In the September edition of Professional Security Magazine, the consultant Frank Cannon has an article about rural property protection. However they do protection at Chatsworth in the north Derbyshire hills (pictured), like everything else they do there, they’ve had hundreds of years to perfect it. Only on reflection after visiting, do you realise it works. Graffiti; none. Litter; one red plastic cup that you passed walking beside the River Derwent. This was, mind you, on the eve of the country fair, that over the bank holiday was under construction, white marquees dotting the landscape, rather spoiling the landscape as designed by the famous Capability Brown of the 18th century. Such terms as crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) had not yet been invented. They did not need such things then; if you stole, they hung you, or (next best thing) transported you to Australia.
Chatsworth is in fact an exceptional rural property – its security and other issues are those of a museum, and heritage visitor attraction. Like so much in life, the best answers to issues may be the simplest. Frank did write of a dog as an ‘early warning system’ (another security consultant years ago said the same of geese). I experienced that when walking out of Buxton. A public footpath took me past a farm. As I skirted a house, three dogs ran out barking at me, as they presumably do to any stranger. There’s never anything you can do except keep going; keep your head down, your hands in front of you beside your body. Not a friendly country welcome; except that if I had a public footpath going past my property that anyone any time of day could use, and the nearest police can feel far away at the best of times, let alone a Peak District night, I wouldn’t be friendly either.
