Rambling on Kinder Scout
October 12th, 2009 | by lucy |
The 1932 mass trespass at Kinder Scout has passed into rambling legend and is seen as a milestone in the fight for the right to roam. Located in the north of the Derbyshire Peak District, and very close to the Manchester conurbation, this moorland plateau is of outstanding beauty, with views of Snowdon on a clear day and a 30-foot waterfall that the winds blow into the sky.
But 70 years ago, Kinder Scout was a private moor reserved for grouse shooting. And the famous demonstration, organised by the British Workers Sport Federation, was very much part of the 1930s class war. The confrontation with police and game keepers on the one side and a mixed group of communists, students and ramblers on the other resulted in scuffles, arrests and prison sentences. In his statement at the dock, Bernard Rothman, one of the organisers, argued their case:
Some 300 or more ramblers, he said, had gathered to protest against the enclosure of moorland in Derbyshire. Ramblers, after a hard week’s work and life in smoky towns and cities, went rambling at weekends for relaxation, for a breath of fresh air and a little sunshine. They found that the finest rambling country was closed to them because certain individuals wished to shoot for about ten days in the year, and ramblers were forced to walk on muddy, crowded paths and denied the pleasures of enjoying to the utmost of the countryside – From Forbidden land by Tom Stephenson, Ann Holt, and Mike Harding
Taking part in the trespass was 17-year-old Ewan MacColl, singer, poet and activist, who was inspired to write the ballad The Manchester Rambler. Here’s an extract:
The day was just ending as I was descending
Through Grindsbrook, just by Upper Tor
When a voice cried, Eh you, in the way keepers do.
He’d the worst face that ever I saw.He called me a louse and said, Think of the grouse.
Well I thought but I still couldn’t see
Why old Kinder Scout and the moors round about
Couldn’t take both the poor grouse and me.
He said, All this land is my master’s.
At that I stood shaking my head
No man has the right to all mountains
Any more than the deep ocean bed.
It wasn’t until 1952 that ramblers were finally given access to the moor. But this year there is good reason to recall the mass trespass with the announcement that Kinder Scout, owned by the National Trust since 2000, has been declared a National Nature Reserve. The transformation from what was once a playground for the rich has been completed.
The beautiful photograph is from the Kinder Trespass site.
Fears about the impact of last December’s severe weather, the coldest in 100 years, were unfounded. The drop in small bird populations witnessed in the 
The oldest osprey of the UK – and probably the world – has returned to her eyrie in the Scottish highlands. When she left for West Africa at the end of last summer, no one expected her to return. At 26 she’s lived 3 times longer than most female ospreys. In her life she’s laid 58 eggs and hatched 48 chicks, a massive individual contribution to the survival of ospreys in Scotland, where there are still only about 200 breeding pairs. The questions now are if her mate will return and if she is still fertile. Events can be followed on the 
The construction company currently finishing off the Shard building in London, which will be the UK’s tallest skyscraper, recently had to call the council to remove a squatter from the 72nd floor: a young fox. He was surviving on scraps left by builders. After a check-up at the Riverside Animal Centre, the fox has been released on the streets of Bermondsey, having shown the type of curiosity we associate with cats. 
Otters, water voles and fish are all benefitting from the improved quality of the UK’s waterways, now described as the cleanest since the industrial revolution. Since almost disappearing from the wild in the 1970s, otters are thriving, particularly in the south west of England, Cumbria and Northumberland. The population of water voles, highly precarious in the 1990s, is also beginning to recover. The good results of stricter pollution controls and extensive conservation work are set to continue in the new year with the introduction of new European water quality directives. 
