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John Bainbridge | |
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| Born | 1953 West Bromwich |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Hamstead Primary School, Grove Vale School and Dartmouth Comprehensive |
| Alma mater | University of East Anglia |
| Genre | Topography |
John Bainbridge (born 1953) is an English author and campaigner for countryside preservation and access. He read Literature and Social History at the University of East Anglia.
Born in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, Bainbridge spent his childhood at 15 Ray Hall Lane, Great Barr, and was educated at Hamstead Primary School, Grove Vale School, Dartmouth Comprehensive, and West Lawn School in Teignmouth. It was from there that he began exploring the British countryside, often taking walking tours that lasted for months at a time. He moved to Devon as a teenager and became very knowledgeable about Dartmoor.
Bainbridge served as chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association from 1996–2005, [1] and led the victorious campaign to save the archaeologically important Shaugh Moor from waste tipping by the china clay industry. He led the campaign for right to roam in Devon, which culminated in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. He has opposed the military presence on Dartmoor, [2] for which he was praised by Anthony Steen MP in the House of Commons in 2003. [3]
An unapologetic trespasser Bainbridge remains a steadfast campaigner for countryside access. He has dealt with the matter of trespassing in his controversial book "The Compleat Trespasser" (2013) and more briefly in his book on walking "Rambling - some thoughts on country walking". He has also written an eBook about the Victorian writer George Borrow.
He is the author of a walking autobiography "Wayfarer's Dole".
In 2012 he was given an award by the Ramblers Association to mark a 40-year contribution to the outdoors movement.
As a writer he has contributed to most outdoor magazines and is the author of some thirty books about British topography, including Dorset Coast, South Devon Coast and Newton Abbot, Around Torbay, The Cotswolds, Worcestershire.
In 2009 Bainbridge created the Teignmouth and Dawlish Way long distance footpath, writing the guidebook of the same name, and was involved in the creation of The Two Moors Way long-distance trail.
Having retired from active campaigning, Bainbridge has found time to publish several thriller novels including "The Shadow Of William Quest", "Deadly Quest" "Dark Shadow" which have been well received.
He has written a straight thriller "Balmoral Kill" - a set in 1937 and based on the involvement of the Establishment in appeasing Hitler, and a sequel "Dangerous Game".
Bainbridge has also written four novels based on the old ballads of Robin Hood: "Loxley", "Wolfshead" and "Villain" and "Legend" as part of a tetralogy of historical fiction entitled "The Chronicles of Robin Hood".
He was in 2020 chosen by the writer Roly Smith as one out of twenty individuals who had done the most to influence the Right to Roam campaign in the UK
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers 954 km2 (368 sq mi).
Dartmoor Preservation Association (DPA) is one of the oldest environmental or amenity bodies in the UK. It was founded in 1883. It concerns itself with Dartmoor, a National Park in Devon, south-west England. It began with two main areas of concern. Firstly, commoners' rights were being eroded through army use, including the firing of live artillery shells, and piecemeal enclosure of land around the margins. Secondly, there was increasing public interest in Dartmoor's scenery, archaeology, history and wildlife
Sylvia Olive Pleadwell Sayer, Lady Sayer, was a passionate conservationist and environmental campaigner on behalf of Dartmoor, an area of mostly granite moorland in Devon in the south-west of England. She was chairman of the Dartmoor Preservation Association from 1951 to 1973, and remained deeply involved with the organisation until her death.
Teignmouth is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at the 2011 census.
The freedom to roam, or "everyman's right", is the general public's right to access certain public or privately owned land, lakes, and rivers for recreation and exercise. The right is sometimes called the right of public access to the wilderness or the "right to roam".
Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Newton Abbot. The district also includes the towns of Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish, Kingsteignton and Teignmouth, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. Teignbridge contains part of the south Devon coastline, including the Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve. Some of the inland western parts of the district lie within the Dartmoor National Park. It is named after the old Teignbridge hundred.
The mass trespass of Kinder Scout was a trespass protest at Kinder Scout in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England, on 24 April 1932. The protest sought to highlight that walkers were denied access to areas of open countryside which had been fenced off by wealthy landowners who forbade public access. It was organised by communist leader and Jewish anti-fascist Benny Rothman, the secretary of the British Workers' Sports Federation and a member of the Young Communist League.
High Willhays, or according to some authorities High Willes, is the highest point on Dartmoor, Devon, at 621 metres above sea level, and the highest point in Southern England.
The Two Moors Way is a long-distance trail mostly in Devon, UK, first established in 1976. It links Dartmoor and Exmoor and has been extended to become a Devon Coast-to-Coast trail.
The Tarka Trail is a series of footpaths and cyclepaths around north Devon, England that follow the route taken by the fictional Tarka the Otter in the book of that name. It covers a total of 180 miles (290 km) in a figure-of-eight route, centred on Barnstaple.
Rivington Pike is a hill on Winter Hill, part of the West Pennine Moors at Rivington, Chorley in Lancashire, England. The nearest towns are Adlington and Horwich. The land and building are owned and managed by Chorley Council. The Pike Tower is a prominent local landmark and is located at the summit, it is part of Lever Park. The area is popular with hill walkers and for mountain biking.
George Herbert Bridges Ward, known as G. H. B. Ward or Bert Ward was an activist for walkers' rights and a Labour Party politician.
Walking is one of the most popular outdoor recreational activities in the United Kingdom, and within England and Wales there is a comprehensive network of rights of way that permits access to the countryside. Furthermore, access to much uncultivated and unenclosed land has opened up since the enactment of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. In Scotland the ancient tradition of universal access to land was formally codified under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. In Northern Ireland, however, there are few rights of way, or other access to land.
Ramblers is the trading name of the Ramblers Association Great Britain's leading walking charity. The Ramblers is also a membership organisation with around 100,000 members and a network of volunteers who maintain and protect the path network. The organisation was founded in 1935 and campaigns to keep the British countryside open to all.
"The Manchester Rambler", also known as "I'm a Rambler" and "The Rambler's Song", is a song written by the English folk singer Ewan MacColl in 1932. It was inspired by his participation in the Kinder trespass, a protest by the urban Young Communist League of Manchester, and was the work that began MacColl's career as a singer-songwriter.
Marion Shoard is a British writer and campaigner. She is best known for her work concerning access to the countryside and land use conflicts. In 2002 she became the first person to give a name to the "edgelands" between town and country. Since 2004 she has also written and campaigned about older people's issues.
Vixen Tor is a tor on Dartmoor, England. The tor is on private land and since 2003 access by the public has been banned, causing protests and mass trespassing by hikers and climbers.
David Bangs is a field naturalist, social historian, public artist, author and conservationist. He has written extensively on the countryside management, both historically and present day in the English county of Sussex.
Nick Hayes is a British writer, illustrator, and campaigner for land access. He has written a number of graphic novels and a non-fiction book, The Book of Trespass.
Block around the Rock, The Guardian, 15 March 2005 Hansard 15 October 2003
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