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What is a National Park
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The Lake District

Region: Lake District
Town: Lake District
County: Cumbria
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Lake District National Park Tourist Information


Full Description: The world’s first national park was the Yellowstone Park in the USA which established in 1872 by an Act of Congress. In 1889, there was a farsighted leader in Manchester Guardian which suggested that the Lake District should be nationalised or, failing that, some kind of conservation should be adopted to prevent spoliation of the area by commercial interests. During the next fifty years, a movement was developed to gain more public access to mountains, and Bills were introduced in Parliament in 1908, 1924, 1926 and 1927 in an attempt to achieve this end. For various reasons they were not successful and in 1932 a mass trespass took place on Kinder Scout, Fighting took place between gamekeepers and walkers, the police stepped in and a number of arrests were made. The local magistrates handed out some savage prison sentences, but honesty, integrity and above all gentleness of those who suffered for their obvious love of the mountains caught the public imagination and by 1939 the Access to the Mountains Act became law.

During the war a number of committees sat and reports were commissioned that resulted in significant social changes in the post-war years. Some, like the Beveridge Report, have radically changed our lives; others are not so well know to public but have nevertheless improved the quality of our lives. Into the latter category falls a report by a committee presided over by Lord Justice Scott which stated I 1942 that “the establishment of national parks in Britain is long overdue”. In 1943 the new Ministry of Town and Country Planning was formed and one of the Ministers first acts was to ask an architect, John Dower, to write a report on the problems involved in setting up National Parks, John Dower defined a National Park as

“an extensive are of beautiful and relatively wild country in which, for the nation’s benefit and by appropriate national decision and action, (a) the characteristic landscape beauty is strictly preserved; (b) access and facilities for public open air enjoyment are amply provided (c) wildlife and buildings and places of architectural and historic interest are suitably protected, while (d) established farming areas are effectively maintained.”

The minister set up a new Committee in 1945 under Sir Artur Hobhouse to consider the Dower proposals and recommended that national parks should be set up in the following areas:

Brecon Beacons
Dartmoor
Exmoor
Lake District
North York Moors
Northumberland
Peak District
Pembrokeshire Coast
Snowdonia
Yorkshire Dales
The South Downs
The Norfolk Broads

All of these areas are now National Parks except South Downs.

In British National Parks there is normally no change of ownership of the land. The nation does not own its national parks, as some countries do, so the right of access for walkers, riders and other’s using them for recreation is no greater than in other parts of the country unless local arrangements have been negotiated.

However recently there have been several rights of access passed and now many more hectares of National Parks of have been opened up to be roamed freely.

Each National Park is administered by executive committees made up of representatives from interested organisations such as county councils and has its own national park officer who is responsible to the executive committee. Most of the funds for national park come from central government and are used for providing such things as car parks, toilets, picnic areas, camp sites, footpaths, bridleways and nature trails, information centres, publicity and ranger services. The executive committee is also the planning authority and keeps a very tight control on all developments to make sure that it fits in with the traditional style of building in the area. Any industrial development has to be properly screened and made unobtrusive.

One of the criteria for selecting areas for national parks is that they should contain a high proportion of open country, which is defined in the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, 1949 as “mountain, moor, heath, down cliffs or foreshore” and excludes agricultural land except rough grazing for sheep and cattle. Thus national parks are particularly suitable for walking holidays. Much of the terrain is rugged and must be treated by the novice with caution. Many national parks organize walks led by experienced walkers, For those who do not wish to venture into the moors and mountains, there are numerous delightful walks to be taken in the national parks.



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