Song View

This is not a mere folk song, but a song of struggle and protest. The organized, mass trespassing, beginning in March 1932 in Derbyshire County, was a protest against the strict British laws that criminalized this act as trespassing. In England and Wales, there was no general right of public access to nature (the "everyman's right," unlike, for example, in Scandinavia). Open land was privately owned by a few large landowners and almost exclusively reserved for hunting, meaning that trespassing was potentially a criminal offense. Ewan MacColl wrote the song directly within the political climate of this conflict; therefore, there is no public record of its publication or registration. It became the anthem of this movement. The "Mass Trespass" did not lead to immediate, but long-term, reforms, beginning in 1949 and continuing until 2000.