Early rambling groups
The Ramblers' Association's roots can be found in the 19th century, when a growing number of people turned to the countryside for rest and recreation in the face of escalating industrialisation. But with this upsurge of interest came a strong desire to protect the right to walk footpaths and enjoy open spaces, and so began a movement that was gradually to lead to the formation of the Ramblers' Association.
Two of the earliest known groups were the Association for the Protection of Ancient Footpaths in the Vicinity of York, formed in 1824, and the Manchester Association for the Preservation of Ancient Footpaths (1826). It was not until 1865 that a body was created to fight for the open spaces in London, however, and the Commons Preservation Society eventually ended up campaigning for access to common land throughout the whole of the country (today the organisation is known as the Open Spaces Society). Supporters included the philosopher and reformer John Stuart Mill, and James Bryce MP, who introduced the Access to Mountains (Scotland) Bill in Parliament in 1884 which, although unsuccessful, began the first moves towards a concerted access movement.
The first federation of groups of ramblers took place in Glasgow, with the formation of the West of Scotland Ramblers' Alliance in 1892. A number of walking clubs soon appeared around London: the Sunday Tramps (1879), the Forest Ramblers Club (1884), and the Polytechnic Rambling Club (1885). In 1905 representatives met from about a dozen of these English groups to form the Federation of Rambling Clubs. Its chief objectives were to maintain and preserve ramblers' rights and privileges, and to persuade the railway companies to grant cheap and concessionary rates for ramblers – and several companies did just that.
London-based walking clubs such as the Sunday Tramps consisted largely of writers, philosophers and professional types; but from the earliest days men and women from working class backgrounds also enjoyed the pleasures of walking, and took an active interest in safeguarding access to the hills and moors, particularly around the industrial cities in northern England. The Manchester YMCA Rambling Club (1880) and the Midland Institute of Ramblers (1894) were both popular, and in 1893 the Co-operative Holidays Association was formed, offering organised walking tours. Its founder, Rev T A Leonard, later set up Holiday Fellowship, in 1913.
Federations of rambling clubs developed in several provincial cities (Manchester Ramblers' Council in 1919, Liverpool and District Federation in 1922, and Sheffield and District Federation in 1926), but by the early 1930s many in the outdoor movement spoke of the need for a national body to represent the interests of ramblers, and so delegates from around the country attended a meeting at Longshaw in the Peak District in September 1931. As a result, the National Council of Ramblers' Federations was established. It met once a year and appointed an executive committee.
In 1932, the conflict between ramblers and landowners over access to the Derbyshire grouse moors led to a mass trespass on Kinder Scout in which several ramblers were arrested and subsequently imprisoned. The National Council of Ramblers' Federations opposed the tactics of the trespassers and did not endorse the event.
The first steps
The National Council of Ramblers' Federations produced a ramblers' diary and an accommodation guide (this was eventually to become the RA's popular Yearbook), and in June 1933 the first issue of the council's journal, Rambling (the predecessor of walk), was published. In 1934 the decision was taken to change the council's name, and so on 1 January 1935 the Ramblers' Association was officially founded.
In the first year of its life, the Ramblers had almost 1,200 individual members, and over 300 affiliated rambling clubs. (Manchester Federation did not join the Ramblers until 1939.) The first piece of legislation that the Ramblers became actively involved in was the 1939 Access to Mountains Bill, but the Ramblers' Association ended up opposing the bill due to amendments and clauses which limited access and penalised supposed trespassers. Despite this, the bill became law, although it was never used and was repealed in a later Act.
The Ramblers continued to grow during the War, although it accepted that cross-field footpaths could be ploughed-up or diverted, providing that they were later restored. Walks in the countryside continued, however, and the Ramblers produced a leaflet, Walking in Wartime, which gave advice on necessary precautions, such as always carrying identity cards and finishing walks before nightfall.
Plans for a series of national parks were now taking shape. In 1941 the Ramblers submitted ideas to the government on both this and the creation of long-distance footpath routes; and in 1945 the Ministry of Town and Country Planning published a report by John Dower that suggested where and what these parks should be.
After a vigorous campaign by the Ramblers, the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act became law in December 1949. It established the machinery for making access agreements to specific areas of open country, and provided that all footpaths be surveyed and recorded on definitive maps. The Act also supplied the framework for the creation of official long-distance paths, and of course led to the establishment of national parks. With the Ramblers campaigning for their early designation, ten parks were quickly established, the first of which was the Peak National Park in 1951. In addition, the Ramblers won several agreements for public access in the Peak District, and later some in the Yorkshire Dales and the Forest of Bowland.
The growth of the Ramblers
The Ramblers' first office was established in Liverpool in 1938, but in 1945 it moved to London, and in 1948 the association's first full-time officer was appointed. With membership rising the decision was taken to give the association a stronger administrative structure, and more of a national identity.
In 1948 Tom Stephenson became the Ramblers' Association's first full-time secretary, although the post did not become a salaried position until 1952. Stephenson was a tireless campaigner for walkers' rights, and personally organised well-publicised treks in the Pennines for influential MPs. Finally, in 1965, 30 years after Stephenson first suggested the idea, the 250-mile Pennine Way became the country's first official long-distance footpath. It was soon followed by other trails, and many were based on routes proposed and surveyed in detail by the Ramblers.
In the years after the 1949 Act, the Ramblers worked tremendously hard to put the provisions of the Act into effect. Definitive maps of footpaths were drawn up by county councils throughout England and Wales. Ramblers volunteers collected every available scrap of evidence and submitted thousands of claims for footpaths to include on the maps. Many paths we walk today would probably have disappeared had it not been for the Ramblers' Association's vigilance in those years.
Through the 1960s and 1970s the Ramblers grew in strength and secured many more benefits for walkers. For example, the Ramblers persuaded the Ordnance Survey to show on its popular maps footpaths as depicted on definitive maps. Thus, for the first time, walkers had ready access to maps showing precisely where they had a right to walk in the countryside. Further parliamentary lobbying led to the Countryside Act 1968, which, among other things, gave county councils in England and Wales a duty to signpost footpaths. An Ramblers' Association-led campaign in the 1970s helped strengthen national park authorities in England and Wales, and to secure for them more resources to protect their parks.
Ramblers Scotland was established in 1967, and Ramblers Wales in 1974, in recognition of the different campaigning needs of these countries and our aim to increase membership there. In recent years Government moves towards devolution have increased the need to organise separately in each country, and in 2003 Ramblers Scotland and Ramblers Wales were granted greater autonomy by the Ramblers' General Council.
From its small beginnings with a membership of approximately 1,200 in 1935, the Ramblers now has a membership of around 140,000, and in 2005 celebrated the 70th anniversary of its formation. Over 800 local organisations, mainly walking clubs and footpath societies but also parish and community councils and other bodies, are now affiliated to the Ramblers.
The year 2000 saw one of the biggest milestones in Ramblers' Association history with the passing of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 granting freedom to roam in open countryside in England and Wales, followed in 2003 by the Land Reform Act giving Scotland the most progressive access regime in Europe by granting statutory access rights to almost all land. After many decades of campaigning, the new right in England and Wales is being introduced on a regional basis between September 2003 and November 2004, and the new right in Scotland is implemented in November 2004.
