Blue plaque to honour Benny Rothman unveiled at Timperley house (From Messenger Newspapers)

Blue plaque to honour Benny Rothman unveiled at Timperley house

10:00am Thursday 1st November 2012 in News By Kate Banks, Reporter

THE late Benny Rothman, the man who led the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout, Derbyshire, in 1932, was honoured with a blue plaque at his former Timperley home last week.

The event took place at the Crofton Avenue house he lived in for 58 years and was attended by Cllr Jonathan Coupe, his son Professor Harry Rothman, daughter Marian Thilo, Kinder and High Peak representative Roly Smith and Jerry Pearlman from the Ramblers’ Association, as well as members of the community.

The mass trespass, for which Benny and others were jailed for five days, led to the changing of the Right to Roam legislation, which increased the public’s access to lands which had previously been fiercely protected by landowners, who in some cases made use of them for less than three days a year.

Cllr Coupe said: “Mr Rothman contributed to the changing of history and it is because of him that we are able to enjoy the local countryside as often and freely as we can today.

“Trafford Council are pleased eo be able to honour him in this way and are proud to have had such an advocate living and working in our borough.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Professor Rothman expressed his pride at the plaque being erected at the childhood home he remembers with fondness.

“I’m very proud to see it [the plaque] here and to come back home and look at the hose which has changed a bit but not a great deal.”