Peak District’s Place in History | UK

The Peak District is famous for its beauty… but what’s perhaps not quite so well known is the part it has played in history.

In 1932, a Manchester branch of the British Workers’ Sports Federation staged a mass ‘trespass’ on Kinder Scout.

It resulted in five of their number being jailed for up to six months for ‘riotous assembly’…and set the ball rolling for a momentous event that still reverberates today.

Peak District National Park, UK / Elin B

The resulting National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act in 1949 began to open up the whole of Britain to ordinary people, giving them the right to roam over land that was previously out of bounds.

UK’s First National Park

The Peak District National Park was the first national park to be designated in the United Kingdom, covering swathes of central and northern England and taking in northern Derbyshire and parts of Cheshire, Great Manchester, Staffordshire and south and west Yorkshire.

Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau in what is known as the Dark Peak. It was the central focus of the ‘trespassers’, who are credited with the nation-wide rethink into access to the countryside and the Act of Parliament several years later.

Their protest was aimed at landowner the Duke of Devonshire, who had refused to let visitors from the nearby industrial sprawls of Manchester and Sheffield to walk the hills and share their beauty on the one free day a week they had from work.

Skirmish With Gamekeepers

A skirmish with the duke’s gamekeepers led to one of his men being knocked unconscious, and five of the protestors were arrested on charges of incitement and ‘riotous assembly.’

At Bowden Bridge – the rallying point for the 1932 ‘uprising’ – there is a commemorative plaque set into the quarry wall.

A circular walk from here takes in Kinder Downfall, the tallest waterfall in the Peak District, where rainbows arc over the rocks on sunny days, Leygatehead Moor, and Coldwell Clough.

Duration: 4 – 6 hours depending on conditions and ability

Going: Challenging – only for those with good levels of fitness

Distance: 8 miles

For a less taxing stroll amid the splendour that is the Peak District, wander along to Ilam Park, Derbyshire, where a one-and-a-half mile route to Dovedale will leave you gasping in wonder instead of gasping for breath.

This is a photographer’s dream, a casual jaunt through the southern Peak District and what can only be described as the spectacular Dovedale Gorge.

Caves and fossils can be found in abundance, in rock formations created more than 350 million years ago by the accumulation of dead sea creatures.

Duration: Around 50 minutes

Going: Easy

Distance: 1.5 miles

• The story of the Kinder Scout Trespass is told in a newly-published book by Sinclair McKay, ‘Ramble On,’ on sale now.

Nicki Williams is a copy writer for outdoor on-line specialists Gear-Zone, where you’ll find everything for walking, hiking and life in the great outdoors.

Tags: act of parliament, central focus, commemorative plaque, countryside act, dark peak, duke of devonshire, incitement, kinder scout, manchester branch, momentous event, northern england, peak district, Peak District National Park, quarry wall, rallying point, riotous assembly, sports federation, trespassers

Category: National Parks