Celebrating 60 years of access to the countryside
16th December 2009 is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the 1949 Countryside Act which resulted in the foundation of National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Trails and Nature Reserves nationwide. These places protect our countryside and are open for everyone to have space to breathe, relax and exercise.
At the time, a film that had been produced by CPRE called the case for the defence of our countryside was shown in cinemas in the 1930s as part of the campaign for National Parks to be set up in England and Wales.
MPs and National Park leaders met this week at the House of Commons, where National Parks were encouraged to look forward - continuing to reach new audiences and playing a full role in meeting the challenges that lie ahead, including a changing climate.
Defra Minister, Hilary Benn, launched a climate change statement highlighting the wide range of climate change related work that is already happening in National Parks and sets out the English National Park Authorities’ vision for future action. Their ambitions include:
- conserving and, where needed, restoring peatlands and woodlands to lock up these large carbon stores;
- developing low carbon rural communities, where renewable energy generation appropriate for protected landscapes is the norm;
- leading on adapting to climate change at a landscape scale; and
- communicating the issues and solutions to climate change to National Park residents and visitors.
How it all began
Once upon a time it wasn’t so easy for people to enjoy our beautiful landscape, wildlife and cultural heritage with ease and safety, but thanks to people of great vision, such as Northumberland’s John and Pauline Dower, generations of families have been able to get out into the wide open spaces for relaxation, exercise and personal challenge. This is how it all came about.
In the early 20th Century, there was a growing appreciation of the benefits of physical exercise and the feeling of freedom and spiritual renewal gained from open-air activity. Industrialization was widespread and growing, towns and cities were expanding and land continued to be enclosed for farming or sporting reasons. Public interest groups demanded greater access to the countryside. In some quarters there was concern that the nation’s men were less fit than their counterparts around the world, should the country ever need them to fight, due to an inner-city lifestyle.
MPs on the Pennine Way - 1948
A 1931 government inquiry recommended the creation of a public body to select areas for designation as National Parks for the protection of nature and for healthy recreation. However no action was taken and public discontent grew, leading to the mass trespasses on Kinder Scout in the Peak District on 25th April 1932. Five men were imprisoned.
Groups of leisure activity enthusiasts and nature conservationists, including the Rambler’s Association, the Youth Hostels’ Association (YHA), the Council for the Preservation for Rural England (CPRE) and the Council for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW) rallied together to lobby the Government for measures to protect, and allow access to the countryside for the benefit of the nation. In 1936, they form a voluntary sector Standing Committee on National Parks (SCNP) which argued the case for National Parks and urged the Government to act.
This pressure culminated in the 1945 White Paper on National Parks, produced as part of the Labour Party’s planned post-war reconstruction. The architect John Dower, who was married to Lady Pauline Trevelyan of Wallington in Northumberland, wrote a seminal report setting out the vision for the National Parks which was published in May 1945. It proposed the original list of areas to be designated as National Parks, including the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor, Lake District, Northumberland (then called The Roman Wall) and Yorkshire Dales (then called Craven Pennines). He said:
"National Parks are for people of every class and kind, from every part of the country. They are not for any privileged or otherwise restricted section of the population but for all those who care to refresh their minds and spirits and to exercise their bodies in a peaceful setting of natural beauty."
The government then set up a committee under Sir Arthur Hobhouse to prepare for National Park legislation, whilst the SCNP and Ramblers’ Association kept up public pressure for National Parks.
1949 was a landmark year as the government passed an Act of Parliament to establish National Parks to preserve and enhance their natural beauty and provide recreational opportunities for the public. Lewis Silkin, Minister for Town and Country Planning at the time, described it as “... the most exciting Act of the post-war Parliament.” The Act also made provision for National Trails, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and Nature Reserves. The first ten National Parks and ten AONBs were designated during the 1950s, with Northumberland National Park coming into being in 1956 and the Northumberland Coast AONB in 1958.
Today’s young people do not have to fight for their right to enjoy the countryside. There are now fourteen National Parks in the UK under the umbrella of Britain’s Breathing Spaces, and 50 AONBs in England and Wales.
The first National Trail, The Pennine Way, was way-marked, from its start in the Peak district to its completion on the border of Scotland, and inaugurated in 1965. There are now 15 Trails in England and Wales (when complete 2 of these will be suitable for use by horse riders and cyclists along their entire length) and 4 in Scotland. Altogether, in England and Wales, there are about 2,500 miles (4,000km) of National Trail. There are 243 National Nature Reserves in England and Wales and 51 in Scotland.
The movement to make the countryside open to all continues. In 1988, the North Pennines AONB was designated. In 2005 the New Forest National Park and the Cairngorms National Park were created. In the same year, the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW), completed its roll-out out across the country, enabling the public to roam freely across mapped 'access land' without having to stay on the public rights of way network. In Northumberland National Park a total of 80,491 hectares of access land was mapped or dedicated, counting for 76.6% of the National Park area.
In 2009, the South Downs National Park was designated, making this a year to celebrate our landscape and our freedom to use and enjoy it for generations to come.
