UK knife control laws: gardener arrested in his own garden

The British understand, from actual experience, that the government would not stop at gun control. They will also go for “knife control”. A gardener experienced the effects of the latter when the Manchester police claimed that he had an “offensive weapon”. One of the questions that the police officers asked the gardener was if he was in the army, or if he had told people that he was in the army. The gardener also had to explain to the police, in simple terms, what a community garden allotment was.

From Breitbart:

Rowe was interviewed without a lawyer present as officers told him they’d been unable to find one. He reported having been asked some bizarre and probing questions when he was held, stating: “They started asking questions, like if I was autistic or anything like that, asking me whether I’d ever been in the army, whether I told people I was in the army”.

He was asked whether he was planning on “doing something” with what the police claimed were weapons and was required to explain “in very basic terms” what a community garden allotment is.

Eventually, Rowe accepted a caution from police in order to be allowed to go home. He is now worried that will remain on his criminal record and make finding work difficult.

While laws on “offensive weapons” in the United Kingdom are strict, with carrying even very basic items like pepper spray for self defence strictly outlawed, there are very clear exceptions in the legislation for carrying things like knives in public for work. This allows, for instance, a carpenter to carry chisels on his way to a job, or a farmer or fisherman to carry a knife when they have “reasonable grounds or expecting to need a knife while pursuing a lawful activity”.

The UK government also allows a knife to be carried “for religious reasons, such as the kirpan some Sikhs carry” and “as part of any national costume”.

As previously reported, the garden trowel arrest isn’t the only instance of British police going above and beyond the call of duty with questionably dangerous “weapons”. London police faced mockery online and eventually deleted a tweet where they boasted of getting a round-tipped butter knife off the streets. A spokesman said the sheer volume of notifications from the post was distracting officers from their work.

Additional Reading:

Lane, O. J. (2025, July 30). UP police arrest gardener in his own garden for carrying trowel, sickle. Breitbart. Link.

Category: Society