Farming as it was even in the 50's, has largely changed out of all recognition. before I finished working I was involved in the design process of making milking carousels, that meant a cow got on a continuously moving carousel had it's teats cleaned and milked automatically. Some would take 20+ cows at a time. But to be efficient farming has had to move in this direction. (the UK population has increased by aprox. 16 million since 1951)
You have just stirred a memory of one of the reasons I left farming, the 17 years that were my working life in farming, I had milked with pipline/cowshed, parlour 2x8 and split level herringbone 4x8 graduating to to the later just ahead of the widespread need to make such changes out of economic necessity. The carousel system was in it's infancy yet the huge capital outlay of such an outlay was made steeper by the fact that the buildings, superb relics of the of the agricultural revolution, were totally unsuitable for the next move into and integrated milking herd with a forward thinking mixed farm system. The landowner, then a very good person, left all his management decisions to a firm of land agents, they had forced up the rents with all the advanced investments my family had put into the farm, tied in with another adjacent holding on another estate.
Out of the blue came an offer to relinquish the tenancy, with a change in the law related to succession of tenancy. My father would have chucked it the bin, but I was already having doubts about the character of the son, I would be spending the rest of my working life, being the tenant of. We made them compensate us for both holdings and nothing that happened since has persuaded me that we made other than the correct decision. Unfortunately access issues that might have benefited by the sort of advice that could have come occupiers without the sense of property held by hereditary owners, might have been made that could have not only local benefits but national significance.
I was a third generation active member of the NFU, I had made my county executive adopt a pro-access stance that got passed at national level in my early 20's as my rock climbing experience gave me some insight how times were changing. However the need to create a new career for myself intervened.
You may read the CLA's policy on access differently, when I read it and pieced together attitudes I found in the new generation of countryside occupiers it made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. That was a few years ago but it is still the active official policy of the main lobby group trying to form our access network to their ideal. The file size of an image version turned PDF is just under 1mb and should transmit as an attachment now, though it was a bit large when I first got it off the CLA's website, when I had a password. This policy was never made available to the LAF I served on for 5 years, despite it having representation by members of the CLA, who may have been closely connected with its creation.
PM me and I will attach it to a return email. I am not into file sharing software at the moment.
Whilst these two "landowners" may not be the norm they are certainly a rising percentage of our rural communities. Their only affiliation to the NFU is through their insurance policies, and neither certainly have any time for CLA.
Not sure of the time scale you are placing these experiences in but the CLA has carried out a huge membership campaign since the mid 1990's and the debacle of the Countryside Alliance has not improved opinions.