Editing Diggers (section)

=== St George's Hill, Weybridge, Surrey ===
[[File:Gerrard Winstanley memorial - geograph 6433963.jpg|thumb|upright|right|A memorial to [[Gerrard Winstanley]], located close to [[Weybridge railway station]], was unveiled in December 2000.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.diggerstrail.org.uk/assets/documents/surrey-diggers-trail-leaflet.pdf |title=Surrey Diggers Trail |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=3 March 2005 |publisher=[[Elmbridge Museum]] |access-date=14 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924233023/https://www.diggerstrail.org.uk/assets/documents/surrey-diggers-trail-leaflet.pdf |archive-date=24 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6433963 |title=Gerrard Winstanley Memorial Stone |last=Davis |first=Sean |date=20 February 2007 |publisher=Geograph UK |access-date=14 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914184352/https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6433963 |archive-date=14 September 2021}}</ref>]]
The Council of State received a letter in April 1649 reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables in common land on [[St George's Hill]], [[Weybridge]] near [[Cobham, Surrey]]{{sfn|Woolrych|2002|pp=449–450}} at a time when harvests were bad and [[food prices]] high.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The English Republic 1649–1660 |last=Barnard |first=Toby |author-link=Toby Barnard |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=1982 |isbn=978-0582080034}}</ref> Sanders reported that they had invited "all to come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, and clothes". They intended to pull down all [[enclosure]]s and cause the local populace to come and work with them. They claimed that their number would be several thousand within ten days. It was at this time that ''The True Levellers Standard Advanced'' was published.{{sfn|Winstanley|Jones|2002}}

Where exactly in St. George's Hill the Diggers were is a matter of dispute. Sanders alleges that they worked "on that side of the hill next to Campe Close".<ref name="auto">{{Cite book |title=Winstanley and the Diggers, 1649–1699 |last=Bradstock |first=Andrew |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2000}}</ref> George Greenwood, however, speculated that the Diggers were "somewhere near Silvermere Farm on the Byfleet Road rather than on the unprofitable slopes of St. George's Hill itself".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Brave Community |last=Gurney |first=John |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=2007 |pages=138}}</ref>

Winstanley remained and continued to write about the treatment they received. The harassment from the [[lord of the manor]], Francis Drake (not the famous [[Francis Drake]], who had died more than 50 years before), was both deliberate and systematic: he organised gangs in an attack on the Diggers, including numerous beatings and an arson attack on one of the communal houses. Following a court case, in which the Diggers were forbidden to speak in their own defence, they were found guilty of being sexually liberal Ranters (though in fact Winstanley had reprimanded Ranter [[Laurence Clarkson]] for his sexual practices).{{sfn|Laurence|1980|p=57}}{{sfn|Vann|1965|p=133}} If they had not left the land after losing the court case then the army could have been used to enforce the law and evict them; so they abandoned Saint George's Hill in August 1649, much to the relief of the local [[Fee simple|freeholders]].