Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.252
Object Name
Hat
Place
Kinder Scout, Derbyshire
People
Ewan MacColl, Young Communist League
Events
Kinder Scout Trespass
Date
1932
Description
This is a green wooly hat. There is a multi-coloured bobble on the top, and the top of the hat has orange, blue and yellow stripes, with the remainder of the hat being a dark green colour.
This is Ewan MacColl's walking hat, which may have been worn during the mass tresspass at Kinder Scout. MacColl was responsible for publicity in the planning of the trespass. The mass trespass of Kinder Scout which was a trespass by members of the Young Communist League. This was to highlight that walkers were denied access to areas of open country. According to the Hayfield Kinder Trespass Group website, this act of civil disobedience was one of the most successful in British history. It arguably led to the passage of the National Parks legislation in 1949 and helped pave way for the establishment of the Pennine Way and other long-distance footpaths. Walkers' rights to travel through common land and uncultivated upland were eventually protected by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CROW Act) of 2000. Though controversial when it occurred, it has been interpreted as the embodiment of "working class struggle for the right to roam versus the rights of the wealthy to have exclusive
use of moorlands for grouse shooting."
Ewan MacColl (birth name James Henry Miller) was a folk singer, writer, labour activist and actor. he is known as one of the instigators of the 1960s folk revival as well as for writing such songs as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." MacColl collected hundreds of traditional folk songs. He also wrote many left-wing political songs, remaining a communist throughout his life and engaging in left-wing political activism. He joined the Young Communist League and a socialist amateur theatre troupe, the Clarion Players. MacColl began his career as a writer. He was an activist in the unemployed workers' campaigns and the mass trespasses of the early 1930s. One of his best-known songs, "The Manchester Rambler", was written just before the pivotal mass trespass at Kinder Scout.
