Terry Howard, veteran rambler and lifetime campaigner for the right-to-roam, talks to Dan Sumption of Peakrill Press about his lifetime spent walking around Sheffield and the Peak District, and about the forthcoming new edition of his A Moorland Notebook, first published in 1992.
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Daniel Sumption: Welcome to the Peakrill podcast. I'm Daniel Sumption of Peakrill Press and today I have a very special guest, Terry Howard. For over 60 years Terry has been leading rambles through Sheffield and the Peak District, inspiring generations of walkers to explore these wild and historic landscapes. But he's not just a guide, he's also a lifelong campaigner for public access to the countryside. Terry's dedication to getting access to the private moorlands around Sheffield was instrumental in leading to the 2000 Countryside and Rights of Way Act, which opened up vast areas of England and Wales to the public to roam for the first time in centuries. In this interview we discuss Terry's decades of walking and activism, the inspiration behind his work and his 1992 book A Moorland Notebook, a key part of the campaign for countryside access, which is now being crowdfunded for a new edition by Terry and Peakrill Press. Links to the crowdfunding campaign and to Terry's earlier book An Inner City Round Walk of Sheffield can be found in the show notes at audio.peakrill.com. Now on with the interview.
Hello Terry.
Terry Howard: Right, hello there.
DS: I'll start saying a bit about how we know each other. I realised that I first met you 40 years ago this year.
TH: Yeah.
DS: I was 16 and you took me and a load of my mates up on a mountain in Wales.
TH: That's right I remember it clearly.
DS: Yeah?
TH: Yep.
DS: And We all slept on top of the mountain in bivvy bags. I think, was it raining as well?
TH: Well there were one walk that does come to mind. It was near Tryfan where the weather turned absolutely vile and we had to sleep out that night.
DS: Yeah.
TH: And there were just one rock, a bit of a lean-to. So we got everyone bedded down for the night, you know, and it was a terrible night. Anyway, fortunately the following day were much clearer. Then we continued with the walk, we were heading for Tryfan. There we met another group. Some people walked down with the other group, back down to the bottom of the mountain, whereas a few of us continued up onto Tryfan. So we conquered that.
DS: Yep.
TH: And then we went down back to camp.
DS: Yeah. And then err… well, I ended up marrying your daughter after that. So you're my father-in-law. But actually I met you before I met her.
TH: Yeah.
DS: A couple of years before.
TH: Yeah.
DS: And you've been kind of leading walks pretty much most of your life I think, haven't you?
TH: Well, yeah. From being a kid in the woodcraft folk, for whatever reason, I was trusted at 15 year old to, err, take kids over the moors,
DS: Right.
TH: Which I did do. Fortunately, I did have map reading skills that my dad taught me. I remember sitting on the carpet in front of the fire with a compass and a map, and going through procedures and all like that.
DS: Yeah.
TH: And it stuck.
DS: You didn't lose any kids on the way?
TH: I've never, ever lost anybody. The only one anecdotal thing that happened, and it wasn't all that long ago. It were snowing. It were a heavy snow. I led a walk on very familiar ground, but because you couldn't see the paths, I had to rely on what I thought were going in the right direction. Anyway, I wandered through the snow, through the blizzard, and we got to what I thought should have been the path. Anyway, the path weren't there. So I got the compass out just to check, and… I'm sure my compass is wrong. Fortunately, somebody had a sat-nav.
DS: Yeah.
TH: And they confirmed that the North, which I wanted, were opposite way that we were going. So it were just a simple matter of turning around, retracing steps, only for a few meters. And we were okay. But it's simple things like that that can throw you.
DS: Yeah, I think people don't realize how dangerous it can be.
TH: Oh Absolutely. If it weren't for this person with the sat nav, I may have continued going the wrong way. But anyway, that… I'm not advocating sat navs. A good compass, you can't beat it, but you've got to trust it.
DS: Yeah. And you've also been really involved in the campaigning for access, the right-to-roam, and access to the countryside, for pretty much all your life as well?
TH: Well, again, as a kid, I remember, only a small kid, I remember my dad taking me and my brother on to Wharncliffe Chase. At that time, it were private, keep off. Anyway, we saw something in the distance on this moor that we wanted to have a look at. So we climbed up a wall. We actually crept through all’t undergrowth just to see what this thing was. And it were a notice, and it said private keep off, you know. So it were from then on I thought, you know, this is not right. This was not long after Second World War as well, early fifties. And, you know, to think that my dad fought for the freedom in this country and, on his return, within a few years, he were told he couldn't go on the land that he were fighting for. So, you know, that galled on me, and it still does to this day. So that's how I got into it. But I've always had this urge, you know, “what's that in the distance? I must go and have a look”. And more often than not it were on private moorland, so you were ducking and diving, going over moorlands. You didn't want to be seen by keepers, because some of keepers were nasty pieces of work. I've been confronted a few times, but we've always left in high spirits, you know, because I think some game keepers were reasonable, but they couldn't see beyond their own job, you know, keeping people off. But, you know, I've never got into any real complex situations.
DS: You said that on some of your trespass walks, you would, kind of, inform the gamekeepers beforehand of where you were going.
TH: Yeah, well, one of the best ways I suppose… these landowners thought, you know, “forget about them and they'll go away and, you know, we’ll be back to normal again as well”, you know, private moorland. Well, we weren't having that, you know, we kept on going. But to raise profile amongst the landowners themselves, we said… we told them beforehand, “we're going on’t moor. We want to have a look at such and such a thing. Why don't you join us?” They never did like, but they always came back and said, “have a good walk, enjoy your walk”, and all like that. To them, it were like giving permission, but they knew it weren't. They were just hoping that we'd go away. Well, we didn't go away. We kept on going. We kept on going. In fact, there were one of landowners we got to know quite well, we even called let his house one day and he invited us in and we had a cup of coffee and a chat and all like that. So some of the landowners weren't all that bad. It were more the keepers in some case. But then again, for them, it were all jobsworth, it’s what they had to do.
DS: The Kinder Mass Trespass of 1932 has always been an inspiration to you. Is that right?
TH: Well, this is it, again at Woodcroft, as a little kid, our leader, Basil Rawson, his Woodcroft name was Brown Eagle. He always told us the story of the Kinder Trespass. And it were fascinating to hear about it and to learn and to try and understand why people couldn't actually walk on’t moors or walk on Kinder Scout. At that time you could, this was in 1950s. But Kinder itself was a challenge. To us it were like going up Mount Everest or something like that. I can remember my first day on Kinder, walking up, or climbing up a waterfall to get to the top. I'd were always reluctant, you know, “what's on top? What's it going to be like?” Anyway, we emerged on’t top and it were completely flat, peat, and you could see for miles, it were a fantastic experience. So I could understand why people even now still want to get onto kinder.
DS: And would that have been trespassing in those days?
TH: When we did it in 50s, no. But before that, it was. I think it wasn't until the National Park Act in 1949 that you could legally go on. Because access agreements were made to go on places like Kinder Scout, on what at that time, we were National Trust land. But the private moorlands were still “private, keep off”, barbed wire fences.
DS: And am I right in thinking that in 1982, with the 50th anniversary of the Mass Trespass, things stepped up a bit with the campaigning work?
TH: Well, yeah, it were an odd time, 1982. Somebody picked… well, there were a member of Ramblers who wrote in’t Star, in’t local paper, “what is Sheffield doing about the Kinder Trespass? The anniversary”. And two young fellas got together and organised a trespass on Bamford Moor, which is just on count boundary at Moscar. And to their surprise, and to everybody else's surprise, there was something like 200 people turned out. And it showed to them, and to everyone else, that there was still this demand for access to open country. We walked over onto Bamford Edge. We had a fantastic walk, really enjoyable. The keepers and t‘landowner kept us out of the way. In fact, they even kept gate open so we could walk through without climbing over it. They thought we'd go away, but we didn't. We agreed after to set up a group called “Sheffield Campaign for Access to Moorland” [SCAM]. And then that were it, we organised trespasses every month or two on pieces of moor that you couldn't go on. But to me, just having access, for the sake of access weren't enough. It weren't good enough. And that's why I started leading some o’t trespass walks to places of interest that people wouldn't normally be allowed to see. So they became voyages of exploration, you know, on these forbidden moorlands. Fortunately, now we can all visit them. So that was how I got involved with it. And it was well worth it. I did join the Ramblers during that time. Because we were active in Sheffield, the Ramblers from London office would organise other events up and down the country, but they always came to Sheffield, and all these trespasses, because we were the only group at the time that would, you know, step out of line and support these campaigns. So we became the foot soldiers, if you like, of the Access Campaign in the early 80s.
DS: And then did that feed directly into getting more access in the 2000s?
TH: Absolutely, because the person that Ramblers employed, he started lobbying Labour MPs. And he got quite a lot of support from several of them, who in turn would lobby in Parliament. And it was when Tony Blair became Prime Minister, again, the lobbying continued. And it were once said, I don't know how true it is, but they reckon Prescott, you know, the..
DS: Deputy Prime Minister
TH: …the Deputy Prime Minister, actually did influence Tony Blair. Many Labour MPs supported it. And one of them put a Private Members Bill in that got its third reading. But I can remember on the day, in the year 2000.
DS: This is the Countryside and Rights of Way [CRoW] Act?.
TH: Yeah, when a group of us went up onto t’Moors at Midhope, with transistor radios, it were the day of the Queen's speech, in November, and we were stood there and all transistor radios came out and listening to Queen's speech. She said “my government will create a right-to-roam” and stuff like that. And that were it, you know, rucksacks open and champagne came out and they were celebrating on Moors.
DS: Brilliant.
TH: So yeah, it were a very special moment that.
DS: It's very different up there now in that you can roam across a lot of those Moors..
TH: Well, you can do, yeah, but success, we've seen it recently, that success is bringing a few other problems like overuse, erosion, plus, you know, climate change and stuff like that are all adding to t’problems. So, I know National Trust and others are doing their best to try and improve moorland as well as, well… not just improve it, but get it back to like it used to be in the distant past. So, interesting, but there's still problems.
DS: Yeah, and there's still a difference between England and Wales and Scotland, isn't there?
TH: Well, yeah, well: England and Wales, you know, we've got the right-to-roam through CRoW Act. In Scotland. I think it were a human right to wander at will, similar to that in Scandinavia. Well, we want that. We would have liked it to be the same as in Scandinavia.
DS: Yeah.
TH: But in many ways, the Countryside and Rights of Way act was a compromise, because within that right-to-roam bill, conservation were also added to it to get it through parliament much easier. Well, we've got everything, but not quite everything. There are still places of access that could have been included in the right-to-roam, access to all woodland, mature woodland. There are still pockets of Moorland that you can't walk on. You know, it's still private. Anyway we keep trying, but I think really it's up to t’younger people to try.
DS: Yeah. In that period in the 80s and 90s, when you were campaigning with Sheffield Campaign for Access to Moorland, that's when you put together your Moorland Notebook, which we're now updating.
TH: Yeah. Well, we were doing all these things, we were discovering all these things, to me it were absolutely fascinating. And then just one day, you know, seeing all this, done all that. So what? What am I doing about it? And I felt I had to put pen to paper and just write it down. Because, as far as I know, there's nothing else, or there weren't anything else at the time. So we did that. Having said that, there were a rambler who started Clarion Ramblers up in 1900. He was one who did his trespassing, did his exploring, did his writing, his publishing, and it were through his publishing little booklets called Clarion Ramblers Handbooks that's absolutely jam-packed full of information from those early days. And they themselves became sources of inspiration. But I can remember shortly before he died, he made a note…
DS: This is GHB Ward.
TH: Yeah, GHB Ward, …about carrying this on. “I hope somebody would carry that on”. Well, nobody did do at that time. And that's another reason why I wanted to contribute or do something.
DS: Yeah. So you… you did carry it on eventually.
TH: Yeah.
DS: In, what was it, 1992 that that book came out?
TH: Yeah. Yeah.
DS: Say a bit about what's in it. So there are… there's some, like, trespass routes in there…
TH: Yeah.
DS: But there's also kind of… you're talking about the actual history of the rights-of-way and the enclosures and stuff like that.
TH: Yeah. It's just things that I felt I needed to put down, and to show the people what they can see, what they can explore, what they can learn. And… it's been fun. It's been exciting. But also it's been informative.
DS: Yeah.
TH: Even to this day, you can still go out on the moors and rediscover different things and all like that. It's not just so-called heritage, you know. You're finding out about people who lived in the past. And, well, I find it particularly interesting.
DS: Yeah. There's also some of that, that you've, kind of, documented being destroyed, like T’Owd Woman Stone at Bamford?.
TH: Oh yeah. Yeah.
DS: That the, what was it, the gamekeepers have destroyed, kind of, markers and things like that?
TH: Yeah. It were G.H.B. Ward who picked up on this because the big standing stone in the middle of Bamford Moor, private moorland, but ramblers would always use that stone as a marker of going across moors. Now, one year it were there, following year it had gone. Holes were drilled in t’bottom and it were felled. So, you know, an ancient way marker, which it was an ancient standing stone. Yeah.
DS: Was it several thousand years?
TH: Yeah. It's got to be, nearly, we're talking about 5,000 years or something like that. And just within an hour or two, down.
DS: Yeah.
TH: But there's also been other acts of vandalism by landowners or their gamekeepers. Another one, Moscar Cross.
DS: Yeah. You've been looking at the roadside crosses or the moorland crosses and stuff.
TH: But this one we were particularly interested in. Because you looked on your map, it said “New Cross”, but all private moorland. What's a cross doing in’t middle o’t moorland? There's no obvious paths or tracks. I remember going out and looking for it, and discovering it. And there were part of shaft, it were wayside crossing. It might have been on an ancient burial road, it probably would have been. And there were a big piece of shaft stuck in top. Anyway, following week or week after, you'd look across moors and that shaft's gone. So you'd go over t’moor. You'd find it and you’d put it back in. And this went on for a year or two. Ramblers were putting t’shaft back. Gamekeepers were taking it down. And one year I went up to put the shaft back and it had gone. Now, it were a big piece of stone. There's no rambler going to stick that in their rucksack and take it home. It had to be taken away with one of these little buggy things, you know. Anyway, a small stone were put in in its place, you know. And on that cross was… it looked like a sword carved into t’bottom. Or was it another cross? We don't know. But there's still questions to be asked, and to find out about on the moors with things like that, you know.
DS: And aren't you writing another book about that at the moment?
TH: We're going through, we've gone through all crosses, the wayside crosses, probabale burial roads around Ecclesfield, Sheffield and Bradfield: all that area was known as Hallamshire. So it's all those crosses in that area. But there's only a handful left because they were all damaged and vandalised during the Reformation.
DS: So how long back would those crosses go?
TH: Who knows? It could be pre-conquest.
DS: Right, so over a thousand years.
TH: Yeah, it could be pre-conquest. You know, the Catholic Church were adopted… the early English Church adopted Catholic ways, you know, in early days, from something like the 7th or 8th century, something like that.
DS: And those were, they were marking out burial routes where they carry the coffin across?
TH: That's what we believe. Although it's not properly recorded in this area. You'll find in Cornwall, North Yorkshire, in’t Lake District, they are marked as burial roads, you know. But what we have got, what we’ve started to find, you've got names of roads called Bury Lane or Burying Lane, you know, and things like that, which were corpse-ways. Yeah. And then you've got the Lich Gate, which means the way to church where a body were carried. So they had to be, you know, burial roads. They had to be.
DS: Yeah. And you're doing a lot of original research on this, right?
TH: Well, I believe it is original research. Many writers in t’past have mentioned wayside crosses. They don't go into detail on burial roads, although this suggests they may have been, but… some of them are claiming that all these crosses were marking boundaries. But research that we've done, the majority of crosses are not on boundaries. They're on the side of old trackways. So that suggests quite strongly that there were a religious way and it would have been a burial road.
DS: So you've got a book forthcoming on that at some point.
TH: Well, for that we're going to, we've got most of the text done.
DS: Yeah. You're writing that with someone else, is that right?
TH: Yeah. It's a joint book between myself and a chap called Nick who is, he's also dead keen on it.
DS: Yeah. So you've been writing that for like 40 odd years now? Putting together the research.
TH: The idea… you know, it must be 40 years ago. You know, and I kept collecting information and building it up and all like that. But it were when I met Nick, just over a year ago, that we discovered common ground, and he were keen on producing something. So…
DS: Yeah. And we're also putting together a new edition of your Moorland Notebook which, like I say, well, at the time was kind of all about trespass routes and places you couldn't go to. So why revisit that now 30… 33 years later?
TH: Well, we've moved on. Things have changed. And again, I think, try and put it more in context of today. It's what you feel now, how things are now, but in particular, not forgetting the past. And it's almost word-for-word as it were originally written, but more up to date.
DS: It's a modern context. You’ve talked about GHB Ward wanting to, kind of, pass the baton on, and I think you've been the one who's picked it up. Do you think it's time to, sort of, find a younger generation, to inspire them?
TH: Well, hopefully, yeah. I mean, the Clarion Ramblers handbooks that he wrote, there's no doubt about it. They are treasure. Even a late one done in’t 1950s, if you can find one, you can pay anything, 20-odd quid for one, a little book. If you can find one of around about 1907, you are talking about several hundred pounds. They are real collector's items and all original work that we can still draw on. The archaeologists nowadays are still using his researches. So, you know, it were that good.
DS: And a couple of years ago, we worked together on another of your books that you did in the 1990s, which was the Inner City Round Walk of Sheffield, which is quite a different thing. Instead of walking up on the moors, this is walking around the city centre pretty much, or the inner suburbs.
TH: A different experience, but at the same time, the Inner City Round Walk were taking people onto paths that you wouldn't normally walk on. And taking people into green open spaces within the city. They were little challenges and all like that, and even today, when I've led them, people are quite excited by them and all like that.
DS: What I especially liked about that book as well, it's not just telling you specific things to look at, it's more prompts. It's kind of guiding people to look for themselves and to make their own route.
TH: That's exactly it, yeah. It's get out there and look and, you know, there's lots of things that are surprises. We did something called a “Weird Walk” a few weeks ago. I led one walk around all t’local gennels in this area (they're known as ginnels in Leeds), but the alleyways between where I live at Crosspool going over to Fulwood and Bents Green on all these back alleys, which were great. Then the following week, one of the women I normally walk with, she did a similar one, but all the back alleys and gennels around River Sheaf, around Meersbrook and all like that. Again, fantastic, you know. She took us on gennels that were brand new, and some that I never knew existed. So you can still explore and discover, you know, on your doorstep. In fact I've lived here, I don't know, 40 years nearly, and it were only a couple of years ago, less than a quarter of a mile away, I discovered a new gennel that I never knew existed. So there's stuff there.
DS: Yeah, I mean, I've spoken to people who've done that Inner City Round Walk many times, and find new things every time, or look at things in a different way every time. What's nice is that the way it's written is deliberately to kind of inspire that.
TH: Oh, good. Yeah.
DS: Yeah. Well, thanks, Terry. That's been great.
TH: That's all right, no, my pleasure.
DS: We're looking forward to the new edition of the Moorland Notebook.
TH: Absolutely. Absolutely.
DS: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Peakrill podcast with Terry Howard. If you've been inspired by our conversation and want to help bring A Moorland Notebook back into print, you can support the crowdfunding campaign now. You'll find a link to the Kickstarter in the show notes, and every pledge helps to make this new edition a reality.
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with fellow walkers and lovers of the great outdoors. And if you haven't already, then please do check out Terry's Inner City Round Walk of Sheffield, which is also linked in the show notes, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts or on audio.peakrill.com.
See you next time and, until then, happy rambling!