h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Kinder Trespass - A87752208
Author: Elentari - U202814

The 80th anniversary of the Trespass is on April 24th, so it seemed an opportune time.

I have some pictures of Kinder Scout which could go in this in time.

How interesting! I never knew this. I think we may have privately owned forests here (which are probably open to the public), but I've never heard of privately owned mountains.

Excellent, Elentari

I can't believe we haven't got an entry on this.

I'll just leave this here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knzUMCZX8-w

Thanks, both. I was surprised we didn't already have an entry too. It's quite an important event in the right to roam movement.

Any more comments?

I'm sorry I didn't comment earlier on this piece - it seems faultless.

We live near the Peak district, and as far as we know, one of our relations who was a committed rambler took part in this trespass, sadly he is no longer alive or I could ask him for a verbatim account.

Good luck with this Entry - it deserves a place in the Guide. Thank you for submitting it, and so well written I can't even think of anything that needs adding.


Lanzababy

That's very kind, thanks Lanzababy!

Great entry. I loved the ending you chose!

Hey, this is really interesting. As an outsider, though, I felt that you rather buried the lead. At the end, you explain what a landmark event this was, but I wasn't expecting it, because I thought public access was an ancient right in Britain.

Could you maybe add a bit at the beginning to foreshadow this for dummies? One more sentence in the first paragraph would do it. Something like, 'This act of trespass, and the trial that followed, inspired a movement that led to freer public access to nature in the UK.'

Far from it Dmitri - you could trace the battles for public access to land back centuries, if you wanted. In a real sense, the Kinder Scout trespassers were the heirs to the Diggers and Levellers of the 1640s...

Good Entry, Elentari. I'd love to see it on the FP for the anniversary.

And I've just thought of a complementary piece I'll have to write.

Great entry. I love the fact I live in Scotland, where we now have no laws of Tresspass..

I've added an extra sentence which should help, Dmitri. Is that better?

Thanks for the comments, all!

Blimey, I've lost count the number of times I've strolled up Kinder Scout and never knew the history of access to it.
Thats what you get for taking things for granted.
Great piece, well done Elantari.

That's perfect, Elentari, thanks!

I enjoyed this article - it's a good read and very informative.

A couple of comments.
In the 3rd sentence, you've said that the Kinder Trespass was one of the events that led to the 'wide-ranging land access rights currently enjoyed in the UK'. But, as post 11 mentions, I thought the law was always different in Scotland.

Is it worth mentioning that the National Council of Ramblers' Federations had existed since 1931 but, after the Trespass, it was reinvented as the Ramblers' Association?

Good point, mvp. I'l change that.

Unless the Ramblers Association was renamed / otherwise changed as a result of the Kinder Trespass I don't think it needs to go in.

It's probably worth changing that, yes: access rights in Scotland are far ahead of those in England and Wales, and NI is more restricted still.

I was wondering whether it would be worth making the role of the Communist Party more explicit - it wasn't completely red scare tactics by the prosecution, the CP really did play a very important role in campaigning for ordinary people to have access to the countryside.

Do you have any more information on that, KB? Or can you suggest somewhere I might look? I haven't come accross much on that.

I've added a couple of mentions of the Communists, does that cover it, do you think?

A great article. I would perhaps mention that the Duke of Devonshire owned vast (not to understate that it is vast) amounts of land nationwide, including Chatsworth House, Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire as well as a castle in Waterford and land in Eastbourne. They weren't trespassing in someone's back garden. (The family portrayed in the film 'The Duchess')
One thing I would change is where you wrote: ' The group was There had been other', one of those minor things which gets overlooked.

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