"This is reflected in the village where I live - the recent trend has been for cheaper older cottages to be bought up when their elderly owner dies and subsequently demolished allowing the building of a much larger home usually with electronic gates."

Ditto. Another thing I've noticed is the increase of 'fencing in' footpaths to prevent people doing terrible illegal things like sitting under a tree that doesn't belong to them or something.. Farmers of course never bother with this kind of hostile barricade psychology, only affluent ex-urbanite "Escape to the Country!" newcomers to rural villages.

Loads of all that going on round here, more and more of it every year. The character of the countryside where I live has vastly changed from a place local kids would just play and camp in "the woods" (anyone remember woods just being "the woods"?) to a place where all green land has become almost entirely fenced in and fenced off.

There's more green places in London where people can wander about than in the countryside now.