There are no guns, but there are crossbows. And Katherine, 31, is the proud owner of one.
“It’s for when the rioters start pillaging people’s houses,” she explains.
Petite and with a disability that sometimes leaves her in a wheelchair, Katherine knows she would be vulnerable in such a scenario. “While you’d probably be arrested if you shot someone with a crossbow, it’s slightly reassuring to have the option,” she adds.
Katherine, an admin assistant at a residential care home, has travelled five hours from her home in Oxford to a dew-damp field on the Cornish coast. She has come for a gathering of people like her: people who are preparing for the end of the world.
Preppers, sometimes known as survivalists, are a varied bunch, united by a belief in the looming collapse of society and the necessity of self-sufficiency when it comes. Some, like Katherine, believe it will be caused by riots and civil unrest. Others cite financial crashes, pandemics, solar flares and nuclear Armageddon.
This weekend’s haven is a farm outside of Newlyn, near Penzance, where Katherine will camp alongside 30-or-so concerned citizens — mostly, though not exclusively, middle-aged men in camo and combat boots. It is one of a loose network of prepper meet-ups taking place across Britain this summer, from Pembrokeshire to the Midlands to Dumfries and Galloway.
It is an opportunity to learn the essentials: how to forage, remove fluoride from tap water, put on a gas mask. It is also a safe space to discuss potential threats, such as a Carrington Event — a geomagnetic storm that would knock out all modern technology, including the microchip in your dog.
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Jim, a 50-year-old “manager” who won’t disclose his surname, is one of the organisers. He is also the host of the What If? podcast, where he distributes practical prepping advice to No Shit Radio’s 136 listeners every week. Unsure what to pack in your “bug-out” bag (the supplies needed if you had to flee your home)? Need help choosing the tastiest Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) military rations? Jim has you covered.
Attendance, says Jim, is growing at these meets, which are advertised on YouTube and social media. Covid-19 and the invasion of Ukraine triggered a spike in interest, exposing fragilities in the UK’s supply chains and briefly emptying supermarket shelves. Five years after the pandemic, the biggest Facebook group for UK preppers has more than 24,000 members, while the biggest UK-based YouTube channel dedicated to prepping has well over 100,000 subscribers.
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