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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Greetings everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This

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Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a podcast that never gets tired

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Speaker 1: of history. Today is April sevent The day was April seventeenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one. The Peak District became the first national

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Speaker 1: park in the UK. Before the nineteenth century, wild and

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Speaker 1: remote areas in the UK countryside were viewed as untamed

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Speaker 1: and unsafe, but by the early nineteenth century people have

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Speaker 1: begun viewing these remote areas more favorably. English poets like

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Speaker 1: Samuel Taylor, Coleridge and William Wordsworth romanticized the countryside in

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Speaker 1: their work Yellowstone, the first national park in the United States,

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Speaker 1: was established in eighteen seventy two. Yellowstone is sometimes considered

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Speaker 1: the world's first national park, though this is disputed because

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Speaker 1: there were nationally protected areas in some countries already. Regardless,

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Speaker 1: more national parks began popping up around the world in

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Speaker 1: the late eighteen hundreds, such as the Royal National Park

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Speaker 1: in Australia and Banff National Park in Canada. By the

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Speaker 1: late nineteenth century in the UK, people have begun fighting

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Speaker 1: for the right to rome a lot of the land

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Speaker 1: in the UK was privately owned, and over the years

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Speaker 1: people put forth more demands for access to restricted land.

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Speaker 1: The freedom to rome is a principle that states that

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Speaker 1: people have the right to access land for recreation and exercise.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty four, James Bryce, a member of Parliament,

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Speaker 1: introduced the first parliamentary Bill for public access to the countryside.

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Speaker 1: The bill failed, but it was reintroduced every year for

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Speaker 1: the next few decades, only to fail each time. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: public appreciation for natural areas and door recreation was growing.

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Speaker 1: As industrialization spread across England and cities expanded, people began

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Speaker 1: walking around the countryside. At the end of the eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: people began forming rambling clubs in In nineteen o five,

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Speaker 1: the Federation of Rambling Clubs formed in London. As more

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Speaker 1: people began to seek access to private land, conflict between

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Speaker 1: landowners and public interest groups escalated. In nineteen thirty one,

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Speaker 1: a government inquiry recommended the creation of an authority to

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Speaker 1: choose areas for designation as national parks, but this proposal

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Speaker 1: went nowhere. The next year, in an event known as

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Speaker 1: the kinder Scout mass trespass, hundreds of people gathered to

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Speaker 1: protest the fact that people were being denied access to

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Speaker 1: areas of open country. In nineteen thirty six, a voluntary

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Speaker 1: Standing Committee on National Parks was formed to advocate for

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Speaker 1: national parks and lobby the government. The committee was made

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Speaker 1: up of leisure activity enthusiasts and nature conservationists. World War

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Speaker 1: Two broke out in nineteen thirty nine, but the campaign

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Speaker 1: for the creation of national parks continued, and as the

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Speaker 1: war neared its end. In nineteen forty five, John Dower,

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Speaker 1: who was Secretary of the Standing Committee on National Parks,

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Speaker 1: produced a white paper on National Parks as part of

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Speaker 1: the Labor Party's planned post war reconstruction. This report led

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Speaker 1: to Sir Arthur hop Houses Report in ninety seven, which

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Speaker 1: prepared legislation for the creation of national parks in the UK.

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Speaker 1: The report also proposed a list of twelve areas to

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Speaker 1: be designated as national parks. Two years later, the National

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Speaker 1: Parks and Access to the Countryside Act was passed. On

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Speaker 1: April seventeenth, nineteen fifty one, the Peak District became the

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Speaker 1: first area to be designated a National park in the UK.

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Speaker 1: The Peak District is an upland area in England at

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Speaker 1: the southern end of the Pennines. Its highest point is

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Speaker 1: the Moreland Plateau of kinder Scout, and throughout the park

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Speaker 1: is publicly and privately owned. By the end of the

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, several more national parks were established. Unlike national

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Speaker 1: parks in other countries, the state does not own or

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Speaker 1: control the land in UK national parks. The national parks

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Speaker 1: continue to be part of conversations related to the freedom

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Speaker 1: to rome, conservation and development. The Peak District National Park

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Speaker 1: has around thirteen million visitors every year. I'm Eves Jeff

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Speaker 1: Coote and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to send

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Speaker 1: d I h C podcast. You can also send us

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Speaker 1: a message via email at this day at i heart

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Speaker 1: media dot com. Thanks again for listening to the show

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Speaker 1: and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts for my

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