On the Kinder Scout plateau;

High up on Saddleworth Moor;

Where contoured cloud-like edges;

Mark where spring water drenches;

The fertile land below.

Moorland lanes, roads, rights;

Blank lacunae, public paths;

Old access claimed, enclosed, lost;

A diminishing domain;

For a diminishing rural folk.

And so it was at Kinder Scout;

Benny Rothman's band of acolytes;

Skirmished with gamekeepers, armed;

To fight for their rights;

To stand for their moors, in plight.

All attempts were made by men;

To block the act forced upon them;

They tried by parliamentary means;

To stop the sale of their common land;

A harmful attack on the comman man, unlawful.

The Mass Tresspass of 1932, passed;

It failed to un-enclose this precious tract;

Without an order, no one could wander;

Near treason during the nesting season;

A shameful act, no rhyme nor reason.

To those who walk the ancient paths;

'Get out!' - a cotton magnate shouts;

In annoyance for the trespassing louts;

Who walk on 'his' ground;

And disturb 'his' grouse.

In the end, these stalwart men;

Failed to reach the plateau, then;

There was no trespass, only the bravest stance;

With some veering from the permitted path;

Leaders rounded up, made an example of;

And taken away to prison.

Sue Cartwright

Spiral Leaf