Fight for it Now – John Dower and the Struggle for National
Parks in Britain.
David Wilkinson – Signal Books
National Parks are the jewels in the crown of the
countryside. They didn’t though grow themselves; they had to be fought for. One
man who did was trade unionist Benny Rothman whose leadership of the 1932
Kinder Scout Trespass led to his and four fellow ramblers’ imprisonment. That sparked
such public outrage that it brought to the fore the issue of countryside access.
This thereafter refused to dampen down and encouraged those already campaigning
for passage to the hills to push on with their proposals even during WWII.
No one did more than ensure we have National Parks than Ilkley
born John Dower whose life long battle for their creation, was only finally won
two years after he lost his life to tuberculosis (TB) in October 1947.
The story is powerfully captured by David Wilkinson in his
biography that charts the long journey between conception and realisation of a
dream that many others were also happy to make a reality.
Civil servant and architect Dower had a blue plaque unveiled
in his honour at Malham YHA late last year on the 75th anniversary of
the December 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act.
Building on the (Dr Christopher) Addison Committee report of
1931 that proposed Britain designated National Parks, but which was overlooked
during a period of great economic crisis, Dower, already involved in
discussions about national planning, conducted extensive surveys of SW England
on behalf of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England and Somerset
County Council.
Forty thousand copies of his The Case for National Parks
in Great Britain, 1938 pamphlet were well received and was a significant
boost to the Standing Committee on National Parks, established in 1935 by
numerous open-air groups.
When war was declared, Dower volunteered but a year later he
was declared permanently unfit for active service with what was eventually
diagnosed as TB. It meant that in March 1941 he joined what later became the Ministry
of Works and Planning.
With the coalition government containing trade unionists,
all determined amidst the horrors of war to offer a vision of the future better
than in 1920s and 1930s, he was charged with writing a White Paper. This established
the key National Park principles of agricultural and recreational development,
retention of characteristic landscapes and protection of wildlife and buildings
in extensive areas of beautiful and relatively wild country.
Over the following years these aims and how to implement
them had to be negotiated with local and national government departments and
countryside interest groups such as the NFU. Although the final legislation
would not have been exactly what Dower wanted the 1949 Countryside Act was a
massive improvement on what had gone before. Much later the Countryside and
Rights of Way Act 2000 strengthened the right to roam across some of the most
beautiful countryside in England and Wales.
To read more on Rothman download for free Unite’s booklet on
him by Mark Metcalf at:- https://bit.ly/4k7sCnn
Watch also Mass Trespass https://bit.ly/4mcH4N0
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