4 guides
Winnats Pass and the Fight for Access: When Ten Thousand Gathered on a Limestone Road
Winnats Pass became a rallying point in the struggle for moorland access, most notably during the 1927 mass trespass and the annual access demonstrations that followed. By the late 1920s, these gatherings drew crowds of up to ten thousand—turning a narrow Derbyshire gorge into the symbolic heart of the rambling movement.
Benny Rothman and The Kinder Scout Mass Trespass: When Walking on the Moors Became a Criminal Matter
On 24 April 1932, around four hundred ramblers walked onto forbidden moorland in a planned act of defiance. Six were arrested, and five received prison sentences—not for trespassing, but for public-order offences and assault. The harshness of the convictions turned the defendants into symbols and accelerated the campaign for open access.
The Peak & Northern Footpaths Society: Fighting for Rights of Way Since 1894
Thirty-eight years before Kinder Scout, a group of Manchester walkers started marking, mapping and legally defending paths that landowners kept blocking. They're still doing it.
Ethel Haythornthwaite and the Battle for Longshaw: When One Woman Helped Shape the National Parks
In 1924, Ethel Haythornthwaite founded the Sheffield Association for the Protection of Rural Scenery and led the successful public appeal to save the Longshaw Estate. Her work on landscape protection and open access helped lay the intellectual and political foundations for Britain's national parks and green belts.