OCTOBER 2025 LECTURE: Right to roam and the debates over footpaths and access to moorland in the 1890s in Lancashire
Another chance to see our October 2025 lecture where Professor Katrina Navickas examines the rise of the footpath and commons preservation movement, and some of the early contests between walkers and landowners, culminating in the famous Winter Hill dispute in 1896, and lesser well known conflicts in Darwen and other parts of the southern Pennines.
Another chance to see our October 2025 lecture. Drawing from her new book, Contested Commons: a history of protest and public space in England, Professor Katrina Navickas (University of Hertfordshire) examines the rise of the footpath and commons preservation movement, and some of the early contests between walkers and landowners, culminating in the famous Winter Hill dispute in 1896, and lesser well known conflicts in Darwen and other parts of the southern Pennines. It argues that the mass trespasses in the 1890s were as, if not more, important than the Kinder Scout mass trespass of the 1930s.[Image: Darwen Moor and Winter Hill (c) David Dixon, CC BY-SAY 2]