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On this day, 24 April 1932 the Kinder Scout trespass took place in the Peak District, UK, when hundreds of young workers walked on private land.
Most of England’s beautiful countryside was (and still is) owned by wealthy landowners, who forbade public access to the land. This caused great anger, especially for urban working class young people who enjoyed rambling in the countryside.
So a plan was hatched to assemble a group so large that gamekeepers would be unable to prevent them walking to the Kinder Scout peak.
Leaflets were distributed around Manchester reading things like: “If you’ve not been rambling before, start now, you don’t know what you’ve missed. Come with us for the best day out that you have ever had”, and calling on workers to assemble on April 24.
A key organiser of the event was Benny Rothman, the child of Romanian Jewish immigrants, who was active in the communist-linked British Workers’ Sports Federation.
300-400 people assembled, and a whistle was blown, signalling the group to try to run past the army of gamekeepers who were armed with sticks. After scuffling with gamekeepers, the ramblers successfully passed them and climbed the peak singing socialist anthems like The Red Flag.
After the walk, six young workers were arrested, including Rothman. The defendants, who were mostly Jewish and working class, argued that urban workers should have the right to enjoy and “fresh” and “a little sunshine”. But the jury of mostly aristocrats and military officers disagreed. The ramblers were convicted and imprisoned for upwards of six months.
The harsh sentences spurred further support for the right to roam. And in the early 1950s, the Peak District, including Kinder Scout, became Britain’s first National Park.
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