The mass Kinder trespass of 1932 kickstarted widened access to our hills and helped to establish the National Parks and the long distance path network in the UK. On the 24th April 1932 around 400 ramblers met on the Kinder plateau in a coordinated act of civil disobedience to protest against the lack of access to areas of open country.
Class War
The trespass was organised by the Young Communist League, a thriving movement for the working classes in the 30’s and 40’s. Hillwalking was booming at this time as a leisure activity for the working classes, for whom rights in the workplace had to be fought for tooth and nail. There is a sad parallel between the Britain of the early twentieth century and our own times; An ‘elite’ ruling class who have all of the money and power controlling what the less well off and vulnerable have access to.
The open country of the pennines was, and still is owned by a small number of wealthy individuals who use it as their private playground for field sports. In the Pennines this is almost exclusively grouse shooting country, and the terrain is ‘managed’ to make it more suitable for the breeding of the birds. Controversially this involves burning heather to encourage regrowth which the grouse will feed on, and of course back the of keeping the riff-raff out.
The trespassers were confronted by gamekeepers and several fights broke out, resulting in five of the trespassers being arrested and jailed for a few months. This actually worked in the favour of the ramblers as it hit the headlines and spread the message. Other trespass actions had been taken but this was the one that has been credited to have made the difference. It was undeniably a hugely symbolic event.
The Right To Roam
Today we enjoy access to to only 8% of the uplands, still mostly large estates run for game shooting. Less than 4% of rivers across England and Wales have a statutory (or clear) right of access. A third of our coastline is inaccessible. So over 90% of Englands hills, woods and coastline is off limits to us.
The Right to Roam is an ancient custom that allows anyone to wander in open countryside, whether the land is privately or publicly owned. In countries such as Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Scotland it has existed as a common right, a defining concept of nationhood, and has only recently been codified into law. Central to all versions of it across Europe is that: 1) there are sensible, listed exceptions and modifications to this right; and 2) this right only comes with strict responsibilities to both the ecology and community of an area.
https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/
Britain, and particular England, still seems to be in thrall to Victorian notions of the rich and powerful calling all the shots. We’ve endured twelve years of a Tory government ruining the economy, reducing our rights whilst ensuring the rich get richer and the average person shoulders the burden. The fossil fuel companies are making obscene profits whilst the world burns. Democracies are being dismantled before our eyes and the far-right is rising once more. Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion are todays trespassers, but we don’t see the same galvanising call for things to change. Perhaps we are all too anaesthetised by social media and reality TV to care.
In his book The Book of Trespass author Nick Hayes argues (far more eloquently than I have above) that the root of social inequality is the uneven distribution of land. He picks apart a landscape ‘blocked by walls whose legitimacy is rarely questioned. But behind them lies a story of enclosure, exploitation and dispossession of public rights whose effects last to this day.’
