Public meeting to mark the 125th anniversary of the Winter Hill Trespass

In September 1896, thousands of Boltonians marched up to Halliwell Road and on to Coalpit Lane to protest the closure of the moors for the grouse season by Colonel Ainsworth of Smithills Hall.

To mark the 125th anniversary of the event known as the Winter Hill Trespass a whole host of events are planned, starting with a public meeting featuring high profile speakers.

Chaired by Keith Harris of Bolton FM, the conference via Zoom, guests will include Paul Salveson, Bolton author and historian.

Author Nick Hayes, who wrote The Sunday Times bestseller, The Book of Trespass, which was also the Guardian and Spectator Book of the Year will also speak at the meeting. Nick is also an illustrator, print-maker and political cartoonist who has worked for the Literary Review, Time Out, The New Statesman, The Guardian and the British Council.

Guy Shrubsole is the author of Who Owns England: How We Lost Our Pure Green and Pleasant Land & How to Take it Back. Guy is a campaigner for Friends of the Earth and has written for numerous publications including The Guardian and New Statesman and will address the meeting on Friday March 12m at 7.15pm for 7.30pm start.

A spokesman for the committee marking the 125th anniversary said: "The moors had long been the place where mill workers in the town headed to clear their lungs of the fetid air of the mills, to socialise, and for the simple joy of engaging with nature. The trespass led to clashes between would-be walkers and Colonel Ainsworth’s gamekeepers over two weekends and led to legal action against those seen as the organisers. Although unsuccessful, the trespass was an important development in the long and as still unresolved issue of the right to roam in England, preceding the more famous Kinder trespass by 36 years. To this day only eight per cent of land and three percent of rivers and lakes are accessible by the public."

The first commemoration of the trespass took place in 1982 following the publication of Paul Salveson’s pamphlet ‘Will Yo’ Come O’ Sunday Mornin’.’ The event was also celebrated in the centenary year of 1996. This time the path to the top of Winter Hill was declared a public footpath and a memorial stone placed at the top of Coalpit Lane.

The 125th anniversary will again be commemorated, covid permitting, on Sunday September 5th with a processional march up Halliwell Rd and a hike up to Winter Hill via Coalpit Lane. A series of community-based events are being planned to take place in the months preceding the anniversary, involving partners groups including the Woodland Trust, Bolton at Home, Live From Worktown, Bolton Socialist Club and various s community organisations.

To attend the meeting email chris_chilton@hotmail.com