Hayfield, Derbyshire home of the 1932 Kinder Trespass and, this April, the Trespass 94 Outdoors for All Festival of Music, Politics and Literature.
There is a village at the foot of Kinder Scout that keeps showing up in history.
Hayfield, Derbyshire. Population around 2,500. A mill town that became a gateway to the moors. On 24 April 1932, some around 400 walkers gathered here, laced up, and set off onto moorland that was not legally theirs to walk on. Gamekeepers turned some back. Six were arrested. Five went to prison.
They went anyway.
That act of deliberate, peaceful trespass set in motion a sequence of events that took nearly 70 years to reach its first milestone. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gave the public a legal right to roam over around three million acres of open land in England and Wales. It was a landmark. It was also incomplete. Some estimates cite 92% of England's land as remaining off-limits, 97% of its rivers closed to swimmers and paddlers.
Hayfield keeps coming back.
In 2021, swimmers gathered at Kinder Reservoir, the same landscape, the same argument, a new element: the right to swim. In 2023, around 500 swimmers gathered again. The banner read: Free Swimming. The trespass tradition had found its natural next chapter. Read more about why we have the right to swim.
This April, the Hayfield Kinder Trespass Group marks the 94th anniversary with the Outdoors for All Festival of Music, Politics and Literature: three days in Hayfield raising awareness of current campaigns to extend responsible access to land and water, urban and rural.
The weekend opens on Friday 24 April with travel writer Tom Chesshyre launching his new book, Wild Peaks: A Journey on Foot Through England's First National Park, at the Village Hall. Saturday brings a full day of stalls, talks, folk music and a mummers play on the Village Hall Green. Then on Sunday morning, walkers gather for a rally before following the original 1932 trespass route to Kinder Reservoir, with the opportunity for a swim. If you're heading into the water, our guides to wild swimming safety and layering for wild swimmers are worth a read beforehand.
We were proud to support Trespass 92 and in 2025 Tresspass 93. See you in Hayfield.
The Kinder Pledge
The Kinder Pledge is a statement of continuing intent, first written by trespass leader Benny Rothman in 1989 as the Rivington Pledge and updated at Trespass 92 in 2024 to reflect today's campaigns. Designed by the same artist as the original, it connects the 1932 walk to the present-day fight for access to land and water.
You can read and sign the pledge at kindertrespass.org.uk. Purchase your own copy and your name is included as a supporter.
Parking is extremely limited in Hayfield. Please travel by public transport where possible.
Read more about why we have the right to swim, find out where you can go wild swimming, and the history of the Kinder Mass Trespass.