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The signs on the gate at the entrance to the path and along the edge of the reservoir were clear. \u201cNo swimming,\u201d they warned, white letters on a red background.\n\nOn a chill mid-April day in northwest England, with low, gray clouds and rain in the forecast, the signs hardly seemed necessary. But then people began arriving, by the dozens and then the hundreds. Some walked only from nearby Hayfield, while others came by train or bus or foot from many hours away. In a long, trailing line, they tramped up the hill beside the dam and around the shore of the reservoir, slipping in mud and jumping over puddles.\n\nDown on the shore, giggling and shrieking people picked their way across slippery rocks. Then, with a great deal of cheering and splashing, they took to the water en masse, fanning out in all directions. Some carried a large banner that read, \u201cThe Right to Swim.\u201d\n\nMore rounds of cheers went up as new waves of swimmers splashed into the water. An older woman wearing a pink floral swimsuit paused on the shore to turn to the crowd still on land. \u201cDon\u2019t be beaten down!\u201d she shouted, raising a fist above her flower-bedecked bathing cap. \u201cRebel!\u201d Then she, too, flopped into the lake.\n\nThe group of rebellious swimmers were trespassing for a cause: the uncontested right to walk, camp, cycle, swim, canoe and perform any other form of nonmotorized exploration throughout the country, also known as the \u201cright to roam.\u201d