NEW TEA TOWEL OUT NOW!
“Will yo’ come o’ Sunday mornin’
For a walk o’er Winter Hill?
Ten thousand went last Sunday
But there’s room for thousands still!
Oh the moors are rare and bonny
And the heather’s sweet and fine
And the roads across the hilltops –
Are the people’s – yours and mine!”
Here's one for all the ramblers and trespassers out there: our new Winter Hill Mass Trespass tea towel!
The Kinder Scout Mass Trespass gets all the credit, but did you know that the Winter Hill Mass Trespass was the biggest mass trespass in British history?
The Winter Hill Mass Trespass took place in September 1896, when thousands of Bolton residents marched over Winter Hill to reclaim access to an old footpath.
Over three weekends, thousands of Bolton people marched to reclaim a right of way they claimed had been illegally blocked by the landowner.
Our new tea towel features a popular song written by Allen Clarke in local dialect, which urged people to claim their rights and join the next Sunday’s march.
The landlord, Colonel Ainsworth, issued writs against the leaders and won his case with costs, but the people of Bolton rallied behind the trespassers and the fines were paid off. Sadly, the road remained officially closed for nearly another hundred years.
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