2009 saw the 60th anniversary of the Act which created the National Parks of England and Wales. It established how the countryside could be protected and enjoyed by future generations - and there was a lot to celebrate.
Visit www.diamondsinthelandscape.org.uk to find out more about the family of National Parks and other protected areas, as well as spectacular walks around the country held in our diamond jubilee year.
Diamonds in the landscape: the shaping of national parks
The first national parks were set up in America in the 1860s when the government saw the need to protect wilderness areas from exploitation and make them available for all to enjoy.
Although Britain at that time had no such wild areas – our moors and mountains were nearly all farmed or managed in some way - there were influential individuals who recognised that increased industrialisation was a threat to the beauty of our more remote countryside.
Spiritual refreshment
These people founded conservation organisations such as the National Trust and began to lobby for more formal protection from the government. Social reformers also felt that it should be the right of all to access clean air and enjoy the spiritual refreshment offered by walking in open countryside.
Movements such as the Co-operative Holidays’ Association brought young factory workers on outings to the countryside, eventually building their own guesthouses such as the one in Hebden opened in 1909.
Mass trespass
By the 1930s more and more people were seeking an escape from towns and cities and there was growing conflict with landowners. 
The mass trespass on Kinder Scout in the Peak District was one of the more famous examples where walkers exercised what they saw as their right to walk unhindered on open moorland. They faced opposition from gamekeepers employed by local landowners. Scuffles broke out and the police arrested several of the trespassers with some ending up in jail.
At the end of World War II, the Labour government set up committees to examine long term land use and ‘nature preservation’ became part of the post-war reconstruction effort. Thanks to the pre-war campaigns there was an emphasis on making countryside available for recreation for all, not just nature conservation.
Great natural beauty
John Dower – architect and rambler – was asked to report on how the National Park ideal could work for England and Wales.
John lived at Kirkby Malham here in the Yorkshire Dales and was secretary of the Standing Committee on National Parks which had been formed in 1936.
Malham Youth Hostel, opened in 1938, was designed by John and was the first purpose-built Youth Hostel in Yorkshire. John believed passionately that the countryside should be there for all to enjoy, whatever their background, and the Youth Hostel movement was one of the ways that young working class people at that time could access these beautiful places. NB The hostel was dedicated to John’s memory in 1948.
The Dower Report in 1945 led directly to Sir Arthur Hobhouse’s 1947 report which prepared the legislation for the creation of national parks in England and Wales.
He described the essential requirements for a national park as follows:
“…it should have great natural beauty, a high value for open-air recreation and substantial continuous extent. Further, the distribution of selected areas should as far as practicable be such that at least one of them is quickly accessible from each of the main centres of population in England and Wales. Lastly there is merit in variety and with the wide diversity of landscape which is available in England and Wales, it would be wrong to confine the selection of National Parks to the more rugged areas of mountain and moorland, and to exclude other districts which, though of less outstanding grandeur and wildness, have their own distinctive beauty and a high recreational value.”
In 1949 the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act was passed and ten national parks were created over the following decade, the Yorkshire Dales National Park in 1954.
Designation date of UK National Parks (and size in square miles)
Peak District (1951) 555
Lake District (1951) 885
Snowdonia (1951) 840
Dartmoor (1951) 368
North York Moors (1952) 554
Pembrokeshire Coast (1952) 240
Exmoor (1954) 267
Yorkshire Dales (1954) 685
Northumberland (1956) 405
Brecon Beacons (1957) 519
The Broads (1989) 117
Loch Lomond & the Trossachs (2002) 720
Cairngorms (2003) 1,467
New Forest (2005) 220
South Downs (proposed) 1,020
Living, working landscapes
Although ‘national’ in the sense that they are of special value because of their beauty and the recreational opportunities they offer to all, National Parks are not nationally owned. The rich patterns in the landscape were created by farmers and landowners over thousands of years and today most of the land remains in their hands.
National park authorities work alongside many others to make sure national parks have the sustainable future intended by all those who fought for the conservation.
To protect our National Parks, help visitors enjoy them and look after the needs of local communities, we manage public rights of way, advise farmers on grants, work with woodland owners on good management, encourage the conservation of historic buildings, provide information centres and an education service, run events, and much more.
National Parks face many challenges, from changes in upland farming, pressures from tourism and the need for affordable housing, to the impact of climate change on the environment.
You can help by:
- Respecting the life and work of people who live here – remember much of the land is privately-owned
- Being a green tourist - support local businesses, eat locally and stay overnight; give your car a holiday and consider using public transport to get around
- Learning more about the importance of national parks and what we can all do to care for them.
Above all make the most of these national treasures. Come to the Yorkshire Dales, recharge your batteries, and enjoy this wonderful place – remember, it’s your National Park!
