Ramblers - Sheffield, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 22.828 W 001° 28.204
30U E 601766 N 5915686
This plaque at the left hand side of the Sheffield Town Hall entrance was erected in 2000 to celebrate ramblers who protested for access to nearby hillsides in the 1930s.
Waymark Code: WMZBR6
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/15/2018
Views: 2
As a result of the campaigns which included mass trespasses on what was then private land, The Peak District National Park was created in 1951. This was the UK's first National Park and gave access to large areas of hillsides not far from Sheffield. Further National Parks were later created.
Although access to the hillsides became widely available in most places this was restricted to designated public footpaths.
The plaque was erected in 2000 because a new law was enacted (The Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act 2000) in that year that gave even greater access to open countryside throughout the UK.
The following is an extract from a website that has details of a walk through Sheffield highlighting various historical sites and terminating at the site of this plaque.
"The Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act 2000
was implemented in 2004, and finally gave ramblers
the right to roam. The plaque to the left of the main
entrance to Sheffield Town Hall was made by Doug
Hewitt and erected in celebration of the act. The
image is based on photographs taken in the 1930s at
large rallies of ramblers in the Winnats Pass and Cave
Dale near Castleton. The central figure is our friend
GHB Ward himself – the leader of Sheffield Clarion
Ramblers we met earlier on. More than 120 years
since it had first been demanded in parliament, public
access to all our mountains and moorland was granted
to everyone."
link
TO COMMEMORATE ALL RAMBLERS
WHO CAMPAIGNED FOR NATIONAL PARKS
AND PUBLIC ACCESS TO MOUNTAINS
AND MOORLAND YEAR 2000