RAMBLING INTO THE HISTORY BOOKS
How our right to enjoy Britain’s countryside began 90 years ago with a mass trespass in the Peak District that saw brave protesters jailed
IN LOCKDOWN the whole nation embraced the health and soul enhancing benefits of the British countryside. A good walk in green surroundings burns body fat, strengthens our muscles, boosts our immune system and can lift mental wellbeing. Yet, until a protest walk took place on Sunday April 24, 1932 to demand greater access to the countryside, we had the right to enjoy very little of it.
Known as the Kinder Trespass, the walk involved 400 ramblers joining together in an attempt to scale Kinder Scout, a moorland plateau in the Peak District, which is the highest point in Derbyshire.
It was called a trespass because Kinder belonged to the ninth Duke of Devonshire and other wealthy landowners who had forbidden all public access.
Up until the late 19th century people had been able to roam freely upon Kinder but permission had since been withdrawn. The landowners were worried about walkers disturbing the grouse they bred there. Access to the moors was now reserved for just a few guests – often other members of the landed gentry – armed with shotguns during grouse shooting season.
For the trespassers, many of whom were factory workers, walking on Kinder was the rural escape they longed for at the end of a long, hard week toiling in industrial Manchester and Sheffield. Denying them access not only took away one of their few pleasures, it heightened already growing
feelings of tension between the classes in 1930s Britain.
The trespass was led by a young motor mechanic named Benny Rothman who was joined by famous folk music legend Ewan MacColl, father of Fairytale Of New York singer Kirsty MacColl. They had planned a peaceful protest but, as the walkers climbed the forbidden slopes of Kinder, they were confronted by the Duke’s gamekeepers and other hired “heavies” brandishing sticks.
Scuffles ensued but some of the ramblers broke through and made it to the top. On return to Hayfield at the foot of Kinder’s western slopes, the leaders of the walk were arrested. Six of them were tried in court on charges of rioting. One was acquitted but the other five were given harsh sentences ranging from two to six months in prison. None of the gamekeepers stood trial.
As a result, the trespass attracted national attention and its cause gained support. Keith Warrender is the author of three books on the Kinder Trespass, the latest of which Forbidden Kinder is being released to coincide with its 90th anniversary.
He says: “The formal walking organisations of the day appealed to the Home Secretary but the sentences were not reduced. The establishment saw the trespass as a threat to society, which was a bit far-fetched really”.
Keith reveals: “The only injury to a gamekeeper was caused by someone called John Anderson who was actually opposed to the trespass. He thought one of the Duke’s gamekeepers was getting overwhelmed by the walkers, rushed over to help him and, raising his hand to defend the keeper, ended up striking him by mistake. He ended up getting one of the strongest sentences of the whole lot, six months in prison”.
TWENTY years ago the 11th Duke of Devonshire, who died in 2004, travelled to the Peak District from Chatsworth, his Derbyshire stately home, and told a 1,000-strong crowd assembled to celebrate the anniversary: “I am only too happy to take this opportunity to apologise for the conduct of my grandfather 70 years ago. The great trespass was a very shaming event for my family.
“But from that great evil and those appalling sentences has come great good.”
That great good was the establishment of the National
Parks, the first of which was the Peak District, and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CRoW) which saw public access to open spaces enshrined in our legislation, the culmination of a campaign fuelled by the injustices of the Kinder Trespass.
That access is under threat again now, though, according to Nick Hayes, author of a SundayTimes bestsellerThe Book OfTrespass. He reveals: “Only eight per cent of this country is available to walk in under CRoW and most of that is inaccessible to the vast majority of our population (because it’s too far from the towns and cities in which they live).
“So we’re still in a place where people are basically excluded from nature and all of the health benefits that come with it. We need to bring nature to people’s doorsteps. Why should woodlands be used only to breed pheasants and not raise people’s immune systems?”
What Nick and organisations that he represents, such as righttoroam.org.uk, want is the
legal right to walk in wild, open areas of countryside without having to stick to narrow footpaths. He’s very clear, though, that this shouldn’t be seen as a threat to the established principles of land ownership.
“The whole premise of extending the right to roam is one where the sanctity of privacy (of the landowner) is respected, right from the off. And that we also exercise that right with respect for both nature and private property. We’re not advocating walking through people’s gardens or trampling through small farms. We’re talking about access to areas such as woodland and greenbelt land which would harm nobody. And even then doing it responsibly with dogs on leads, leaving no trace of our being there.”
Those sentiments are echoed by the Ramblers, a pro-walking charity who are seeking to make greater access to nature a key part of the Government’s Levelling Up programme.
James MacColl, Ramblers’ Head of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns, told the Express: “We’re seeing a big difference in people’s access to nature depending on their wealth, location and ethnic background. So we’re trying to get the Government to include access to nature as part of those policy reforms, and there’s a petition on our website that people can sign if they want to help.”
However, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents the interests of land, property and businesses in rural England and Wales, have certain, understandable, reservations about extending the area covered by the Right to Roam.
CLA president, Mark Tufnell, told the Express: “These spaces are also a place of work where the land, livestock, machinery, wildlife, and environment must be respected. Significant expansion of this already vast network would also likely increase damage to the spaces our already declining wildlife depend upon.” It’s a fair point but, as Nick Hayes says: “How can we be expected to care about
the destruction of our planet and its species if we’ve been so divorced from nature that we don’t have a personal connection to it?”
One thing which cannot be denied is walking in England’s green and pleasant land can be a good thing, providing respect is shown for the people who live and work there.
RAMBLERS these days might not have to fear being hit with a gamekeeper’s stick, or a harsh prison sentence, if they deviate slightly from the public footpaths. But there are other more subtle obstacles to a pleasant stroll in the country such as the sabotaging of signs and stiles or the blocking of rights of way with farming machinery.
Walkers, too, need to be respectful of the countryside by avoiding walking on crops, taking their litter home and not allowing their dogs to worry livestock. Most walkers, like most landowners, obey the rules but all parties agree that an increase in access, if it comes, should certainly be accompanied by an increase in education about the rights and duties of both sides towards each other.
These days, Kinder Scout is in the hands of the National Trust and, as David Toft of the Hayfield Kinder Trespass Group points out “With around 80 per cent of it open to the public now, it’s difficult to find somewhere on Kinder you can actually trespass!”
But, as he continues: “Other parts of the Peak District are still off-limits though and the situation for walkers is even more restrictive in many other parts of the country. If Benny Rothman were alive, he’d probably tell us we’ve still got more work to do”.
Forbidden Kinder – The 1932 Mass Trespass Revisited by KeithWarrender (£17.95,Willow Publishing) is available to order from bookshops and online booksellers. Find out more at kindertrespass.org.uk