Getting Back to Nature: Access and Recreation in the Protected Spaces of Southwest Britain

This project pioneers the comparative study of two categories of nationally protected land in Britain: national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The study area is southwest England and south Wales. Within this area, four twinned study sites have been selected: the national parks of the Pembrokeshire coast and Exmoor, and their near neighbours, the Gower Peninsula and the Quantock Hills AONBs. Gower was the first designated AONB in England and Wales (1956), closely followed by the Quantocks (1957), England's first AONB. Pembrokeshire was the first coastal national park (1952) specifically established for its coastal values. Exmoor (1954) was included in the initial rounds of national parks designation. Pembrokeshire and Gower constitute the first paired sites and Gower and the Quantocks form the second pair.

The central research question is the difference in the formative legislation (Addison Report, 1931; Dower Report, 1945; Hobhouse Report 1947) that determined the selection, designation, and future protection of landscapes as either national park or AONB. National parks, from the outset, had a dual purpose to protect landscapes for their natural beauty and preserve them for the enjoyment and open-air recreation of the British public. AONBs did not receive a statutory mandate to provide recreation and public access. This was initially a protective designation without the clear position regarding recreation and access that national parks were given from the start.

The central paradox in national park designation, between environmental protection and the provision of a recreational amenity, is one of this study's main themes. I will investigate whether this initial legislative difference has led to different usages and expectations. The attempts of national park and AONB authorities to reconcile landscape 'use' with landscape 'delight' (to employ the language of T.C. Smout) lies at the heart of this project. This study charts the identification by individuals and groups of Pembrokeshire, Gower, Exmoor and the Quantocks as places of recreation, and investigate the relationship between recognition of landscape quality and notions of appropriate use. How landscapes are defined and classified in terms of value (scenic, environmental, cultural-historical and recreational) influences the manner in which they are enjoyed. Whilst my proposed study sites have historically been highly valued for their landscape quality - Wordsworth and Coleridge, for example, found inspiration in the open ridges and thickly wooded valleys of the Quantocks, and enshrined in their poetic works particular landscape values that have powerfully shaped the Western sensibility toward nature and the outdoors - some more recent approaches to the purpose and use of these sites challenge traditional notions, and generate conflict. I will focus on the rise of outdoor leisure pursuits, especially so-called 'extreme' or 'adventure' sports, and examine the close and complex relationship between landscape protection, landscape enjoyment and landscape use through a place-based, site-specific approach.

My identified research area connects with two key AHRC emerging themes. Addressing 'Care for the Future: Thinking Forward Through the Past', my research takes the vital issue of understanding shifting cultural values, and applies it to places that many know and enjoy, yet often without being aware of their history and protected status, and which few scholars have studied in depth. I will explore the changing cultural values attached to these British landscapes, and how they have been expressed and enshrined via legislation, and reflected through use and land management policies.

My work also addresses the 'Connected Communities' theme by exploring different understandings and uses of particular landscapes within the communities that live, work and play in these sites. As well as examining and working with those who formulate and implement policy, I shall investigate and liaise with user groups representing particular recreational interests, such as the British Mountaineering Council (based in Manchester) and Surfers Against Sewage (St Agnes, Cornwall), who have spearheaded campaigns to improve access to sites within national parks, particularly in Pembrokeshire. The watchdog groups constitute another category of non-official community group included in my research. Improved historical knowledge of past policies and practices and the relationship between local community and national stakeholders has the capacity to inform future policy. From speaking with employees of national parks and AONB authorities, I have established that there is a genuine interest in this research, and the future collaborations to which it could lead (at this stage, formal partnerships are not necessary to facilitate the research). The stewardship of Britain's cultural heritage - the landscape component of which looms so large - is squarely addressed by a keener understanding of how these landscapes have been used, altered and protected over the past half-century. An awareness of the past will help secure long-term protection policies that can preserve landscapes and their associated environmental values far into the future, while responding to the demands of the present.

Interaction with landscape management professionals will be a central ingredient of my research. Harder to quantify but no less important than publication of two academic articles will be knowledge exchange with those working at and using the selected sites. My study is timely, as the sixtieth anniversaries of Gower (2016) and Quantock (2017) AONBs approach, and discussion of plans for commemorative activities will be a leading aspect of the end-of-fellowship workshop.

An ECF will enable me to establish research methods and forge links with managers at Quantock and Gower AONBs and Exmoor and Pembrokeshire national parks who will be included as project partners on a planned inter-university project based at Bristol. This project (currently in its early planning stage) will build on the success of the AHRC-funded project, 'Militarized Landscapes in Twentieth Century Britain, France and the USA' (2007-10), continuing research into British landscape protection and use that began with the exploration of military training areas by the project members, and was extended by my attendance at two of the three site-specific workshops that were the focus of the AHRC Research Network 'Local Places, Global Processes: Histories of Environmental Change' Research Network (for which my proposed ECF mentor is Principal Investigator). Just as the Militarized Landscapes project worked effectively with Defence Estates as project partner, this ECF will allow me to cultivate working links with the AONB and national park authorities that I hope to consolidate by including them as partners on the planned consortium project.