North York Moors and Peak District light events to honour dark skies and Kinder Scout trespass 90th anniversary

It is nearly 90 years since the Kinder Scout mass trespass and a new project under ‘dark skies’ aims to foster a legion of custodians for our National Parks. John Blow reports.

When hundreds of ordinary people stepped on to the foothills of the Peak District’s Kinder Scout for their mass trespass in 1932, they could never have imagined how influential their collective rebellion would be to opening up such expanses of natural beauty for generations to come.

Now, arts organisations have taken inspiration from that pivotal event on its 90th anniversary year in the hope that a series of collaborative projects will help to foster a new army of custodians.

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Green Space Dark Skies, which begins on April 23 in the Peak District itself and goes on to various beauty spots nationwide will use the hues of dusk, specially-designed lighting and the stars as a backdrop to capturing the stories that people associate with National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

A composite picture made from 126 images of Rievaulx Abbey near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.A composite picture made from 126 images of Rievaulx Abbey near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.
A composite picture made from 126 images of Rievaulx Abbey near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.

Outdoor arts company Walk the Plank last week launched its recruitment drive, seeking people – who will be known as the Lumenators – from around the region to take part in the dusk-hour gatherings, which will choreographed, filmed and released online.

One such event will take place at a secret location in the North York Moors this summer at a date and time to be decided.

Participants are to walk along paths or waterways carrying geographically-programmed “smart lights” that are sensitive to the night-time environment to provide “beautiful digital choreography”.

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John Wassell, Walk the Plank co-founder, says that during the course of research they realised it would be the 90th anniversary year of the Kinder Scout trespass, so took inspiration from that, using it as a “starting point” for what they want to do.

The Kinder Scout trespass in 1932.The Kinder Scout trespass in 1932.
The Kinder Scout trespass in 1932.

“We’re really interested in, and putting resources into, identifying people who might not normally have access to the landscape for whatever reason – social, economic, cultural, because of a disability –and helping them get to and from those landscapes in the hope that they, having discovered that it is on their doorstep, that actually you can get from York or Stockton or Middlesbrough to these amazing places in the North York Moors National Park.

“It means that they may hopefully go back there and also along that journey. We’ll be talking to them about how you look after the landscape, how you care about it, and create better custodians for the future.”

He adds: “Green Space Dark Skies is about class and landscape, race and landscape, disability and landscape. We want to build more countryside stewards for the future, and to inspire more people to see the connection between their use and enjoyment of the land and our care for the planet.”

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John Packman, one of the National Parks CEOs leading the Parks for Everyone Delivery Plan in England, says the events are a “perfect fit with our mission”, adding: “We also think it’s very timely to explore the rights and responsibilities citizens have with respect to nature and landscapes – how to make that relationship as fruitful as possible.”

John Wassell, co-founder of Walk the Plank.John Wassell, co-founder of Walk the Plank.
John Wassell, co-founder of Walk the Plank.

The project is part of a wider programme, UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, a year-long celebration of artistic collaboration.

Salford-based Walk the Plank – which is celebrating its 30th anniversary and whose name comes from the fact that it used to operate on Europe’s first touring theatre ship – successfully bid (in a pool of 300) to be one of the 10 projects of UNBOXED.

The process began about 18 months ago, says Wassell, so getting to launch it is a big moment.

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He says: “It’s really exciting because we’ve spent the last six months travelling the length and breadth of the UK, finding our 20 sites, and then getting permission to use them.

“We’re now at that stage where we are able to start talking about recruiting the Lumenators, we’ve also got creatives for each of the sites, which includes a writer, a composer, a choreographer, etcetera. So there’s now teams all across four nations to start working on the projects.”

Twenty locations have been picked for the gatherings between April and September this year, including the Peak District, North York Moors, the Brecon Beacons, Cairngorms and Anglesey – and 20,000 participants are therefore needed.

The North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales were in 2020 officially designated as Dark Skies Reserves, meaning they will enjoy the protected status as a landscape which boasts “exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and nocturnal environment”, according to the International Dark-Sky Association. With this in mind, graduate engineers at Siemens have developed wireless, programmable low-impact lights especially for the project. They will be animated through geo-positioning, where the placement of each light can be known in relationship to the others.

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As well as developing the potential for such lighting technology to be used at future major outdoor events, the Green Space Dark Skies team is working with Dark Skies representatives in numerous locations to explore how the project might highlight issues around light pollution in towns, cities and rural landscapes to support wildlife to flourish.

“Whilst there is some irony in the fact we’re taking lights to those landscapes, we’re actually not doing it when it’s dark,” says Wassell. “The important thing is that we’re actually going to be filming the dusk to dark moments.

Environmental concerns more generally are at the forefront of how the project is run.

An education programme will run alongside it, meaning conversations about practical steps to preserve the locations – whether by taking litter away or simply trying to leave no trace of activity – will take place continually.

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Wassell adds: “We’re recording and calculating the carbon footprints of each of the locations. So we’re researching and creating some data about what events like this create in terms of carbon footprints. Our plan is then to climate invest locally to the area, so within the North York National Park, to make it a carbon-neutral project.”

It should make for a spectacular display highlighting the region’s precious landscapes.

“The moment when darkness falls, and we switch the lights off, is going to be the most important collective act of connection between people and nature within each event,” says Wassell.

Martin Green CBE, chief creative officer of UNBOXED, says: “By engaging artists, engineers, landowners and members of the public to create a series of unique experiences, Green Space Dark Skies will both enhance people’s understanding of our natural environment and relationship to the countryside as well as show the power of creativity to inspire change.”

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To learn more and sign up for participation, visit greenspacedarkskies.uk.

Kinder Scout trespass

On Sunday April 24, 1932, more than 400 people participated in a mass trespass on Kinder Scout, the highest terrain in the Peak District.

At the time five people, including the leader Benny Rothman, were jailed, but it is widely credited with sparking a debate – the right to roam versus the rights of the wealthy to have exclusive use of moorlands for grouse shooting – which led to legislation in 1949 establishing the National Parks. In 1951, the Peak District became the first such Park, a protection subsequently enjoyed by the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.

Seventy-five years on from the trespass, Sheffield-born Lord Roy Hattersley described the trespass in 2007 as ”the most successful direct action in British history”.