing "nutty" about that. With some footpaths you literally use it or lose it. Someone fenced across one of my dog walking routes a few weeks ago, a path that is shown on aerial photography from 1946. Hoping to parcel up the land for sale and intimating that it would get planning permission for development. Unlikely as it's green belt and in an AONB. The local authority took action, but even quicker than that some walkers (not me) were out with their wire cutters. People lose footpaths all the time to developers/land owners in less observant areas.

However in the OP's case I completely sympathise. I feel really self conscious when I have to walk round farm buildings and am not quite sure of the route. I wouldn't imagine it was a good place to stop for a picnic. Perhaps because there are farms you can visit as an attraction some people think they are all a kind of theme park.

Fence?

@ProperVexed

OP should get an award for superb diagram.

It's like the map to Pooh Corner.

Really? What harm did they do?

You are lucky to live in what sounds like a lovely spot.

@shortsaint - please let us all know your address so that we can include it on lists of “suitable gardens to stop for a meal in” 😂

Elderly Korean lady thread is now trending!

@Papergirl1968

Elderly Korean lady thread is now trending!

I'll show myself up! What's with Elderly Korean Lady?