In 1649, Gerrard Winstanley and followers known as Diggers began cultivating common land at St George's Hill in Surrey. They argued that the earth should be a common treasury. Their experiment was suppressed but became an enduring symbol of radical egalitarianism.

The Diggers wrote pamphlets of striking biblical and poetic intensity. Their language of common earth, justice and restored creation later inspired radical prose, folk song and political poetry.