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Centuries of struggle in Britain’s countryside: Campaigning for the right to roam before and after the Kinder Scout trespass
The Manchester Young Communist League discusses the Kinder Scout Trespass in the context of centuries of class struggle over land access, and why activists are continuing that struggle today

NINETY-TWO years ago, on April 24 1932, 400 young ramblers made history on the rugged slopes of Kinder Scout.

By the 1920s and ’30s rambling had become a mostly working-class pastime. Tens of thousands of workers used their Sundays to go walking. For both workers and the unemployed, rambling was a welcome escape from the impoverished inner city. 

Ramblers in the Peak District faced a particularly great number of obstacles. Of the 150,000 acres of mountains and moorland in the Peaks, only 1,200 acres, less than 1 per cent, enjoyed public access. There were only 12 “legal” footpaths to choose from. 

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