When it comes to access, the question is often asked, ??but what about the wishes of the landowner?. Landowner wishes, and indeed their rights, are clearly important but are they sacrosanct? Some cavers suggest that they are, while others, by their actions would suggest that they are not. It is worth looking back at the history of countryside access to gain a better understanding. Luckily a recent edition of the Ramblers magazine covers this subject.
According to the article, the long and turbulent history of the fight for access to Britain?s countryside started exactly 800 years ago. Just two years after the Magna Carta, in 1217, when Henry 3rd re-established the rights of free men to access royal forests and common land with the ?Charter of the Forests?. This is considered the first access legislation and included the vast majority of what we would consider the countryside today.
Throughout the Middle Ages these rights were eroded away as over 6 million acres of common land was enclosed. The main Enclosure Acts of 1750-1860 benefited the landed gentry in the name of agricultural efficiency but also enclosed moorland areas for the rearing of grouse.
This wholesale ?land larceny? enraged many and so the protests began. The 1847 Battle of Glen Tilt between Edinburgh walkers and the Duke of Atholl?s ghillies and the 1896 mass trespass of Winter Hill in Lancashire being some of the first. Many outdoor societies and associations formed around this time who demanded better access to the countryside. Individuals too, such as the MP James Bryce introduced the first Access to the Mountains Bill. Soon to be British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, summed up that mood, ?Who ordained that a few should have the land of Britain as a perquisite, who made 10,000 people owners of the soil and the rest of us trespassers in the land of our birth??
The Plaque on Winter Hill
Pressure began to build in the Peak District surrounded as it is by the great industrial cities of Manchester and Sheffield, with its mills and factories and back to back terraces. Who wouldn?t want to escape to the nearby hills, but most of them were now allotted to various landowners and ?Trespassers will be Prosecuted? signs appeared everywhere and were enforced by strong arm gamekeepers. This was typical on Kinder where the celebrated mass trespass of 1932 saw a group of ramblers imprisoned, not for trespass, but public order offences.
The Ramblers Association formed in 1935 and soon had a membership larger than any political party. With growing leisure time and increasing mobility of the population, politicians who traditionally supported the landowners, had to take note. Hence in 1949 the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act was passed. The Act provided the framework for the establishment of our National Parks and also addressed public rights of way and access to open land.
The anticipated voluntary level of access was still resisted by landowners but the major opportunity for change came with the landslide Labour Government victory in 1997. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 granted public access to all open country, mountain, moor, heath and down.
In Scotland the situation was different where land access was on the basis of custom and tradition. During the 18th and 19th centuries the Scottish lairds, hereditary aristocratic landowners, had forcibly evicted many Highland communities through the Clearances taking the land for grazing. Campaigns fought back over the succeeding century or so, however, as new landowners ignored access traditions and countless paths were destroyed, political will began to grow.
This brought about two national parks in 2000 and was followed by the Land Reform Act Scotland in 2003. This gave perhaps the most progressive access rights in the whole of Europe which allows freedoms to the majority of land. In addition, it places a legal duty on landowners to manage the land in such a way that respects access rights. The supporting Scottish Outdoor Access Code makes clear that the public share responsibilities too. This sets the benchmark for future access legislation such as that being discussed by the Welsh Government at the moment.
Opening up the countryside for greater access should be welcomed. 2012 saw the opening of the Welsh Coastal Path. Next the Ramblers have woodlands in their sights. At the moment only 38% of woodland in England is available for the public to explore and that includes a great deal of permissive access which could be closed off at any time because there is no legal right to keep it open. In England and Wales most access to caves relies on permissive access too. Many cavers believe that the CRoW Act gives them the same rights to caves as it does climbers to crags and scramblers to gullies. These campaigns are just another small chapter in the long fight for access.
The Ramblers article is much more detailed and urges us all to sign its petition to secure better access to woodland. Their article starts off with an apocryphal story and I am going to end with it.
A group of Sheffield ramblers were caught trespassing in the Dark Peak before we enjoyed the freedom of access we do now. They were approached by an irate, stick-wielding gamekeeper, who brusquely ordered them off his master?s land. ?But we aren?t doing any harm?, said the ramblers leader, ?we?re just out enjoying the fresh air?. Incensed, the red faced gamekeeper retorted, ?this land doesn?t belong to you, lad, it belongs to my master. He fought for it y?know?. ?All right?, replied the rambler, calmly taking off his jacket, ?I?ll fight you for it then?.
It may be a story but it emphasises that the public would never have gained access to any part of the countryside without a long fight.
Plaques celebrating the law breakers. Once criminals now applauded. On the anniversary of the trespass in 2002 the Duke of Devonshire apologised for his grandfather whose gamekeepers were involved in the Kinder Scout confrontation.
According to the article, the long and turbulent history of the fight for access to Britain?s countryside started exactly 800 years ago. Just two years after the Magna Carta, in 1217, when Henry 3rd re-established the rights of free men to access royal forests and common land with the ?Charter of the Forests?. This is considered the first access legislation and included the vast majority of what we would consider the countryside today.
Throughout the Middle Ages these rights were eroded away as over 6 million acres of common land was enclosed. The main Enclosure Acts of 1750-1860 benefited the landed gentry in the name of agricultural efficiency but also enclosed moorland areas for the rearing of grouse.
This wholesale ?land larceny? enraged many and so the protests began. The 1847 Battle of Glen Tilt between Edinburgh walkers and the Duke of Atholl?s ghillies and the 1896 mass trespass of Winter Hill in Lancashire being some of the first. Many outdoor societies and associations formed around this time who demanded better access to the countryside. Individuals too, such as the MP James Bryce introduced the first Access to the Mountains Bill. Soon to be British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, summed up that mood, ?Who ordained that a few should have the land of Britain as a perquisite, who made 10,000 people owners of the soil and the rest of us trespassers in the land of our birth??
The Plaque on Winter Hill
Pressure began to build in the Peak District surrounded as it is by the great industrial cities of Manchester and Sheffield, with its mills and factories and back to back terraces. Who wouldn?t want to escape to the nearby hills, but most of them were now allotted to various landowners and ?Trespassers will be Prosecuted? signs appeared everywhere and were enforced by strong arm gamekeepers. This was typical on Kinder where the celebrated mass trespass of 1932 saw a group of ramblers imprisoned, not for trespass, but public order offences.
The Ramblers Association formed in 1935 and soon had a membership larger than any political party. With growing leisure time and increasing mobility of the population, politicians who traditionally supported the landowners, had to take note. Hence in 1949 the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act was passed. The Act provided the framework for the establishment of our National Parks and also addressed public rights of way and access to open land.
The anticipated voluntary level of access was still resisted by landowners but the major opportunity for change came with the landslide Labour Government victory in 1997. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 granted public access to all open country, mountain, moor, heath and down.
In Scotland the situation was different where land access was on the basis of custom and tradition. During the 18th and 19th centuries the Scottish lairds, hereditary aristocratic landowners, had forcibly evicted many Highland communities through the Clearances taking the land for grazing. Campaigns fought back over the succeeding century or so, however, as new landowners ignored access traditions and countless paths were destroyed, political will began to grow.
This brought about two national parks in 2000 and was followed by the Land Reform Act Scotland in 2003. This gave perhaps the most progressive access rights in the whole of Europe which allows freedoms to the majority of land. In addition, it places a legal duty on landowners to manage the land in such a way that respects access rights. The supporting Scottish Outdoor Access Code makes clear that the public share responsibilities too. This sets the benchmark for future access legislation such as that being discussed by the Welsh Government at the moment.
Opening up the countryside for greater access should be welcomed. 2012 saw the opening of the Welsh Coastal Path. Next the Ramblers have woodlands in their sights. At the moment only 38% of woodland in England is available for the public to explore and that includes a great deal of permissive access which could be closed off at any time because there is no legal right to keep it open. In England and Wales most access to caves relies on permissive access too. Many cavers believe that the CRoW Act gives them the same rights to caves as it does climbers to crags and scramblers to gullies. These campaigns are just another small chapter in the long fight for access.
The Ramblers article is much more detailed and urges us all to sign its petition to secure better access to woodland. Their article starts off with an apocryphal story and I am going to end with it.
A group of Sheffield ramblers were caught trespassing in the Dark Peak before we enjoyed the freedom of access we do now. They were approached by an irate, stick-wielding gamekeeper, who brusquely ordered them off his master?s land. ?But we aren?t doing any harm?, said the ramblers leader, ?we?re just out enjoying the fresh air?. Incensed, the red faced gamekeeper retorted, ?this land doesn?t belong to you, lad, it belongs to my master. He fought for it y?know?. ?All right?, replied the rambler, calmly taking off his jacket, ?I?ll fight you for it then?.
It may be a story but it emphasises that the public would never have gained access to any part of the countryside without a long fight.
Plaques celebrating the law breakers. Once criminals now applauded. On the anniversary of the trespass in 2002 the Duke of Devonshire apologised for his grandfather whose gamekeepers were involved in the Kinder Scout confrontation.
