70 years of our National Park
WHEN you speak about Derbyshire with people from outside the county, many think of the Peak District. This vast, beautiful region has attracted visitors for decades with its stunning landscapes and cultural heritage.
But it was not designated as the National Park we know and love until the 1950s, after years of planning and preparation.
Calls for the creation of National Parks similar to those seen in the United States had begun in the 1930s but had been put on hold by the Great Depression. These calls intensified in 1932, when 400 ramblers gathered at Bowden Bridge Quarry in Hayfield to trespass on Kinder Scout. Ensuing scuffles with gamekeepers would lead to five people being imprisoned.
Following this, the Rights of Way Act was passed and, in 1942, John Dower, a civil servant and Royal Engineer officer in the Second World War, was asked to prepare a report on how and where National Parks should be implemented in England and Wales.
He produced a report, titled National Parks in England and Wales, in which he recommended the creation of 10 National Parks, including the Peak District and Dovedale, the Lake District, Snowdonia and Dartmoor.
In his report, published in 1945, he defined a National Park as “an extensive area of beautiful and relatively wild country” which would be preserved, open to the public and see established farming use maintained for years to come. He said: “National Parks are not for any privileged or otherwise restricted section of the population but for all who come to refresh their minds and spirit, and exercise their bodies in a peaceful setting of natural beauty.”
He made a note of the “everspreading inferno of limestone quarries and lime-works in the vicinity of Buxton, recently rivalled by a large cement works at Hope” and noted that stricter controls were available to prevent developments that would cause the unjustified damage to the landscape.
He added that more would need to be done to improve access to the Peak District due to the lack of footpaths and suggested this could be overcome once the concerns of landowners “emphatically (if not entirely successfully) closed to the public” had been mollified. He said he felt the first national parks should be large and there should be several so they did not become overcrowded with visitors.
Mr Dower said while he felt the compulsory purchase of land was not necessary, it should be used without hesitation if it had to be.
Mr Dower did not live to see his report put into practice. He died in October 1947 from the effects of tuberculosis, aged 47. His wife, Pauline, took up his mantle, joining the National Parks Commission which was created in 1949 and later becoming its deputy chair and playing a role in the survey, negotiations and consultations in the lead up to the Peak District’s creation. The Peak District was officially designated as a National Park on April 17, 1951, with other areas following later that year.
After this the Peak District saw car parks, picnic sites and information booths put in place, with the first visitor centre set up in a room in the Nags Head pub, in Edale, in 1954.
John Foster, former Peak District National Park director and planning officer, said: “Everything we did was new. We had the opportunity to try things that had never been done before.”
In an interview in 2011, he said: “All the National Parks have made progress from those early days.
“It has been very important that all have had planning control and the control of development in their hands.
“In the early days we were underfinanced by Government but we made the best of it, as I’m sure they are still doing.
“The Peak District National Park has lasted well and developed positively over the years and I hope it will go on developing in a positive, National Park way in the future. It is a very special place.
“National Parks have turned out to have been well worthwhile establishing and managing over the years for protecting the environment, supporting local communities and enabling millions of visitors enjoy them every year.”