Trespass Trail 10 - Trail Conclusion
10. On April 25 , 1932 – the day after the mass trespass – Benny Rothman and four other ramblers were charged at New Mills Police Court with unlawful assembly and breach of the peace. John Anderson was charged with causing grievous bodily harm to a keeper. All six were remanded on bail to appear later at New Mills Court. All subsequently pleaded not guilty and were remanded to be tried at Derby Assizes, 60 miles from the ramblers’ homes, in July, 1932.
Five of the six were found guilty and were jailed for between two and six months. The condemning jury consisted of two brigadier generals, three colonels, two majors, three captains, two aldermen and 11 country gentlemen.
Walk down the Town Hall drive and turn right down Market Street. The bus station is in front of you at the mini-roundabout junction with the Heritage and Information Centre behind. New Mills Central rail station is to the right.
Conclusion: Something to CROW about
The arrests and subsequent imprisonment unleashed a huge wave of sympathy for the trespassers and their cause. Later in 1932, 10,000 ramblers – the largest number in history – assembled for an access rally in the Winnats Pass, near Castleton, and the pressure for greater access continued to grow.
It was to be another 17 years before the passage of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act by the post-war Labour Government in 1949. This legislation set up the mechanism for the creation of National Parks, and the process for the negotiation of access agreements to open country. The Peak District was the first to be designated, and almost immediately negotiated access agreements with landowners for the former ‘battlefields’ of the 1930s; Kinder Scout and Bleaklow.
Even so, huge tracts of moorland remained inaccessible to the public for another 50 years until the passing of the Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act in 2000, and its final implementation in 2005.
In 2002, Andrew, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, publicly apologized at the 70th anniversary celebration event of the Kinder trespass at Bowden Bridge for his grandfather’s ‘great wrong’ in 1932.
Justice was finally seen to be done.
Text by Martin Doughty and Roly Smith (2007)
