For questions 1-15 read the text about the British Footpath Sign. Use the root of the words given with the relevant number to form a word that fits the space. -- Public Footpath Sign - 20th Century On 24 April 1932, hundreds of ramblers travelled from Manchester to Sheffield to take part in one of the countryside’s most important acts of civil .......... (1. OBEDIENT). They were headed for Kinder Scout, an area of moorland in the Peak District, with one goal in mind. Trespass. Writing about it later in his life, political activist and rally leader Benny Rothman remembered this .......... (2. PECULIAR) British of demonstrations: „There were hundreds of young men and women, lads and girls, in their picturesque rambling gear: shorts of every .......... (3. LONG) and colour, flannels and breeches, even overalls, vivid colours and drab khaki (…) multicoloured sweaters and pullovers, army packs and rucksacks of every size and shape.’ For all its Blyton-esque .......... (4. TONE), the protest meant business. It sought to highlight the frustrations of walkers who were being denied access to the open countryside. Since the late 1800s, there had been a swell in the numbers of ramblers and cycling groups, many of whom were factory workers from inner cities. They wanted to escape the pollution and overcrowding for a few hours at the weekend, often combining exercise and escape with overt political purpose. Their visits, however, were often .......... (5. WELCOME). Ramblers clashed with local landowners who had ring-fenced large areas of moorland for grouse shooting and employed gamekeepers to prevent public access. For some, the right to ramble was part of a wider political sentiment. Writing about people being chased from Kinder Scout by wardens and their dogs, the Communist Party of Great Britain branded the situation unjust and ’an object lesson in elementary politics’. The Kinder Scout mass trespass ended in violent clashes and the arrest of six protestors, including rally leader Benny Rothman. Speaking at his trial, Rothman made an .......... (6. PASSION) plea. It was not, he claimed, unreasonable for working-class people to be allowed access to all peaks and .......... (7. CULTIVATE) moorland: ’We ramblers, after a hard week’s work, in smoky towns and cities, go out rambling on weekends for relaxation, for a breath of fresh air, and for a little sunshine. And we find, when we go out, that the finest rambling country is closed to us. Because certain individuals wish to shoot for about ten days per annum, we are forced to walk on muddy crowded paths, and denied the pleasure of enjoying, to the utmost, the countryside.’ The harsh sentences handed out to the six protestors .......... (8. RAGE) the nation and only served to .......... (9. POPULAR) the ’right to roam’ cause. Just a few weeks later, ten thousand protestors gathered at a second location in the Peak District, Winnats pass, for the largest gathering of walkers in rambling history. Three years later, in 1935, the Ramblers Association (now simply known as Ramblers) was formed and the right-to-roam movement quickly gathered momentum. In 1949, it was .......... (10. PIVOT) in securing the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, which led to the .......... (11. ESTABLISH) of National Trails, long-distance public footpaths such as the well-trodden Cleveland Way and Coast to Coast route. It also brought about the countryside’s first National Parks, of which there are now ten in England, three in Wales and two in Scotland. From the dramatic peaks of Snowdonia to the golden Pembrokeshire coast, the .......... (12. GENTLE) rolling South Downs to the vast, snow-topped Cairngorms, almost every type of countryside is represented and protected by the National Parks. The Act also required that every country council must create and maintain a ’definitive map’ of all public rights of way, including footpaths. Many of the countryside’s walkways had been in use for hundreds if not thousands of years, created by the constant toing and froing of people travelling to church, fields, market, woodland and neighbouring villages. While the rights to use these footpaths were rooted in ancient common law, until 1949 it was often difficult to prevent landowners diverting them or blocking them up entirely. Anyone attempting to oppose the closure of a footpath had to go to court, an .......... (13. EXPENSIVE) too great for most countryside folk. The creation of a ’definitive map’ was a landmark moment in the history of access and .......... (14. LEGAL) recognised approximately a hundred and forty thousand miles of public rights of way in England and Wales. (There is no definitive map for Scotland but a record is maintained by the Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society.) Viewed by many as the public’s ’title deeds’ to its rural rights of way, the .......... (15. SHRINE) of Britain’s ancient paths meant they could never again be closed on a whim.
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