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This Guy's Been Pissing Off His Neighbors with Outdoor Fetish Gatherings

We talked to Guy Masterleigh about his British heritage-themed kink parties and why they've been causing concerns with local residents.

Guy Masterleigh, the leader of the Wales-based fetish group the Tawsingham Society, sent us these photos. Looks like fun.

This article originally appeared on VICE UK

A British heritage-themed fetish meeting group known as the Tawsingham Society was in the news this week for upsetting the neighbors. "We are in the school holidays and we like to get our kids out from computer games to enjoy our fabulous environment," said one local from Bancyffordd in Wales. "Please do not permit outsiders to bring their disgusting habits here and tempt our young folk."

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Away from Bancyffordd, reactions were less negative. Many online commenters asked for the postcode and the incident netted the Tawsingham Society 50 new Facebook followers.

The leader of the society, Guy Masterleigh, has been running the fun and games at the site in Wales for six years. The group's tagline is "bringing fantasy into reality" and the kink play is open to anyone 18 or over. For just £10 [$15] per day, guests can join Guy and his band of "ponies, puppies and piggies" on their private site in rural Wales. Although remote, these events attract dozens of kinksters, and Tawsingham's profiles on Facebook and Fet Life are relatively popular in the scene.

I talked to Guy about the intersectional play Tawsingham offers, how the group is themed around British heritage, and the recent outrage they've attracted.

VICE: Hi, Guy. Why did you start organizing kink events?
Guy Masterleigh: Because it's more fun to do it with friends than it is alone!

Fair enough. What about the rural setting? What does that offer?
Space, privacy, a chance to see the stars and enjoy grass beneath your feet. Also it means we can camp, which is much cheaper than a hotel.

Tawsingham combines British Heritage with extreme kink—is this a common fetish? It doesn't sound like it is.
It's unique, I think—though there are a couple of parallels elsewhere. The closest parallel is probably the Other World Kingdom that existed in the Czech Republic for a few years; but that was binary, femdom, and very expensive. The appeal with us is to slip into a new role; whether it is to step up or down in social class, to adopt another gender, or some other role for a while.

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A uniquely British, class-guilt heavy form of escapism, then?
Absolutely. A chance to shuck off the responsibilities, duties, and inhibitions of your mundane life.

Understood. Can you explain the animal role-play aspects?
"A holiday from humanity." People's reasons vary; they're rarely the same. But there are clues in the types of animal people choose to be: "ponies" generally love to be of service, to be under control, cared-for, to show off. "Puppies" want the freedom of just being there to please their master or mistress, naked, and unashamed. "Piggies" just want to "be."

Where do you find your guests?
Through kinky social media; Yahoo lists, Fet Life, and my own websites; many I've been in touch with for years, decades. The groups are small, ten to 20 or so normally, and most are regulars.

Do you think the group will expand? What's a good number for an event?
It fluctuates according to the location, format of the event, price, weather, etc—there are afternoon-only pony-play events with 50 or more people, but I like to keep things cozy and go for a week, long weekend or weekend. That way we can get to know each other well. You can choose your social station, your level of freedom, your gender, even your species. Then live that life for a while.

Fetishists on a horse walker

I've heard that you think Larissa Lewis, who was quoted as a disgruntled villager on Wales Online, was actually a "saboteur." Why?
Because there has been a long history of antipathy from a malcontent connected with the site, against both me and the landowner. Placing this story is entirely consistent with their modus operandi. They will use any means to get at us. A hater's gonna hate. We are doing nothing immoral at all. I don't want to go into detail, as that would be libelous.

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You've had some vandals down at the site recently, right? They set fire to shit?
Yes. Had the vandalism not occurred the event that was in the Wales Online would have looked very different. We'd have had a static caravan there as my base; tool-sheds; a garage for our kit; a Dutch barn for our digger and materials; a barn fitted out with stables, kennels, and a pig-sty for human critters; proper showers and toilets—quite a neat facility.

What do you think was the vandal's motivation? You've said it was "a drug-fueled gang-bang"?
Yes, there was a gang-bang party. I imagine the motive of the organizer was profit and/or malice. There were beer, wine, and cider bottles strewn everywhere, needles on the floor, crack-smoking works on the table… I can't know if the arson and criminal damage was premeditated or spontaneous, so I won't speculate.

Do you think Tawsingham's brand attracts special interest?
Most in the fetish scene don't see the appeal, their concept of it is something that takes part in clubs of an evening; they see what we do as being too needlessly complicated. I entered the scene nearly 30 years ago, pre-internet. It was organized through magazines, mostly. The only club was in London, called Der Putsch. Through the 1990s, it was a slowly growing movement, and most of us knew each other, directly or through a friend of a friend.

Then the internet came along and flooded the scene with new people. Whereas in the early years we'd share a club with goths, gays, lesbians, cross-dressers, swingers, etc just to get enough bodies to make it viable, the scene fragmented into different cliques, because the newbies often don't "get" the need for acceptance and tolerance.

Not sure what this is. Some kind of trap.

What do your children think of kink? Are they aware of what you do?
They were made aware at a very early age, thanks to us having to tell a blackmailer where to go. Then our exploits appeared in a tabloid newspaper, much as with this recent story. They are now adults and never had a problem with it, because they checked for themselves and know it is all with fully informed, freely-given, and revocable consent among adults.

Thanks, Guy.

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