FOR generations of local lads and lasses, trips up Pendle were an exciting part of their childhood. People from the East Lancashire towns have walked on Pendle Hill for at least a hundred years and perhaps a lot longer than that.

I was astonished to discover an old press cutting from the Bradford local paper about the death of my great-grandfather. Although schoolmaster of Eccleshill in Bradford, he was a Lancashire man from the Bolton area and a true eccentric.

Each summer he disappeared for weeks on end for a personal odyssey which always included a visit to the top of Pendle. The view from the summit was, he declared, "the best sight in the whole of Lancashire".

People from near and far were able to climb our famous hill without being turned off by landowners and their servants.

Perhaps this is because part of Pendle is common land. It was certainly not the case on many other local hills, particularly those which are managed as heather moors for the shooting of grouse.

It is not the case on Pendle's twin hill of Boulsworth, across the other side of the Nelson and Colne valley. Indeed the range is still ringed with

signs saying "private land - no access". Nor is it the case on the great rolling moors of the Bowland fells beyond the Ribble Valley to the north.

In both cases there are concessionary paths, a tribute to county council effort and landowner sense.

But these are a poor substitute for the exhilaration of being able to choose your own route across these wonderful Pennine hills.

All this is about to change. Over three years ago, Parliament passed the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. Taking part in its passage through the

House of Lords was a baptism into the arcane procedures by which new laws are debated and decided. As a lifelong hillwalker and climber I found it

both a thrill and a privilege.

Part 1 of the Act is about the new "right to roam". And here in the Lancashire Pennines we are in one of the first areas - the rather oddly

named "Lower North West" - where this new right will come about.

Detailed maps showing the new access land will be published in June and all being well the new rights will come into effect at the end of

September.

Meanwhile, the local access authority - in our case the county council - has the task of working with landowners and putting up information signs, styles and so on.

The CROW Act, as people call it, is not perfect. The new rights are full of complications and caveats and they will work only if walkers, landowners and farmers all behave sensibly. But it's exciting enough.

Every time I drive along the M65 towards Colne I look across at the looming whaleback of Boulsworth and think: "One small step for mankind!"