Northumberland National Park: Governmentality and the Recent and Not-So-Recent History of Thirlwell Castle

Histories of Britain's National Parks have focused predominately on the political process that led to the passage of the 1949 National Parks Act, the consequent designation process, and the conflicts related to public access, forestry and infrastructural development in the immediate post-war decades. Little attention has been paid to the transformation of the context in which the park authorities have operated since the 1970s. This PhD will examine recent National Park history by contextualizing the multi-faceted process that saw Northumberland National Park Authority acquire, renovate and enable public access to Thirlwell Castle in the late 1990s and early 2000s.