A Voice For The Landscape

In 1951 the Lake District was designated as a national park. That designation aimed to further the conservation and enhancement of the area’s natural beauty while also promoting its enjoyment by the public. Yet, as would quickly become clear, national park status did not automatically safeguard one of England’s most beautiful landscapes. From proposals to clutter the valleys with electricity poles and water schemes that involved flodding valleys and draining lakes to the infrastructural demands presented by increasing volumes of traffic and a burgeoning tourist trade: the Lake District National Park became a landscape under threat.

In this book Jeremy Rowan Robinson draws upon a wealth of primary source material to assess these threats and, significantly, to document the responses that were mounted and the outcomes that were reached. To do so he examines the role of one of the landscape’s most ardent defenders: the Friends of the Lake District. The society, established in 1934 to campaign for the designation of the Lake District as a national park, became continously engaged in ensuring that the landscape was given a powerful voice in decisions over development proposals. This book chronicles the Friends’ involvement in some of the biggest proposals affecting the landscape of the area and, by doing so, offers a unique insight into the history of the Lake District.