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By the side of religion, by the side of science, by the side of poetry and art stands natural beauty … the common inspirer and nourisher of them all.

G. M. TREVELYAN, O.M.

NATIONAL PARKS are tracts of country of outstandingly attractive scenery which are specially protected against adverse change and reserved for public enjoyment. In a country like our own, in which a high proportion of the population is concentrated in large cities and industrial districts, there is a real need for the setting aside of particular areas where townsfolk may find relief from the pressing throng and enjoy open-air recreation amid surroundings which bring them close to Nature. In national parks, moreover, the preservation of natural scenery is safeguarded as well as the surviving haunts of wild life. Indeed, for the study of living forms in their natural environment, whether plant, insect or animal, such areas are of special scientific value.

NATIONAL PARKS IN BRITAIN

Although the provision of national parks in Britain is a recent development, the idea of reserving selected areas of our finest landscape for the enjoyment of the public is by no means new. It stems in fact from the ideas connected with social betterment arising from conditions in the nineteenth century. The movement for national parks began well over half a century ago but not until the closing stages of the second world war did it gain official recognition.

In other countries national parks of various kinds have long been in existence, one of the earliest being the famous Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, established in 1872. Like others which followed it in America, this great reserve was “dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” words which expressed the aspirations of many who later advocated similar projects in our own country. In a long-settled, densely populated land like Britain, however, with much of its surface under private ownership, the problem of public access to areas of scenic attraction has provided a formidable obstacle to the realisation of such hopes. The contrast between the old and new countries in this respect was clearly demonstrated in 1885 by two events. In that year, within the space of a few months, James Bryce’s Bill to give access to mountains in Scotland was rejected by Parliament at home, yet a proposal to create the Banff National Park in the Rockies was accepted by the Government of Canada without opposition. But Bryce’s attempt marked the beginning of a long campaign for the acceptance of the national park idea. Apart, however, from an inquiry made by the Addison Committee in 1931 and the passing of the Access to Mountains Act in 1939, the provisions of which were made inoperative by the second world war, little progress was made until recent years.

Meanwhile voluntary bodies had given active support to the movement and the effect on public opinion contributed much towards ultimate success. In 1935 two of the leading organisations, the Council for the Preservation of Rural England and the similar body for Wales, set up a Standing Committee for National Parks, which included representatives of many supporting interests. The Standing Committee worked unremittingly and proved a valuable instrument for educating the public and arousing interest among widely different sections of the community.

During the war, when much thought was devoted to post-war planning and reconstruction, the case for national parks was repeatedly stressed. Official publications such as the Report of the Scott Committee on Land Utilisation in Rural Areas (1942) and the White Paper on Control of Land Use (1944) gave firm support to their formation, while the Report on National Parks (1945) prepared by John Dower for the Minister of Town and Country Planning, by its cogent argument and its deep personal conviction, at last set the course for realisation. The Dower Report was followed by a detailed investigation resulting in the Hobhouse Report on National Parks (1947), of which the chief recommendations formed the basis of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act passed two years later. Indeed, so favourable had become the climate of opinion that the Act was passed without a single vote against it in either House.

Briefly, the Act of 1949 provided for the setting up of a National Parks Commission which is responsible for the designation of each individual park in England and Wales and for advising the particular authority chosen to administer it. The park authority, consisting largely of representatives from the existing local authorities within whose areas the park falls, undertakes the management and planning of the park. Other provisions of the Act dealt with important issues affecting public rights of way, access to open country and wild life protection. A further measure (under section 87) permitted the designation of smaller areas of outstanding natural beauty, not as national parks but as areas requiring the assistance of the Act in the interests of nature preservation and the protection of wild life. Several of these have already been designated, such as the Gower Peninsula and the Quantock Hills, and it is likely that many more will be added.

As a result of the Act, ten national parks have so far been established, of which the Peak District was the first. The others are the Lake District, Snowdonia, Dartmoor, Exmoor, the Pembrokeshire Coast, Brecon Beacons, the North York Moors, the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland. Varying greatly in character and extent, these form a system having an aggregate area of nearly 4,750 square miles, or one-twelfth of the total area of England and Wales. This is surely an achievement which meets the long-felt needs of our highly urbanised people and which at the same time will secure large tracts of unspoilt country from inappropriate and unwarrantable forms of exploitation.

In Scotland the situation is different. The National Parks Act of 1949 referred only to England and Wales and no equivalent legislation has been passed for Scotland, except that the section of the Act dealing with nature conservation was made applicable to the whole of Britain. The Forestry Commission has nevertheless established a few national forest parks in Scotland, and although these have not the full status of national parks, they offer to the public increased facilities for access and open-air enjoyment.

The national parks of Britain differ from those of most other countries. To begin with, there are no large areas of wild scenery available for preservation like the huge National Parks of the U.S.A. or the great game reserves of Africa. Instead, the areas designated as parks are all of comparatively small extent and all are inhabited, even though the density of population in most cases is quite low. Again, the greater part of each national park is devoted to some form of economic activity such as farming, forestry and quarrying, thus creating problems of public access which seldom arise abroad. In every case in Britain the functions of a national park are added to an established pattern of economic and social life and must operate in such a way so as not to cause serious interference with existing activities. This circumstance naturally calls for much delicate negotiation in co-ordinating the various interests represented within a national park.

There is another important difference between our national parks and those abroad. Whereas the latter usually embrace truly natural scenery unmodified by human action, in Britain hardly any such areas remain. The land has been exploited by Man for so long that the results of his activities have profoundly altered the appearance of the surface. Even the natural vegetation has been greatly modified by various agricultural practices as well as by the chance or deliberate introduction of non-indigenous species. Forests have been entirely removed from some areas and have been created in others, while mining and quarrying have left their scars and debris on land once unspoiled.

In the sense that even our finest scenery, whether mountain, moorland or sea-coast, is in part the product of our cultural history, the national parks of Britain are of a rather special kind. In many respects the effects of long-continued human occupation signify a gain rather than a loss, for these effects tend to heighten the distinctive character of each designated area. Each national park bears the impress of its cultural history and this, taken in relation to the physical conditions gives it a high degree of regional individuality which it would not otherwise possess. It is for this reason that the national parks of Britain offer such impressive contrasts in landscape.

THE PEAK NATIONAL PARK

The upland region traditionally known as the Peak District, which forms part of the southern Pennines, has special claims to rank among the earliest of the national parks established in Britain. It was in fact the first to be designated, in December, 1950, although the Lake District and Snowdonia were included shortly afterwards. On grounds of the quality of its scenery alone its claim was irrefutable. The vast open moorlands which spread out from the massive summit of Kinderscout, the green dales of Dovedale and the Manifold Valley, the rocks and caves like those around Castleton and the glistening trout streams such as the Dove and the Wye, have long been enjoyed by large numbers of visitors from all parts of the country. Above all, The Peak has been cherished by the thousands of ordinary people, young and old, from the industrial towns of the Midlands and the North, who find recreation and adventure in the attractions it offers.

Like the National Parks movement as a whole, the promotion of such a park in the Peak District owes much in the first instance to voluntary bodies. Among these the Sheffield and Peak District Branch of the C.P.R.E. has been particularly active. More than any other body it was responsible for the idea in the first place, and from 1939 it has undertaken a great deal of pioneer work, including the preparation of a preliminary map of the boundaries. No less than ten thousand copies of the booklet entitled The Peak District a National Park, published in 1944, have been sold. Today, even though the Peak Park is now an accomplished fact, continued vigilance on the part of such bodies is perhaps more than ever necessary. An illustration of this is seen in the recent proposal to build a motor road along the Manifold Valley, a scheme which was happily defeated, again largely through the protests of the Sheffield C.P.R.E. supported by many other like-minded persons and societies.

From the standpoint of its geographical position the claim of The Peak to become a national park was particularly strong, for nearly half the population of England live within 50 miles of its boundary. Not only do the large cities of Manchester and Sheffield virtually adjoin it, but many other industrial centres of South Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Potteries are only a short distance away. Less than 60 miles away are Liverpool and the rest of Merseyside, while Birmingham and the Black Country, Leicester, Hull and Tees-side are all within 75 miles. Moreover, of all the national parks so far created, The Peak is the nearest to London and the most accessible from it by rail or road. The proximity to the park of such a large population has an important bearing upon its use by the public and hence upon problems of management. It can be approached from all directions and is frequented, at all seasons of the year, especially by people from the nearby industrial centres.

Popular claims to The Peak as an amenity area are further supported by the variety of interest which it offers to the more serious observer such as the naturalist, geologist, geographer, and archaeologist. The Peak is a part of highland Britain, yet is readily accessible from the lowland zone. As such, in its natural (including biological) features and its cultural forms, it exhibits elements of both environments. Its distinctive physical composition and its rich cultural legacy combine to form a regional complex with a character entirely its own. To both the week-end rambler and the holiday-maker with an inquiring mind the area affords a rewarding field for observation and study in the open air. To the naturalist in particular it is significant for its examples of true mountain and northern moorland habitats.

The attractions of The Peak have long been recognised by travellers from other parts. They gave rise to a literary cult rather similar to that inspired by the Lake District, though it may well have begun at an earlier date. In 1636 Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher and author of Leviathan, published his poem De Mirabilibus Pecci (Concerning the Wonders of The Peak), describing in ponderous hexameters the outstanding features of Derbyshire. Provided with an English translation in similar verse form, the poem became widely known and was reprinted several times in the next fifty years. Izaak Walton, whose delightful treatise The Compleat Angler (1653) offered pleasant instruction in the art of fly-fishing, shared with Charles Cotton of Beresford, with whom he pursued this quiet sport, a lasting affection for the Dove, the Wye and other Derbyshire streams. Though not accessible to visitors, the Fishing House overlooking the Dove, which Cotton built in 1674 to serve as an idyllic retreat, still stands. With their monograms inscribed over the door it bears witness to the long friendship between these two men. Cotton, besides being devoted to country pursuits, was influential both locally and in London and drew the attention of numerous friends to the scenic attractions of the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border, and in 1681 issued The Wonders of The Peak, a eulogistic poem much in the vein of Hobbes. Really in the nature of a guide, its true object is perhaps revealed by the fact that it was published in Nottingham and sold by the booksellers of York, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Mansfield, Derby and Newark, all of them places from which visitors might be expected to start their journeys into the region. Later on Celia Fiennes, a shrewd and observant traveller, describes in her Northern Journey, made in 1697, the route through Derbyshire, visiting each of the seven wonders in turn as if to do so were already the conventional tour. To the eighteenth-century writers, who almost invariably depicted the notable features of the area in exaggerated terms, six of the seven acknowledged wonders were natural features while the other was the Duke of Devonshire’s great mansion at Chatsworth. Its accepted place in the list is probably due to its inclusion by Hobbes as a compliment to his patron. Not everyone at this time held such favourable views, for Daniel Defoe in his Tour through Great Britain (1778) denounced Derbyshire as “a howling wilderness.” It was left to Edward Rhodes in the early nineteenth century, however, to establish for The Peak a lasting reputation as an area of beautiful scenery with many attractions for the tourist. His book on Peak Scenery (four volumes: 1818–23), splendidly illustrated by the artist and sculptor Sir F. L. Chantrey, R.A., who was a native of Derbyshire, was widely read and thus helped to make the area known to people from more distant parts of the country. The discovery of The Peak by visitors from outside was soon to be facilitated by the early railways. The new mode of travel brought the lovely scenery within reach of people belonging to all sections of the community, just as a century or more previously the fashionable spa at Buxton had attracted the well-to-do.

Recently, work by Mr. R. W. V. Elliott has revealed the existence of a literary association of a very different kind. By relating descriptions given in the text to actual topographical features, Mr. Elliott has shown that in all probability the Staffordshire portion of The Peak between Leek and Macclesfield, which now falls within the National Park, provided the setting for much of the famous medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The site of the castle of the Green Knight, to which Sir Gawain came, can be identified as that occupied by Swythamley Hall. Though the castle was evidently fictitious, Swythamley itself was certainly a hunting lodge in medieval times and came to be part of the endowment of the abbey of St. Mary and St. Benedict of Dieulacres near Leek, with which the origin of the poem may be connected. The Green Knight’s hunting grounds can be traced across the Roaches towards Flash and northwards beyond the headstreams of the Dane. The Green Chapel sought by Sir Gawain is doubtless the curious rock-chamber known to Dr. R. Plot, the seventeenth-century Staffordshire historian, as Lud’s Church and still named as such on present-day maps. (There is a tradition that the chapel served as a refuge for Lollards.) From the evidence it is clear that the author of Sir Gawain was not only minutely acquainted with this district but possessed a remarkable eye for detail and an exceptional capacity for precise description. It is to be hoped that further research will lead to a closer knowledge of the unknown poet of the fourteenth century whose work surely ranks with that of Chaucer.

In size The Peak National Park, covering 542 square miles, is not so large as those of the Lake District and Snowdonia, though it is larger than any of the others. It occupies a considerable part of the county of Derbyshire, together with adjoining portions of Staffordshire and Cheshire to the west and the West Riding of Yorkshire, including a small area of the city of Sheffield, to the north (Fig. 1, opposite). Its greatest length from north to south is nearly 40 miles and its greatest breadth about 24 miles. The boundary which delimits the park would enclose a broadly oval shape but for the long narrow wedge reaching far into the interior from New Mills on the western margin to a point about five miles south-east of Buxton. This territory was excluded on the grounds of its predominantly industrial character; in it lie the towns of New Mills, Whaley Bridge, Chapel-en-le-Frith and Buxton, while around the last-named the landscape is seriously marred by intensive limestone quarrying and related lime-works. This feature has the effect within the Park of severing the High Peak of Derbyshire from the hill country of East Cheshire. On the south-east side for a similar reason, though without giving rise to a pronounced wedge, the Matlock and Darley Dale section of the Derwent valley was also excluded. On the south and west the towns of Wirksworth, Ashbourne, Leek and Macclesfield have all been omitted, though they lie only a little beyond the boundary.

Incidentally, two points concerning nomenclature should be mentioned here. In the first place, the term Peak District applies to the upland area of Derbyshire as a whole. There is no single mountain or summit named The Peak. The highest part of the area is in the extreme north where the two flat-topped moors of Kinderscout and Bleak Low both reach to over 2,000 feet. The highest point of all is on Kinderscout reaching 2,088 feet. Secondly, a distinction is sometimes made between the northern and southern parts of the upland. These are known respectively as the High Peak and Low Peak but the distinction is a vague one and is not based on altitude alone.

Fig. 1. The boundary of the Peak National Park

From the standpoint of administration the Peak National Park is managed by a central authority in the form of a Joint Planning Board consisting of 27 representatives, of whom 18 are appointed by the constituent county authorities and the county borough of Sheffield, and the remaining nine by the Minister of Housing and Local Government. The Peak Planning Board has its own technical department at Bakewell under the direction of a Planning Officer. This form of administration is the only example of the method originally envisaged for the national parks although in one or two other instances the form adopted approximates to it. On the whole in the case of The Peak it has worked successfully. Certainly, by excluding a number of urban centres situated on the fringe of the Park, general planning problems connected with the location of industry and urban growth and re-development have been considerably reduced, enabling the Planning Board to devote its attention more wholeheartedly to the special interests of the Park.

REFERENCES

PILKINGTON, J. A View of the Present State of Derbyshire (2 vols). (1789)

RHODES, E. Peak Scenery, or the Derbyshire Tourist. (1818)

GLOVER, S. The History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Derby. (1829–1833)

DOWER, J. Report on National Parks in England and Wales. H.M.S.O. (1945)

Report of the National Parks Committee. H.M.S.O. (1947)

Report of the National Parks Commission. H.M.S.O. (annually since 1950)

MONKHOUSE, P. J. Some National Park Problems. Jour. of the Town Planning Inst.: 43 (March, 1957)

National Park Guide No. 3: Peak District. H.M.S.O. (1960)