HIKERS WAGE WAR

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1932, Page 2

HIKERS WAGE WAR

HILLTOP BATTLE. ATTACK MADE ON GAMEKEEPERS LONDON, June 12. Five hundred young men and girl hikers made an attack on gamekeepers and others guarding the heights of \tlie Kinder Scout plateau—2oooft above sea-level —near Mayfield, Derbyshire. The keepers were severely handled, and a number had to receive firstaid treatment.

A mass trespass'had been organised by members of the Lancashire branch of the British Workers’ Sports Federation as a protest agains the delay in parsing through Parliament the Access to Mountains Bill.

Gamekeepers lashed out with their sticks when charged by tho hikers, but were overwhelmed .and swept off their feet. One keeper was seized by five ramblers and cent rolling hundreds of feet down the precipitous side of Kinder Scout. A Bayfield man who was tia&iaking tho guard was injured about tho head,

A strong contingent from the Derbyshire county police had been sent in anticipation of trouble, but they had fallen behind during the hikers’ march along stone-strewn mountain paths in the ascent of the Kinder plateau. They reached the summit too late to prevent the clash between the gamekeepers and the hikers. The demonsration gathered its forces in Havfield early in the afternoon, and set off marching ten abreast. A halt was called on the way, and a speaker began to address the crowd. A gamekeeper informed the man that lie was trespassing on private property, and asked him to move on. A second halt was made at a quarry, where the loader, in a short speech, contended that there should be no bar of the ascent of mountains by the public. He then gave instructions for the massed trespass for which the hikers had journeyed from Lancashire to the Peak district.

Tho ramblers had climbed steadily for about two miles along Williams Scout Plateau when their leader made an abrupt divergence to the right of the path. There was a series of .dirill blasts on a whistle, and the 500 hikers rushed up the steep mountain side. Gamekeepers could be seen drawn up along the ridge top, together with a party of fifty men from Havfield.They barred the path of the charging ramblers.

Tho girl hikers pitted their weight against the moor guardians. Gamekeepers and youths struggled together pounding each other unmercifully. The struggle was fought out fiercely upon the rough moor of the mountain summit. Hikers and gamekeepers,' locked in each other’s arms, went rolling down the steep side cf Kinder Scout. There was danger that the struggle would lie - carried to one of the many precipices which (leave the Kinder Scout ridge, and that the lighters would be plunged to their deathmore than 800 ft below. The battle ended suddenly when Mr K. Hoovers, of Havfield, fell uneotiveions. bleeding profusely. Tho gamekeepers crowded round him and gave him attention, while the bikers, breathless after lhe lighting, Ir-iwii uni”’Ocded over the plateau ol Kinder scout.