Birth of the access movement
Although Wordsworth is usually credited with popularising the practice of walking for pleasure, with his Guide to the Lake District (1810) ramblers from the industrial towns had already begun visiting the countryside. Walking as a recreation goes back a long way when the freedom to walk in the countryside was generally unrestricted.

As people moved from country to town they took the habit of country walking into the urban areas with them. Many were illiterate factory workers who, despite long hours and appalling poverty found time and opportunities to explore the countryside around their homes. Many of them belonged to botanical societies (the first in Eccles was established in 1777).

This increase in the use of footpaths; the changing ideas about privacy and living patterns of the aristocracy; and the obsession with game and fear of poachers led many landowners to deliberately stop up highways and restrict access to open moorland - land where public access had been formerly tolerated.

In Scotland, during the Highland clearances, thousands were evicted as revenue from sheep rearing proved more profitable than the rents from local people. As sheep were followed by game and the land preserved for shooting, so changed the attitudes of landowners towards access. 

This closure of footpaths, the enclosure of commons and manorial wastes and the harsh administration of the game laws provoked bitter complaints. The centuries-old right of free access was rapidly being eroded. It was under these conditions that the access movement was born.

Early associations and societies
In 1823 the first Mechanics Institute was set up. They provided education for working class people, and helped foster an interest in the countryside. By 1856 there were about 800 Institutes.

In 1824 the Association for the Protection of Ancient Footpaths in the Vicinity of York was established, the first known footpath preservation society.

 In 1826 the Manchester Association for the Preservation of Ancient Footpaths was formed.

In 1833 a Government Select Committee was appointed to consider the best means of securing open spaces in the vicinity of populous towns. Its report was acted upon until 1841 when £10,000 was given for the provision of public walks and paths.

In 1845 the Edinburgh Society (later known as the Scottish Rights of Way Society) was formed for 'protecting the public against being robbed of its walks by private cunning and perseverance'.

In 1865 the Commons Preservation Society (now known as the Open Spaces Society) was created to fight for the open spaces in London and eventually ended up campaigning for access to common land throughout the whole of the country.

First rambling clubs
In 1879 one of the earliest known rambling clubs, the Sunday Tramps, was formed, made up largely of writers, lawyers and philosophers. 

Also in 1879 the Commons Preservation Society secured amendments to the Thirlmere Bill that protected access to the mountains and fells surrounding Lake Thirlmere which was to be made into a reservoir.

In 1884 the Forest Ramblers, the oldest rambling club still in existance, was founded. It was soon joined by, amongst others, the Polytechnic Rambling Club (1885) and the Morley College Rambling Club (also founded in 1880s).

Also in 1884 the first Access to Mountains (Scotland) Bill was introduced in Parliament by James Bryce. This was quickly dismissed, but was followed by a whole series of Access to Mountains bills. One in particular in 1892 got as far as a second reading in the House of Commons, but the General Election a month later pevented the Bill from getting any further.

In 1892 the West of Scotland Ramblers Alliance was formed.

Also in 1892 Birmingham Corporation introduced a bill to enable them to purchase some 50 square miles of common land at the head of the rivers Elan and Clairwaen in Mid Wales. The Commons Society again secured amenments giving the public a right to roam over the area.

In 1893 the Co-operative Holidays Association (known as the CHA) was set up by the Rev T A Leonard. a Congregational Minister from Lancaster. Its aim was to provide recreational and educational holidays and introduced many people to walking holidays.

1894 saw the formation of the Clarion Cycling Club and Paek & Northern Counties Footpath Preservation Society.

In 1895 the the National Trust was formed.

In 1900 the Clarion Rambling Club was founded in Sheffield by G H B Ward.

On the 16th March 1905 the first Federation of Rambling Clubs was formed in London.  The objectives of the Federation were to maintain ramblers' rights and privileges, secure more favourable travelling concessions and cheap fares for ramblers, and generally to protect the interests of ramblers.

In 1913 the Rev T A Leonard resigned from the CHA to form a new organisation, the Holiday Fellowship. By 1926 there were some 150 CHA and HF groups.

In 1919 the the Manchester Rambling Council was formed, followed by the Liverpool and District Federation in 1922, and the Sheffield and District Federation in 1926. The original Federation of Rambling Clubs became the Southern Federation.

Many other federations were formed throughout the 1920s and 1930s, which were a period of unprecedented protests and demonstrations in support of access to the hills. Access rallies took place in many parts of the country. Clashes between ramblers and gamekeepers were a regular occurence. Although spring guns were dclared illegal in 1827, some landowners continued to use them as man traps. There are many authenticated records of ramblers being injured by such traps and assaulted by gamekeepers well into the 1950s. For many, the trespass signs that appeared gave the presumption that the trespass must have some attraction and so ramblers continued to trespass in spite of the attempts by landowners to stop them.

The Law of Property Act 1922 introduced provisions for a right of public access to certain commons (chiefly those in or close to urban areas, amounting to about one fifth of all common land), and a requirement for ministerial consent to works that prevented or impeded access on all commons which remained subject to rights of common at that time. 

In 1926 the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE) was founded. 

In 1927 moves to link the federations into a national organisation began with Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield, which organised a countryside and foot path conference at Hope, Derbyshire.

Following the success of this conference it was decided to include other countryside groups. The first such conference in 1928 included representatives from the National Trust, CPRE, the Federation of Rambling Clubs, the Peak & Northern Counties Footpath Preservation Society, the Commons Preservation Society and the Leicestershire Footpaths Association. Stephen Morton, from the Sheffield Federation, concluded from the meeting that the only way the campaign for public access could be advanced was by an organistion made up solely of ramblers' federations. There were too many clashing interests for it to work any other way.

In the 1930s the water authorities were as rigorous as the sporting interests in their prohibition of walkers on moors. The water authorities took the view that they had a statutory duty to provide pure and wholesome water, and they had to take all possible steps to prevent pollution and that meant restricting access to the water catchment areas as well as to the land immediately around the reservoirs for fear that ramblers would pollute the waters.

In 1931 the Addison Report recommended recommended a system of national reserves and nature reserves and in the spring of the same year the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) was formed.

The Ramblers' Association came into being
In September 1931 at a historic meeting at Longshaw in the Peak District a resolution, proposed by G H B Ward from the Sheffield & District Ramblers' Federation, was passed that a National Council of Ramblers' Federations be formed.

On the 24th April 1932 the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass took place. It led to the imprisonment of its leaders with sentences of between 2 and 6 months. Kinder Scout and adjacent moorland had been enclosed in 1830 when public access was lost. The National Council of Ramblers' Federations opposed the mass trespass fearing it would set back the negotiations for access legislation.

In 1933 the first Ramblers diary was produced and the first national catering list. This eventually became the Bed and Breakfast guide. 

On the 30th September 1934 at its annual meeting at Whytegates Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon the National Council of Ramblers' Federations voted to change its name to The Ramblers' Association (RA) to come into effect from the 1st January 1935. It had almost 1,200 individual members and over 300 affiliated rambling clubs (Manchester Federation did not join the RA until 1939). The RA immediately began lobbying for access to the hills, as well as for long distance paths, national parks and better protection for public rights of way.

In 1938 the first RA office was set up in Liverpool with financial help from Merseyside Youth hostels Limited.

1938 also saw the introduction of Arthur Creech-Jones' Access to Mountains Bill, based on Bryce's 1884 bill. After it was given a second reading, at which stage it was heavily amended by MPs symthapetic to landowners, it became nothing more than a landowners' protection bill, by providing only cumbersome machinery to secure access to particular areas and a traspass clause that made trespass in certain cases a criminal offence. The RA's wholehearted support turned to outright opposition, but unfortunately the bill did reach the statute book as the Access to Mountains Act 1939. In practice, though, it was never used and was eventually repealed by the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act.

The Second World War 1939 -1945
The Ramblers' executive set up an emergency committee which continued the work of the RA during the war. In January 1940 an edition of the Ramblers' Association News carried an appeal from its chairman, Alex McIntosh, saying "there must be no blackout in the RA". In the same issue, a letter from Lord Woolton, director general of the Ministry of Supply, stated "I think it is of great importance that organisations such as these continue during the wartime and make all the fun and happiness they can". 5,000 copies of a leaflet "walking in war-time" were distributed by the RA. It gave advice on precautions to take, such as carrying identity cards and finishing walks before nightfall. 

During the war and in the immediate post-war period the RA accepted that cross-field footpaths could be ploughed up or diverted.

In 1941 the Government began making plans for peace-time legislation on countryside matters to which the Ramblers' submitted a lengthy memorandum entitled "Proposed post-war Country and Town Planning". This suggested an administrative framework for national parks and the establishment of long-distance routes such as the Pennine Way.

In 1943 Tom Stephenson was elected to the Ramblers' executive committee.

In 1944 the British Mountineering Council was formed.

In 1945 the John Dower Report on National Parks on England & Wales was the first Government document to make specific, positive recommendations for national parks and access to the countryside. In the same year the National Parks Committee, chaired by Arthur Hobhouse, was set up to consider the recommendations of the John Dower Report and the RA office moved to London.

The immediate post-war years
In 1946 the Central Advisory Water Committee set up a Gathering Grounds sub-committee to investigate the question of whether the public should be allowed access to gathering grounds owned or controlled by water undertakers and the extent to which it was desirable that afforestation and agriculture should be permitted. Their report published in 1946 vindicated the RA's case against restriction. It said that "subject to reasonable safeguards, the gathering grounds should be so managed as to make the maximum contribution to the general welfare by providing facilities for healthy recreation and the production of food and timber." They would prohibit bathing and only allow boating, fishing or access to the banks under a system of control, but they could see no justification on grounds of water purity for prohibiting access by walkers, cyclists or motorists to the remainder of the gathering grounds. This report did not stop many water corporations from restricting access and opposing the proposed route of the Pennine Way.

Also in 1946 the Ramblers' national council adopted a motion in favour of founding Ramblers' Association Services (RAS). This new organisation developed into one of the leading travel organisations in the country. From 1947 RAS has made a major contribution towards the financing of the RA. 

Areas replaced Federations
In 1948 the Ramblers' Association underwent a fundamental restructuring. At an extraordinary meeting of National Council it was agreed that subscriptions should be substantially increased and paid direct to the central organisation instead of the local one. This was to enable the organisation to support a paid member of staff. And the old federal image changed into a more unitary, national one with the introduction of the term "Area" to replace the old "Federation". The Southern Federation thus became the Southern Area.

Campaign successes
Also in 1948 Tom Stephenson became the first full-time secretary of the RA. (It did not become a salaried position until 1952.) Tom played an integral part in pursuading the Labour Government of the importance of countryside legislation. He was responsible with Hugh Dalton (then the RA's president) for the gathering of Labour MPs, including Barbara Castle, for a ramble - which was to become an annual event - on the Pennine Way.

The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, whilst it did not go as far as the RA wanted on access, was hailed as a very important piece of countryside legislation. It established the process for making access agreements to specific areas of open country; provided for the creation of national parks; provided that all rights of way be surveyed and recorded on definitive maps; and paved the way for the creation of long-distance footpaths. The first access agreement to be made was to Kinder Scout. 

In 1958 a Royal Commission recommended that all commons should be registered and that the public be given a right of access to all common land.

In the 1960s the Ordnance Survey (OS) began to mark all rights-of-way on their maps. However, the slow rate that definitive maps were produced meant that the OS was equally slow at putting the recommendations into practice. Three types of maps eventually came into existance: Landranger (1:50,000), the Pathfinder (1:25,000) and the Outdoor Leisure (1:25,000). The latter two contained the most detail, including field boundaries. The RA fought a hard battle in the 1970s to save the Pathfinder map from being withdrawn. The Pathfinder series was completed in 1989.

In 1965 the Pennine Way officially opened as the first long-distance footpath, 30 years after it was proposed by Tom Stephenson.

The Common Registration Act 1965 provided for the recording of all common land.

Also in 1965 the Ramblers' Association Scottish Area was established (it became the Ramblers' Association Scotland in 1981). 

The 1968 Countryside Act, amongst other things, gave county councils in England and Wales the specific duty of signposting all rights of way. It also gave cyclists the right to ride on bridleways.

In the 1970s the RA was the first to criticise the tax concessions that led to the increase of conifer afforestation in the Scottish and English uplands. (The tax concessions were abolished in 1988.)

The Water Act 1973 made it a duty for every water authority and all other statutory water undertakers to make provision for the use of water and land associated with water for the purposes of recreation.

In 1974 the Ramblers' Association Welsh Council was established.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 made amendments to definitive map procedures and introduced legislation about the pasturing of bulls in fields crossed by public rights of way. 

In 1985 the RA celebrated its 50th anniversary and a membership of 44,000 - 50,000 by the end of the year. 

In 1988-89 the RA campaigned strongly against the privatisation of the Water Authorities, fearing the loss of access to the half million acres of water gathering grounds. The RA can be credited with gaining some amendments to the Bill, eg the new water undertakers must "have regard to the desirability of preserving for the public any freedom of access to woodland, mountains, moors, heath..." The future sale of any water authority land had to be agreed by the Secretary of State and conservation bodies had to  be given first refusal.

In September 1989 the Countryside Commission published the results of its survey on public rights of way. It revealed that walkers had only a one in three chance of completing a walk of two miles or more without coming across an obstruction. It set targets for opening up the network.

In 1990 the Government White Paper "This Common Inheritance" endorsed the Countryside Commission's target of having the full 140,000-mile rights of way network legally defined, properly maintained and kept free from obstruction and well publicised by the year 2000.

In June 1990 RA Scotland played a major role in the successful campaign against further downhill ski development in Lurcher's Gully in the Cairngorms.

The RA also played a major role in the securing of the Rights of Way Act 1990, which gave greater enforcement powers to local authorities dealing with the illegal ploughing and cropping of footpaths.

The year 2000 saw one of the biggest milestones in Ramblers' Association history after many decades of campaining, with the passing of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 granting freedom to roam in open countryside in England and Wales.

There was more to cheer about in 2003 with the passing of the Land Reform Act, which gave Scotland the most progressive access regime in Europe by granting statutory access rights to almost all land.

Finally, at the end of 2009, 75 years of campaigning came to an end as the Marine and Coastal Access Bill became law, opening up the entire English coastline to the public.

Formation of Inner London Area and Groups 
As the individual membership of the Ramblers' Association grew from strength it became apparent that the Southern Area would need to split and in 1962 Dorset, Hants and the Isle of Wight were 'hived off' in a separate Area, followed by Norfolk in 1974, Cambridgeshire in 1975, Sussex in 1976 and Oxfordshire in 1977. On the 30th September 1984 the Southern Area was dissolved completely into eight new Areas - Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and West Middlesex, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, London and Surrey. The London Area, which covered Inner London, was later renamed the Inner London Area.

During the course of its existance the Southern Area had formed a number of Groups to cater for individual members of the Ramblers' Association living within its area and the 36 Groups which existed at its dissolution were allocated to the new Areas in accordance with their geographical location.

As there were no existing Groups within the Inner London Area the Blackheath Group was formed south of the Thames and the Hampstead Group north of the Thames, soon to be followed by a further four Groups based on geographical areas and, more recently, by the Metropolitan Walkers targetted at younger members in their 20s and 30s. In addition to the Groups, there are currently some 17 rambling clubs affiliated to the Inner London Area, of which the Forest Ramblers' Club, the Polytechnic Rambling Club and the Morley College Rambling Club were founder members of the Federation of Rambling Clubs.

For further information about the Inner London Area's Groups and affiliated clubs click here.