David Toft Chair, Hayfield Kinder Trespass Group

The Kinder Mass Trespass is one of the most famous acts of civil disobedience in British history, leading eventually to the designation of the first National Park: the Peak District. kindertrespass.org.uk

“Following WWI, a generation of young factory workers began visiting Hayfield and the Pennines, to escape the smoke-filled cities and their hard industrial lives. By the 1930s, the railway company reported an average of 6000 daytrippers every weekend in Hayfield, with 13,000 on Easter weekend in 1930.

“Many had been walking in the hills throughout their teenage years and were impatient for change to the lack of access onto the open moors. These vast open areas had once been common land but were now the preserve of grouse-shooting landowners. Following an incident with gamekeepers in 1932, Benny Rothman and a few friends began organising a mass trespass, leafleting in Manchester and Salford and writing to local newspapers. On 24 April 1932, around 500 young people gathered in Hayfield and marched out to William Clough and up onto Kinder. The police didn’t follow them up to the moors and the thin line of gamekeepers on the slopes were overwhelmed by the numbers. There was no fighting, though a gamekeeper was hurt in a scuffle, but on returning to the village six of the leaders were arrested and five were sentenced to six months hard labour. The event became a rallying point for access campaigners and when, in 1948, the Labour Government created the first National Park, they chose Kinder Scout and the Peak District, opening it in 1951. Roy Hattersley described it as ‘the most successful direct action in English history’.

“It is not just an historical event however, and still inspires and teaches us that we must never be complacent about access. Landowners still block footpaths, and early in the COVID-19 outbreak Derbyshire Constabulary was the first to use drones to film people on legal walks on the moors. A new wave of city-dwellers heading out to enjoy the countryside are sometimes met with less than a warm welcome, and the current government has pledged to amend the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to criminalise trespass. While it claims that this is directed at travellers who camp on private land, many in the outdoor community worry that this will eventually threaten us all.

“The lessons from 1932 are many, in particular that the struggle for access should not be seen as a single issue but related to much broader issues in our society, urban and rural. The greatest danger is complacency.”