Climbing Kinder (for the 1932 Mass Trespass)
To these slopes
Here on the sides of this great and ancient plateau’s edge,
Where the curlew sings on a summer’s day
Its solitary, swooping note
Like a crystal drop of Kinder water –
A song far sweeter
Than any music humans ever made –
The walkers came
To claim for all who’d follow
The right to hear that song
To breath that air with smog- bruised lungs
To taste the sweetness of the open space
To pause a moment from the draining race
Of hard industrial existence
And they called those walkers ‘trespassers’
As if by claiming back these stolen treasures
By repossessing all these hard won pleasures
It was they who were the criminals.
But when you climb up Kinder now
And feel your legs strain hard against the earth
And fill your lungs with fresh free air
And watch the long white hare
Kicking its legs in the very ecstasy of life
Remember there are those who would have kept this from us
And those who even now would, if they could
Keep us from the silver stream and open moor
And windswept wood.
Dave Toft
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The Battle For Kinder Scout by Benny Rothman
Launched as part of the 80th Kinder Trespass anniversary celebrations on the 24 April 2012 at the Moorland Centre in Edale, the new updated version of Benny Rothman’s book is entitled ‘The Battle For Kinder Scout’. It contains an extra chapter from Benny Rothman, where he voiced his concerns for the future of the countryside.
Also there are accounts of the protest from other trespassers, along with the stories of ramblers who got caught up in events with dramatic results. The head keeper of the estate gives his version of events and there are many other articles about the background to the campaign for more access to the countryside and more fascinating details about the trespass. Mike Harding has written the foreword.
The book is 100 pages in full colour and is available for £9.95 from bookshops and online retailers.
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1932 Kinder Trespass: A Personal View of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass
by Benny Rothman (April 1982, Willow Publishing, 56 pages)
In the words of the Foreword by Tom Waghorn: “This book, told in Benny’s own words, is an important historical document for the rambling world.”
Contents:
Foreword by Tom Waghorn
Introduction
“The Manchester Rambler”
Living for the Weekends
Opposition
The Trespass
Arrest and Trial
Derby Assizes
Not in Vain
In the Introduction Benny says he has written the book “… because I believe that the Mass Trespass is too important to be dismissed either as youthful folly, or as a political stunt.”
Recognising that “a whole mythology has grown around the Trespass”, in preparing for the book, Benny interviewed participants, local villages, keepers and policemen who took part. He re-read newspaper accounts of the time, and again looked at the court proceedings, in order to present as accurate an account as possible of the Trespass, and what it brought about.
His hope was that “The book should help to impress on outdoor lovers that access such as we have was not easily attained. It should help in making us more vigilant, and determined to oppose any threat to the countryside from whatever source it might come.”
