The National Parks of Great Britan
The National Parks of Great Britan
School - ghymnasia ¹6
Project work
The Natieonal Parks of Great Britan
Dany by: Chernyshova Nastya
From
Teacher: Kestel
O. V.
Semey 2009
Content
1. Introduction
2. Dartmoor National park
History
Pre-history
Beardown
Man, Dartmoor
The
historical period
Myths and
literature
Towns
Physical
geography
Rivers
3. Peak district national park
History
Early
history
Medieval to
modern history
Transport
History
Totley
Tunnel on the Manchester to Sheffield line
Road network
Public
transport
Geography
4. The Broads National Park
History
Geography
5. Queen Elizabeth Park, British Columbia
History
Attractions
6. History of the New Forest
New Forest
National Park
Geography
7. Exmoor
History
Geology
Coastline
Flora
Fauna
Places of
interest
8. Yorkshire Dales
Yorkshire
Dales National Park
Geography
Cave systems
9. Lake District
General
geography
Development
of tourism
Conclusion
Additional
material
Literature
1. Introduction
The theam of my project work “National
parks of Great Britan".
National Parks of Great Britan cover
approximately 7% of the country. They did not have any special exotic animals
or plants, But such areas as Dartmoor, Peak District, Yorkshire, Valley Noth
York, the New Forest and Broads every year attract thousends of tourists. The
peculiarity of the British National parks in that it isn’t “dead" area,
And quite close to major urban areas, which allowed any activity aimed at
restoration of nature, so most of the National psrks are more like the great
urban parks or botanical gardens. Many of them - private ownership.
In my project work, I will write about some
of them.
Special attention I wiil pay to the study
of history, culture and geography.
2. Dartmoor National park
Dartmoor is an
area of moorland in the centre of Devon, England. Protected by National Park status, it covers 368 square
miles (953 km2).
The granite upland
dates from the Carboniferous
period of geological history. The
moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops (known as tors), providing habitats
for Dartmoor
wildlife. The highest point is High Willhays, 621 m (2,037
ft) above sea level. The entire area is rich in antiquities and archaeology.
Dartmoor is managed by
the Dartmoor National
Park Authority whose 26 members are drawn from Devon County Council, local District Councils and
Government.
Parts of Dartmoor have been used as a military firing range for over two
hundred years. The public enjoy extensive access rights to the rest of Dartmoor, and it is a popular tourist destination. The
Park was featured on the TV programme Seven
Natural Wonders as the top natural wonder in South
West England.
The majority of the prehistoric remains on Dartmoor date back to the late Neolithic
and early Bronze Age. Indeed,
Dartmoor contains the largest concentration of Bronze Age remains in the United Kingdom, which suggests that this was when a larger population moved onto the hills of Dartmoor.
The climate at the time was warmer than today,
and much of today’s moorland was covered with trees. The prehistoric settlers
began clearing the forest, and established the first farming communities. Fire was the main method of clearing land,
creating pasture and swidden types of
fire-fallow farmland. Areas less suited for farming, tended to be burned for
livestock grazing. Over the centuries these Neolithic practices greatly
expanded the upland moors, contributed to the acidification of the soil and the
accumulation of peat and bogs.
The nature of the soil, which is highly
acidic, means that no organic remains have survived. However, by contrast, the
high durability of the natural granite means that their homes and monuments are
still to be found in abundance, as are their flint tools. It should be noted
that a number of remains were “restored" by enthusiastic Victorians and that, in
some cases, they have placed their own interpretation on how an area may have
looked.
Numerous menhirs (more usually referred to
locally as standing
stones or longstones), stone circles, kistvaens, cairns and stone rows are to be found
on the moor. The most significant sites include:
Beardown Man, near Devil’s Tor - isolated standing stone 3.5 m (11 ft) high, said
to have another 1 m (3.3 ft) below ground. grid reference SX596796
Challacombe, near the prehistoric settlement
of Grimspound - triple stone
row. grid reference SX689807
Drizzlecombe, east of Sheepstor village - stone
circles, rows, standing stones, kistvaens and cairns. grid reference SX591669
Grey Wethers, near Postbridge - double circle,
aligned almost exactly north south. grid reference SX638831
Laughter Tor, near Two Bridges - standing
stone 2.4 m (7.9 ft) high and two double stone rows, one 164 m (540 ft) long. grid reference SX652753
Merrivale, between Princetown and Tavistock - includes a
double stone row 182 m (600 ft) long, 1.1 m (3.6 ft) wide, aligned almost
exactly east-west), stone circles and a kistvaen. grid reference SX554747
Scorhill, west of Chagford - circle, 26.8 m (88
ft) in circumference, and stone rows. grid reference SX654873
Shovel Down, north of Fernworthy
reservoir - double stone row approximately 120 m (390 ft) long. grid reference SX660859
There are also an estimated 5,000 hut circles
still surviving today, despite the fact that many have been raided over the
centuries by the builders of the traditional dry stone walls. These are the
remnants of Bronze Age houses. The smallest are around 1.8 m (6 ft) in
diameter, and the largest may be up to five times this size.
Some have L-shaped porches to protect against
wind and rain - some particularly good examples are to be found at Grimspound. It
is believed that they would have had a conical roof, supported by timbers and
covered in turf or thatch.
Many ancient structures, including the hut
circles at Grimspound, were
reconstructed during the 19th century - most notably by civil
engineer and historian Richard Hansford Worth. Some of this work was based more
on speculation than archaeological expertise, and has since been criticised for
its inaccuracy.
The climate worsened over the course of a
thousand years from around 1000 BC, so that much of high Dartmoor was largely
abandoned by its early inhabitants.
It was not until the early medieval period that the
weather again became warmer, and settlers moved back onto the moors. Like their
ancient forebears, they also used the natural granite to build their homes,
preferring a style known as the longhouse
- some of which are still inhabited today, although they have been clearly
adapted over the centuries. Many are now being used as farm buildings, while
others were abandoned and fell into ruin.
The earliest surviving farms, still in
operation today, are known as the Ancient Tenements. Most of
these date back to the 14th century and sometimes earlier.
Some way into the moor stands the town of Princetown,
the site of the notorious Dartmoor
Prison, which was originally built both by, and for, prisoners of war from the Napoleonic Wars. The prison
has a (now misplaced) reputation for being escape-proof, both due to the
buildings themselves and its physical location.
The Dartmoor landscape is scattered with the
marks left by the many generations who have lived and worked there over the
centuries - such as the remains of the once mighty Dartmoor
tin-mining industry, and farmhouses long since abandoned. Indeed the
industrial archaeology of Dartmoor is a subject in its own
right.
Dartmoor abounds with myths and legends. It is reputedly the haunt of pixies, a headless horseman, a mysterious pack
of ‘spectral hounds’, and a large black dog. During the Great Thunderstorm of 1638, Dartmoor was even said to have
been visited by the Devil.
Many landmarks have ancient legends and ghost stories associated with them, such as Jay’s Grave, the ancient
burial site at Childe’s
Tomb, the rock pile called Bowerman’s Nose, and the stone crosses that mark
mediaeval routes across the moor.
A few stories have emerged in recent decades,
such as the ‘hairy hands’,
that are said to attack travellers on the B3212 near Two Bridges.
Dartmoor has inspired a number of artists and
writers, such as Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventure of Silver Blaze, Eden Phillpotts, Beatrice Chase, Agatha Christie and the Reverend
Sabine
Baring-Gould.
and villages
Dartmoor has a resident population of about 33,400,
which swells considerably during holiday periods with incoming tourists. For a
list, expand the Settlements of Dartmoor navigational box at the bottom
of this page.
Tors.
Dartmoor is known for its
tors - large hills, topped with outcrops of
bedrock, which in granite country such as
this are usually rounded boulder-like formations. There are over 160 tors on Dartmoor. They are the focus of an annual event known as the Ten
Tors Challenge, when over a thousand people, aged between 14 and 21,
walk for distances of 35, 45 or 55 miles (56, 72 or 89 km) over ten tors on
many differing routes. While many of the hills of Dartmoor have the word “Tor”
in them quite a number do not, however this does not appear to relate to
whether there is an outcrop of rock on their summit.
The highest points on Dartmoor are High
Willhays (grid reference SX580895) at 621 m (2,040 ft)
and Yes Tor (grid reference SX581901) 619 m (2,030 ft) on
the northern moor. Ryder’s
Hill (grid reference SX690660), 515 m (1,690 ft),
Snowdon 495 m (1,620 ft), and an unnamed point at (grid reference SX603645),493 m (1,620 ft) are
the highest points on the southern moor. Probably the best known tor on
Dartmoor is Haytor (also spelt Hey Tor)
(grid reference SX757771), 457 m (1,500 ft).
For a more complete list see List of Dartmoor tors and hills.
The
levels of rainfall on Dartmoor are considerably higher than in the surrounding
lowlands. With much of the national park covered in thick layers of peat, the rain is usually absorbed quickly and
distributed slowly, so that the moor is rarely dry.
In areas where water accumulates, dangerous bogs or mires can result. Some of these, up to
12 feet (3.7 m) across and topped with bright green moss, are known to locals
as “feather beds” or “quakers", because they shift (or ‘quake’) beneath
your feet. This is the result of accumulations of sphagnum moss growing over a
hollow in the granite filled with water.
Another consequence of the high rainfall is
that there are numerous rivers and streams on Dartmoor. As well as shaping the
landscape, these have traditionally provided a source of power for moor
industries such as tin
mining and quarrying.
The Moor takes its name from the River Dart, which starts as
the East Dart and West Dart and then becomes
a single river at Dartmeet.
For a full list, expand the Rivers of
Dartmoor navigational box at the bottom of this page.
Angling.
Angling
is a popular pastime on the moor, especially for migratory fish such as salmon.
Kayaking and canoeing.
Dartmoor is a focal point for whitewater kayaking and canoeing, due to the
previously mentioned high rainfall and high quality of rivers. The River Dart is the
most prominent meeting place, the section known as the Loop being particularly popular, but the Erme, Plym, Tavy and Teign are also
frequently paddled. There are other rivers on the moor which can be paddled,
including the Walkham
and Bovey. The access situation is variable on Dartmoor, some paddlers have
experienced difficulties with landowners, while others have had a friendly
reception.
3. Peak district national park
The Peak District is an upland area in
central and northern England,
lying mainly in northern Derbyshire,
but also covering parts of Cheshire,
Greater
Manchester, Staffordshire,
and South
and West Yorkshire.
Most of the area falls within the Peak
District National Park, whose designation in 1951 made it the earliest national park in the British Isles. An area of
great diversity, it is conventionally split into the northern Dark Peak, where most of
the moorland is found and whose
geology is gritstone, and the southern
White Peak, where most of
the population lives and where the geology is mainly limestone-based. Proximity
to the major cities of Manchester
and Sheffield and the counties
of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Staffordshire
coupled with easy access by road and rail, have all contributed to its
popularity. With an estimated 22 million visitors per year, the Peak District
is thought to be the second most-visited national park in the world (after the Mount Fuji National Park in Japan).
The
Peak District has been settled from the earliest periods of human activity, as
is evidenced by occasional finds of Mesolithic flint artefacts
and by palaeoenvironmental evidence from caves in Dovedale and elsewhere. There
is also evidence of Neolithic
activity, including some monumental earthworks or barrows (burial mounds) such
as that at Margery
Hill. [12] In
the Bronze Age the area was
well populated and farmed, and evidence of these people survives in henges such as Arbor Low near Youlgreave or the Nine Ladies Stone Circle at
Stanton Moor. In the same
period, and on into the Iron Age,
a number of significant hillforts such as that at Mam Tor were created. Roman occupation was sparse
but the Romans certainly exploited the rich mineral veins of the area,
exporting lead from the Buxton area
along well-used routes. There were Roman settlements, including one at Buxton
which was known to them as “Aquae Arnemetiae” in recognition of its spring,
dedicated to the local goddess.
Theories as to the derivation of the Peak
District name include the idea that it came from the Pecsaetan or peaklanders,
an Anglo-Saxon tribe who inhabited the central and northern parts of the area
from the 6th century AD when it fell within the large Anglian kingdom of Mercia.
In medieval and early modern times the land
was mainly agricultural, as it still is today, with sheep farming, rather than
arable, the main activity in these upland holdings. However, from the 16th
century onwards the mineral and geological wealth of the Peak became
increasingly significant. Not only lead, but also coal, copper (at Ecton),
zinc, iron, manganese and silver have all been mined here. Celia Fiennes, describing
her journey through the Peak in 1697, wrote of ‘those craggy hills whose
bowells are full of mines of all kinds off black and white and veined marbles,
and some have mines of copper, others tinn and leaden mines, in w [hi] ch is a
great deale of silver. ’ Lead mining peaked in the 17th and 18th
centuries and began to decline from the mid-19th century, with the
last major mine closing in 1939, though lead remains a by-product of fluorspar, baryte and calcite mining (see Derbyshire lead mining history for details). Limestone and
gritstone quarries flourished as lead mining declined, and remain an important
industry in the Peak.
Large reservoirs such as Woodhead
and Howden
were built from the late 19th century onward to supply the growing
urban areas surrounding the Peak District, often flooding large areas of
farmland and depopulating the surrounding land in an attempt to improve the
water purity.
The northern moors of Saddleworth and Wessenden
gained notoriety in the 1960s as the burial site of several children murdered
by the so-called Moors
Murderers, Ian Brady
and Myra Hindley.
The first roads in the Peak were constructed
by the Romans, although they may have followed existing tracks. The Roman
network is thought to have linked the settlements and forts of Aquae Arnemetiae
(Buxton), Chesterfield,
Ardotalia (Glossop) and Navio (Brough-on-Noe), and
extended outwards to Danum (Doncaster),
Manucium (Manchester) and Derventio (Little Chester, near Derby).
Parts of the modern A515 and A53 roads south of Buxton are believed to run
along Roman roads.
Packhorse routes
criss-crossed the Peak in the Medieval era, and some paved causeways are
believed to date from this period, such as the Long Causeway along Stanage. However, no
highways were marked on Saxton’s
map of Derbyshire, published in 1579. Bridge-building improved the transport
network; a surviving early example is the three-arched gritstone bridge over the
River Derwent at Baslow,
which dates from 1608 and has an adjacent toll-shelter. [18] Although
the introduction of turnpike roads
(toll roads) from 1731 reduced journey times, the journey from Sheffield to
Manchester in 1800 still took 16 hours, prompting Samuel
Taylor Coleridge to remark that ‘a tortoise could outgallop us! ’From
around 1815 onwards, turnpike roads both increased in length and improved in
quality. An example is the Snake Road,
built under the direction of Thomas Telford in 1819-21 (now
the A57); the name refers to the crest of the Dukes
of Devonshire. The Cromford Canal opened in
1794, carrying coal, lead and iron ore to the Erewash Canal.
Totley
Tunnel on
the Manchester to Sheffield line
The improved roads and the Cromford Canal both shortly came under competition from new railways, with work on the first
railway in the Peak commencing in 1825. Although the Cromford and High Peak Railway (from Cromford Canal to Whaley Bridge) was an
industrial railway, passenger services soon followed, including the Woodhead Line (Sheffield to
Manchester via Longdendale)
and the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and
Midlands Junction Railway. Not everyone regarded the railways as an
improvement. John Ruskin
wrote of the Monsal Dale line: ‘You enterprised a railroad through the valley,
you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely
stream. The valley is gone, and the gods with it; and now, every fool in Buxton
can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton.
By the second half of the 20th
century, the pendulum had swung back towards road transport. The Cromford Canal was largely abandoned in 1944, and several of the rail lines passing through
the Peak were closed as uneconomic in the 1960s as part of the Beeching Axe. The Woodhead
Line was closed between Hadfield
and Penistone; parts of the trackbed are now used for the Trans-Pennine
Trail, the stretch between Hadfield and Woodhead being known
specifically as the Longdendale
Trail. The Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway
is now closed between Rowsley
and Buxton where the trackbed forms part of the Monsal Trail. The Cromford
and High Peak Railway is now completely shut, with part of the trackbed open to
the public as the High
Peak Trail. Another disused rail line between Buxton and Ashbourne
now forms the Tissington
Trail.
The main roads through the Peak District are
the A57 (Snake Pass) between
Sheffield and Manchester, the A628 (Woodhead Pass) between Barnsley and Manchester via
Longdendale, the A6
from Derby to Manchester via Buxton, and the Cat
and Fiddle road from Macclesfield to Buxton. These roads, and the
pretty minor roads and lanes, are attractive to drivers, but the Peak’s
popularity makes road congestion a significant problem especially during summer.
The Peak District is readily accessible by
public transport, which reaches even central areas. Train services into the
area are the Hope
Valley Line from Sheffield and Manchester; the Derwent
Valley Line from Derby to Matlock; and the Buxton Line and the Glossop Line linking those
towns to Manchester. Coach (long-distance bus) services provide access to Matlock,
Bakewell and Buxton from Derby, Nottingham and Manchester, and there are
regular buses from the nearest towns such as Sheffield, Glossop, Stoke, Leek
and Chesterfield. The nearest airports are Manchester,
East
Midlands and Doncaster-Sheffield.
For such a rural area, the smaller villages of
the Peak are relatively well served by internal transport links. There are many
minibuses operating from the main towns (Bakewell, Matlock, Hathersage,
Castleton, Tideswell and Ashbourne) out to the small villages. The Hope Valley and Buxton Line trains also serves many local stations (including Hathersage,
Hope and Edale).
The Peak District forms the southern end of
the Pennines and much of the
area is uplands above 1,000 feet (300 m), with a high point on Kinder Scout of 2,087 feet
(636 m). Despite its name, the landscape lacks sharp peaks, being characterised
by rounded hills and gritstone escarpments (the “edges”). The area is
surrounded by major conurbations, including Huddersfield, Manchester, Sheffield, Derby and Stoke-on-Trent.
The National Park covers 555 square miles (1,440
km2) of Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and
South and West Yorkshire, including the majority of the area commonly referred
to as the Peak. The Park boundaries were drawn to exclude large built-up areas
and industrial sites from the park; in particular, the town of Buxton and the adjacent quarries are
located at the end of the Peak Dale
corridor, surrounded on three sides by the Park. The town of Bakewell and numerous
villages are, however, included within the boundaries, as is much of the (non-industrial)
west of Sheffield. As of 2006, it is the fourth largest National Park in England and Wales. As always
in Britain, the designation “National Park” means that there are planning
restrictions to protect the area from inappropriate development, and a Park
Authority to look after it-but does not imply that the land is owned by the
government, or is uninhabited.
High Peak panorama between Hayfield and Chinley
12% of the Peak District National Park is
owned by the National Trust, a charity
which aims to conserve historic and natural landscapes. It does not receive
government funding. The three Trust estates (High Peak, South Peak and Longshaw) include the
ecologically or geologically significant areas of Bleaklow, Derwent Edge, Hope Woodlands, Kinder
Scout, Leek
and Manifold, Mam Tor,
Dovedale, Milldale
and Winnats Pass. The Peak
District National Park Authority directly owns around 5%, and other major
landowners include several water companies.
The Broads is a
network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes (known locally as broads) in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Broads, and some surrounding land was constituted as a special area with a level of
protection similar to a UK National Park by The Norfolk and Suffolk
Broads Act of 1988. The Broads Authority, a
Special Statutory Authority responsible for managing the area, became
operational in 1989
The total area is 303 km² (188 sq.miles),
most of which is in Norfolk, with over 200 km (125 miles) of navigable
waterways. There are seven rivers and sixty three broads, mostly less than
twelve feet deep. Thirteen broads are generally open to navigation, with a
further three having navigable channels. Some broads have navigation
restrictions imposed on them in autumn and winter.
Although the terms Norfolk Broads and Suffolk
Broads are used to identify those areas within the two counties
respectively, the whole area is sometimes referred to as the “Norfolk Broads”. The
Broads has the same status as the national parks in England and Wales but as well as the Broads Authority having powers and duties almost identical to the
national parks it is also the third largest inland navigation authority. Because
of its navigation role the Broads Authority was established under its own
legislation on 1 April 1989. More recently the Authority wanted to change the
name of the area to The Broads National Park in recognition of the fact that
the status of the area is equivalent to the rest of the national park family
but was unable to get agreement from all the different parties. The Private
Bill the Authority is promoting through Parliament is largely about improving
public safety on the water and the Authority did not want to delay or jeopardise
these provisions for the name issue, so the provision was dropped before the
Bill was deposited in Parliament.
For many years the broads were regarded as
natural features of the landscape. It was only in the 1960s that Dr Joyce Lambert proved
that they were artificial features, the effect of flooding on early peat excavations. The Romans first exploited
the rich peat beds of the area for fuel, and in the Middle Ages the local
monasteries began to excavate the peat lands as a turbary business, selling
fuel to Norwich and Great Yarmouth. The
Cathedral took 320,000 tonnes of peat a year. Then the sea levels began to
rise, and the pits began to flood. Despite the construction of windpumps and dykes,
the flooding continued and resulted in the typical Broads landscape of today,
with its reed beds, grazing marshes
and wet woodland.
The Broads have been a favourite boating
holiday destination since the early 20th century. The waterways are lock-free, although there
are three bridges under which only small cruisers can pass. The area attracts
all kinds of visitors, including ramblers, artists, anglers, and bird-watchers
as well as people “messing about in boats". There are a number of companies
hiring boats for leisure use, including both yachts and motor launches. The Norfolk Wherry, the
traditional cargo craft of the area, can still be seen on the Broads as some
specimens have been preserved and restored.
Ted Ellis, a local naturalist, referred to the
Broads as “the breathing space for the cure of souls”.
A great variety of boats can be found on the Broads, from Edwardian trading wherries to state-of-the-art electric or solar-powered boats.
The point at which the River Yare and the River Waveney merge into Breydon Water
Yachts on
the Norfolk Broads
How Hill
St. Benet’s
Abbey
The Broads largely follows the line of the
rivers and natural navigations of the area. There are seven navigable rivers,
the River Yare and its (direct
and indirect) tributaries the Rivers Bure, Thurne, Ant, Waveney, Chet and Wensum. There are no locks
on any of the rivers (except for Mutford lock in Oulton Broad that links to the
saltwater Lake
Lothing in Lowestoft),
all the waterways are subject to tidal influence. The tidal range decreases
with distance from the sea, with highly tidal areas such as Breydon Water contrasted
with effectively non-tidal reaches such as the River Ant upstream of Barton Broad.
The broads themselves range in size from small
pools to the large expanses of Hickling Broad, Barton
Broad and Breydon Water. The broads are unevenly distributed, with far more
broads in the northern half of Broadland (the Rivers Bure, Thurne and Ant) than
in the central and southern portions (the Rivers Yare, Waveney, Chet and Wensum).
Individual broads may lie directly on the river, or are more often situated to
one side and connected to the river by an artificial channel or dyke.
Besides the natural watercourses of the
rivers, and the ancient but artificial broads, there is one more recent
navigation canal, the lock-less New Cut
which connects the Rivers Yare and Waveney whilst permitting boats to by-pass
Breydon Water.
There is also a second navigable link to the
sea, via the River Waveney and its link to Oulton Broad. Oulton Broad
is part of the Broads tidal system, but is immediately adjacent to Lake Lothing which is
itself directly connected to the sea via the harbour at Lowestoft. Oulton Broad and
Lake Lothing are connected by Mutford Lock, the only lock on the broads and
necessary because of the different tidal ranges and cycles in the two lakes.
In the lists below, names of broads are emboldened
to help distinguish them from towns and villages.
Queen Elizabeth Park is a municipal park located in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Little Mountain (elevation
approximately 168 metres (550 feet) above sea level). Its surface was scarred at the turn
of the twentieth century when it was quarried for its rock, which served to
build Vancouver’s first roadways.
In 1930, the park’s floral future was somewhat
revealed when the BC Tulip Association suggested the notion of transforming the
quarries into sunken gardens. By the end of that decade, the site had been
turned over to the Vancouver Park Board for park and recreation purposes, and
was dedicated as such by King George VI and his consort, Queen
Elizabeth (the present Queen’s late mother) on their much lauded
visit to Vancouver in 1939, as King
and Queen of Canada. From that time, Park staff incrementally
transformed the overgrown hillsides into Canada’s first civic arboretum, with a generous
donation from the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association. The
popular quarry gardens were designed by Park Board Deputy Superintendent Bill
Livingstone and were unveiled in the early 1960s.
Prentice Bloedel’s $1.25 million covered the
open reservoirs and built the country’s first geodesic conservatory surrounded
by covered walkways, lighted fountains and a magnificent sculpture (Knife Edge -
Two Piece) by modern artist Henry Moore.
The Bloedel Floral Conservatory opened on December 6, 1969 amidst much jubilation with its many
climatic zones, displaying a huge variety of plants and a superb selection of
free flying tropical birds.
There are several other attractions in the
park. These include a pitch and
putt golf course, a disc golf
course, tennis courts, a lawn bowling
club, and a restaurant.
A view of the park
New Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the
largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south
east of England. It covers south west Hampshire and some of
contiguous southeast Wiltshire.
The name also refers to the New Forest National Park which has similar boundaries. Additionally
the New
Forest local government district is a subdivision of Hampshire
which covers most of the forest, and some nearby areas although it is no
longer the planning authority for the National Park. There are many small
villages dotted around the area.
The highest point in the New Forest is Piper’s
Wait, just west of Bramshaw.
Its summit is at 125 m (410 ft) above
mean sea level
Like much of England, the New Forest was
originally woodland, but parts were cleared for cultivation from the Stone Age and into the Bronze Age. However, the
poor quality of the soil in the new forest meant that the cleared areas turned
into heathland “waste”. There are around 250 round barrows [1] within
its boundaries, and scattered boiling mounds, and it also
includes about 150 scheduled ancient monuments.
The New Forest was created as a royal forest around 1080
by William
the Conqueror for the hunting of (mainly) deer. It was first recorded as “Nova Foresta"
in the Domesday Book in 1086, and is the only forest that the book describes in
detail. Twelfth-century chroniclers alleged that William had created the forest
by evicting the inhabitants of thirty-six parishes, reducing a flourishing
district to a wasteland; however, this account is dubious, as the poor soil in
much of the forest is incapable of supporting large-scale agriculture, and
significant areas appear to have always been uninhabited. Two of William’s sons
died in the forest, Prince
Richard in 1081 and William
Rufus in 1100. The reputed spot of the Rufus’ death is marked with a
stone known as the Rufus
Stone.
As
of 2005, roughly ninety per cent of the New Forest is still owned by the Crown. The Crown lands
have been managed by the Forestry
Commission since 1923. Around half of the Crown lands fall inside
the new National Park.
Formal commons rights were
confirmed by statute in 1698. Over time, the New Forest became a source of
timber for the Royal Navy,
and plantations were deliberately created in the 18th century for
this specific purpose. In the Great
Storm of 1703, about four thousand oak trees were lost in the New Forest.
The naval plantations encroached on the rights
of the Commoners, but the Forest gained new protection under an Act of Parliament in 1877. The
New Forest Act 1877 confirmed the historic
rights of the Commoners and prohibited the enclosure of more than 16,000 acres (65 km²) at any time. It also
reconstituted the Court of Verderers as representatives of the Commoners (rather
than the Crown).
Felling of broadleaf trees, and replacement by
conifers, began during the First World War to meet the
wartime demand for wood. Further encroachments were made in the Second World War. This
process is today being reversed in places, with some plantations being returned
to heathland or broadleaf woodland.
Further New Forest Acts followed in 1949, 1964
and 1970. The New Forest became a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1971,
and was granted special status as the “New Forest Heritage Area” in 1985, with
additional planning controls added in 1992. The New Forest was proposed as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in June 1999, and it became a National Park
in 2005.
Edward Rutherfurd’s work of
historical
fiction, The
Forest, is based in the New Forest in the time period from 1099
through 2000.
New Forest National Park
Consultations on the possible designation of a
National Park in the New Forest were commenced
by the Countryside
Agency in 1999. An order to create the park was made by the Agency
on 24 January 2002 and submitted to the Secretary of State for
confirmation in February 2002. Following objections from seven local
authorities and others, a Public
Inquiry was held from 8 October 2002 to 10 April 2003, concluding
with that the proposal should be endorsed with some detailed changes to the
boundary of the area to be designated.
On 28 June 2004, Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael confirmed the
government’s intention to designate the area as a National Park, with further
detailed boundary adjustments. The area was formally designated as such on 1
March 2005. A National
Park Authority for the New Forest was established on 1 April 2005
and assumed its full statutory powers on 1 April 2006. The Forestry
Commission retain their powers to manage the Crown land within the
Park, and the Verderers under the New Forest Acts also retain their
responsibilities, and the Park Authority is expected to co-operate with these
bodies, the local authorities, English Nature and other
interested parties.
The designated area of the National Park
covers 571 km² (141097 acres) and includes many existing SSSIs. It has a population of approximately
38,000 (excluding most of the 170,256 people who live in the New
Forest local government district). As well as most of the New
Forest district of Hampshire,
it takes in the South
Hampshire Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a small corner of Test Valley district around
the village of Canada and part of the Salisbury
district in Wiltshire south-east of Redlynch.
However, the area covered by the park does not
include all the areas which were initially proposed; excluding most of the
valley of the River
Avon to the west of the forest and Dibden Bay to the east. Two challenges
were made to the designation order, by Meyrick Estate Management Ltd in
relation to the inclusion of Hinton Admiral Park, and by
RWE Npower Plc to the inclusion
of Fawley
Power Station. The second challenge was settled out of court, with
the power station being excluded. The High
Court upheld the first challenge; [13] but
an appeal against the decision was then heard by the Court of Appeal in Autumn 2006. The final
ruling, published on 15 February 2007, found in favour of the challenge by
Meyrick Estate Management Ltd, [14] and
the land at Hinton Admiral Park is therefore excluded from the New Forest National Park.
The New Forest Heritage Area covers about 580 km²
(143321 acres), and the New Forest SSSI covers almost 300 km² (74131 acres),
making it the largest contiguous area of un-sown vegetation in lowland Britain. It includes roughly:
146 km² (36077 acres) of broadleaf woodland
118 km² (29158 acres) of heathland and
grassland
33 km² (8154 acres) of wet heathland
84 km² (20756 acres) of tree plantations
(“inclosures”) established since the 18th century, including 80 km²
(19768 acres) planted by the Forestry Commission since the 1920s.
It is drained to the south by two rivers, the Lymington and Beaulieu.
Exmoor is a National Park situated on the Bristol Channel coast of south
west England. The park straddles two counties, with 71% of the park
located in Somerset and 29% located in
Devon. The total area of
the park, which includes the Brendon Hills and the Vale
of Porlock, covers 267 square miles (691.5 km2) of hilly open moorland and includes 34 miles
(55 km) of coast. It is primarily an upland area with a dispersed population
living mainly in small villages and hamlets. The largest settlements are Porlock, Dulverton, Lynton, and Lynmouth, which together
contain almost 40% of the National Park population. Lynton and Lynmouth are
combined into one parish and are connected by the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway.
Prior to being a park, Exmoor was a Royal Forest and hunting
ground, which was sold off in 1818. Exmoor was one of the first British
National Parks, designated in 1954, under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the
Countryside Act, [1] and
is named after the main river that flows out of the district, the River Exe.
Several areas of the moor have been declared a
Site of Special Scientific interest due to the
flora and fauna. This title earns the site some legal protection from
development, damage, and neglect. In 1993 Exmoor was also designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Area.
There
is evidence of occupation of the area by people from times, onward. In the
Neolithic period, people started to manage animals and grow crops on farms
cleared from the woodland, rather than act purely as hunters and as gatherers
It is also likely that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make metal
tools, weapons, containers and ornaments started in the late Neolithic, and
continued into the bronze
and iron ages. An earthen ring
at Parracombe is believed to
be a Neolithic henge dating from 5000-4000
BC, and “Cow Castle", which is where White Water meets the River Barle, is an Iron Age fort at the
top of a conical hill. [25] Tarr Steps are a prehistoric (circa
1000 BC) clapper
bridge across the River Barle,
about 2.5 miles (4 km) south east of Withypool and 4 miles (6 km)
north west of Dulverton. The stone slabs
weigh up to 5 long tons (5,080 kg) apiece and the bridge
has been designated by English
Heritage as a grade I listed building, to
recognise its special architectural, historical or cultural significance. There
is little evidence of Roman occupation apart from two fortlets on the coast
Holwell Castle, at Parracombe, was a Norman
motte and bailey castle
built to guard the junction of the east-west and north-south trade routes,
enabling movement of people and goods and the growth of the population
Alternative explanations for its construction suggest it may have been
constructed to obtain taxes at the River Heddon bridging
place, or to protect and supervise silver
mining in the area around Combe
Martin. It was 131 feet (40 m) in diameter and 20 feet (6 m) high
above the bottom of a rock cut ditch which is 9 feet (3 m) deep. It was built,
in the late 11th or early 12th century, of earth with
timber palisades for defence and a
one or two storey wooden dwelling. It was probably built by either Martin de Tours, the first lord of Parracombe,
William de Falaise (who married Martin’s widow)
or Robert
FitzMartin, although there are no written records to validate this. The
earthworks of the castle are still clearly visible from a nearby footpath, but
there is no public access to them. During
the Middle Ages, sheep farming
for the wool trade came to dominate the economy. The wool was spun into thread
on isolated farms and collected by merchants to be woven, fulled, dyed and
finished in thriving towns such as Dunster. The land started
to be enclosed and from the 17th century onwards larger estates
developed, leading to establishment of areas of large regular shaped fields. During
the 16th and 17th centuries the commons were overstocked
with agisted livestock, from
farmers outside the immediate area who were charged for the privilege. This led
to disputes about the number of animals allowed and the enclosure of land. During
this period a Royal
Forest and hunting ground was established, administered by a warden,
so that king Charles
I could benefit from the fines and rents.
In the mid-17th century John Boevey was the warden. He built a house at Simonsbath, and for 150
years it was the only house in the forest. The Royal Forest was sold off in
1818. The Simonsbath House was bought along with the accompanying farm by John
Knight for the sum of £50,000. Knight set about converting the Royal Forest into agricultural land. He and his family built most of the large farms in the
central section of the moor, and built 22 miles (35 km) of metalled access
roads to Simonsbath. He built a 29-mile (47 km) wall around his estate, much of
which still survives.
In the mid-19th century a mine was
developed alongside the River Barle. The mine was originally called Wheal
Maria, then changed to Wheal Eliza. It was a copper mine from 1845-54 and then
an iron mine until 1857, although the first mining activity on the site may be
from 1552 At Simonsbath, a restored Victorian water-powered
sawmill, which was damaged in the floods of 1992, has now been purchased by the
National Park and returned to working order; it is now used to make the
footpath signs, gates, stiles, and bridges for various sites in the park
Exmoor is an upland of sedimentary rocks
classified as gritstones, sandstones, slate, shale and limestone, siltstones, and mudstones depending on the
particle size. They are largely from the Devonian and early Carboniferous periods (the
name Devonian comes from Devon, as rocks of that age were first studied and
described here). As this area of Britain was not subject to glaciation, the plateau
remains as a remarkably old landform. Quartz and iron mineralisation can be detected in
outcrops and subsoil. The Glenthorne
area demonstrates the Trentishoe Formation of the Hangman Sandstone Group. The
Hangman Sandstone represents the Middle Devonian sequence of
North Devon and Somerset. These unusual freshwater deposits in the Hangman
Grits, were mainly formed in desert conditions. The underlying rocks are
covered by moors and supported by wet, acid soil. The highest point on Exmoor
is Dunkery Beacon; at 1,704 feet
(519 m) it is also the highest point in Somerset.
Exmoor has 34 miles (55 km) of coastline,
including the highest cliffs in England, which reach a height of 1,350 feet (411
m) at Culbone Hill. However, the
crest of this coastal ridge of hills is more than a mile (1.6 km) from the sea.
If a cliff is defined as having a slope greater than 60 degrees, the highest
cliff on mainland Britain is Great Hangman near Combe Martin at 1,043 feet
(318 m) high, with a cliff face of 800 feet (244 m). Its sister cliff is the
716 feet (218 m) Little Hangman, which marks the edge of Exmoor.
Exmoor’s woodlands sometimes reach the
shoreline, especially between Porlock
and The Foreland, where they form the single longest stretch of coastal
woodland in England and Wales. The Exmoor
Coastal Heaths have been recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the
diversity of plant species present.
The scenery of rocky headlands, ravines,
waterfalls and towering cliffs gained the Exmoor coast recognition as a Heritage Coast in 1991. With
its huge waterfalls and caves, this dramatic coastline has become an adventure
playground for both climbers and for explorers. The cliffs provide one of the
longest and most isolated seacliff traverses in the UK. The South
West Coast Path, at 630 miles (1,014 km) the longest National Trail in England and Wales, starts at Minehead and runs along all
of Exmoor’s coast. There are small harbours at Lynmouth, Porlock Weir, and Combe Martin. Once crucial
to coastal trade, the harbours are now primarily used for pleasure; individually
owned sail boats and non-commercial fishing boats are often found in the
harbours
Dunkery Beacon, with heather in bloom
Uncultivated heath and moorland cover
about a quarter of Exmoor landscape. Some moors are covered by a variety of grasses and sedges, while others are
dominated by heather. There are also
cultivated areas including the Brendon Hills, which lie in
the east of the National Park. There are also 32.4 square miles (84 km2)
of woodland, comprising a mixture of broad-leaved (oak, ash and hazel) and conifer trees. Horner Woodlands and Tarr Steps woodlands are
prime examples. The country’s highest beech wood, 1, 200 feet (366 m) above sea
level, is at Birch Cleave at Simonsbath.
At least two species of whitebeam
tree: Sorbus
subcuneata and Sorbus ‘Taxon D’ are unique to Exmoor. These woodlands are home to lichens,
mosses and ferns. Exmoor is the only national location
for the lichens Biatoridium delitescens, Rinodina fimbriata and Rinodina flavosoralifera, the latter
having been found only on one individual tree.
A herd of Exmoor pony foals
Sheep
have grazed on the moors for more than 3,000 years, shaping much of the Exmoor landscape by feeding on moorland grasses and heather. Traditional breeds include Exmoor Horn, Cheviot and Whiteface Dartmoor and Greyface
Dartmoor sheep. Devon
ruby red cattle are also farmed in the area. Exmoor ponies can be seen
roaming freely on the moors. They are a landrace rather than a breed of pony, and may be the closest breed to
Equus ferus
remaining in Europe. The ponies are rounded up once a year to be marked and
checked over. In 1818 Sir Richard
Acland, the last warden of Exmoor, took thirty ponies and
established the Acland Herd, now known as the Anchor Herd, whose direct
descendants still roam the moor. In the Second World War the moor
became a training ground, and the breed was nearly killed off, with only 50
ponies surviving the war. The ponies are classified as endangered by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, with only 390 breeding females
left in the UK. In 2006 a Rural Enterprise Grant, administered locally by the
South West Rural Development Service, was obtained to create a new Exmoor Pony
Centre at Ashwick, at a disused farm with 17 acres (6.9 ha) of land with a
further 138 acres (56 ha) of moorland.
Red deer
have a stronghold on the moor and can be seen on quiet hillsides in remote
areas, particularly in the early morning. The moorland habitat is also
home to hundreds of species of birds and insects. Birds seen on the moor include Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Curlew, European
Stonechat, Dipper,
Dartford Warbler and Ring Ouzel. Black Grouse and Red Grouse are now extinct on Exmoor, probably as a result of a reduction in habitat management, and for the former
species, an increase in visitor pressure.
Beast
of Exmoor
The Beast of Exmoor is a cryptozoological cat (see phantom cat) that is
reported to roam Exmoor. There have been numerous reports of eyewitness
sightings, however the official Exmoor National Park website lists the beast
under “Traditions, Folklore, and Legends”,and the BBC calls it “the
famous-yet-elusive beast of Exmoor. Allegedly." Sightings were first
reported in the 1970s, although it became notorious in 1983, when a South Molton farmer claimed
to have lost over 100 sheep in the space of three months, all of them
apparently killed by violent throat injuries. It is reported as being between 4
and 8 feet (1.2 and 2.4 m) from nose to tail. Descriptions of its colouration
range from black to tan or dark grey. It is possibly a Cougar or Black Leopard which was released
after a law was passed in 1976 making it illegal for them to be kept in
captivity outside zoos. In 2006, the British Big Cats Society reported that a
skull found by a Devon farmer was that of a Puma, however, the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (Defra) states, “Based on the evidence, Defra does not
believe that there are big cats living in the wild in England. ”
The attractions of Exmoor include 208 scheduled
ancient monuments, 16 conservation areas, and other open access land as
designated by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. Exmoor receives approximately 1.4 million visitor days per year. Many come to walk on the
moors or along waymarked paths such as the Coleridge Way. Attractions on the
coast include the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway, which connects Lynton to neighbouring Lynmouth, where the East and West Lyn River meet. Woody Bay, a few miles west
of Lynton, is home to the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, a narrow
gauge railway which connected the twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth
to Barnstaple,20 miles (32 km)
away. Further along the coast, Porlock is a quiet coastal town with an adjacent
salt marsh nature reserve
and a harbour at nearby Porlock
Weir. Watchet is a historic
harbour town with a marina and is home to a carnival, which is held annually in
July.
Inland, many of the attractions are centred
around small towns and villages or linked to the river valleys, such as the
ancient clapper bridge at Tarr Steps
and the Snowdrop Valley near Wheddon Cross, which is
carpeted in snowdrops in Februaryand,
later, displays bluebells.
Withypool is also in the Barle Valley. The Two Moors Way passes
through the village. As well as Dunster Castle, Dunster’s other attractions
include a priory, dovecote,
yarn market, inn, packhorse
bridge, mill and a stop on the West
Somerset Railway. Exford, lies on the River
Exe. Brendon, in the Brendon Valley is noted for the annual Exmoor
folk festival.
Exmoor has been the setting for several novels including the 19th-century
Lorna Doone: A Romance of
Exmoor by Richard Doddridge Blackmore, and Margaret Drabble’s 1998
novel The Witch of Exmoor. The park was featured on the television
programme Seven
Natural Wonders twice, as one of the wonders of the West Country.
8. Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales (also known as The
Dales) is the name given to an upland area, in Northern England.
The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans
the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and Cumbria. Most of the area
falls within the Yorkshire Dales District National Park, created in 1954, and
now one of the twelve National parks of England and Wales (not
including the South Downs which is due to become one).
The Dales is a collection of river valleys and the hills in
between them, rising from the Vale of York westwards to
the hilltops of the main Pennine
watershed (the British English meaning). In some places the area even extends westwards
across the watershed, but most of the valleys drain eastwards to the Vale of York-into the Ouse
and then the Humber.
The word dale comes from a Nordic/Germanic
word for valley, and occurs in valley names across Yorkshire (and northern
England generally) but since the creation of the Yorkshire Dales National park,
the name Yorkshire Dales has come to refer specifically to these western dales
and the area of dales and hills east of the Vale of York is now called the North York Moors after the
National Park created there
Yorkshire Dales National Park
In 1954 an area of 1,770 square kilometres (680
sq mi) was designated the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Most of the National Park is in North Yorkshire, though
part lies within Cumbria. However, the whole
park lies within the traditional boundaries of Yorkshire, divided between
the North Riding and the West
Riding. The park is 50 miles (80 km) north east of Manchester; Leeds and
Bradford lie to the south, while Kendal is to the west and Darlington to the
east.
Over 20,000 residents live and work in the
park, which attracts over eight million visitors every year. The area has a
large collection of activities for visitors. For example, many people come to
the “Dales” for walking or exercise. The National Park is crossed by several long-distance
routes including the Pennine Way,
the Dales Way, the Coast to
Coast Path and the latest national trail - the Pennine Bridleway. Cycling
is also popular and there are several cycleways.
The Park has its own museum, the Dales
Countryside Museum, housed in a conversion of the Hawes
railway station in Wensleydale
in the north of the Park. The park has 5 visitor centres located in major
destinations in the park. These are at:
Most of the dales in the Yorkshire Dales are
named after their river or stream (eg Arkengarthdale, formed by Arkle Beck). The
best-known exception to this rule is Wensleydale, which is named
after the town of Wensley rather than the River Ure, although an older name for
the dale is Yoredale. In fact, valleys
all over Yorkshire are called “ (name
of river) +dale”-but only the more
northern Yorkshire valleys (and only the upper, rural, reaches) are included in
the term “The Dales". For example, the southern boundary area lies in Wharfedale and Airedale. The lower reaches
of these valleys are not usually included in the area, and Calderdale much further
south, would never normally be referred to as part of “The Dales" even
though it is a dale, is in Yorkshire, and the upper reaches are as scenic and
rural as many valleys further north.
Geographically, the classical Yorkshire Dales
spread to the north from the market and spa towns of Settle, Deepdale near Dent, Skipton, Ilkley and Harrogate in North
Yorkshire, with most of the larger southern dales (e. g. Ribblesdale,
Malhamdale and Airedale, Wharfedale and Nidderdale) running roughly parallel
from north to south. The more northerly dales (e. g. Wensleydale, Swaledale and
Teesdale) running generally from west to east. There are also many other
smaller or lesser known dales (e. g. Arkengarthdale, Barbondale, Bishopdale,
Clapdale, Coverdale, Dentdale and Deepdale, Garsdale, Kingsdale, Littondale,
Langstrothdale, Raydale, Waldendale and the Washburn Valley) whose tributary
streams and rivers feed into the larger valleys. [1]
The characteristic scenery of the “Dales” is
green upland pastures separated by dry-stone walls and grazed
by sheep and cattle. The dales themselves are ‘U’ and ‘V’ shaped
valleys, which were enlarged and shaped by glaciers, mainly in the
most recent, Devensian ice age. The underlying
rock is principally Carboniferous
limestone (which results in
a number of areas of limestone
pavement) in places interspersed with shale and sandstone and topped with millstone grit. However, to
the north of the Dent fault, the hills are principally older Silurian and Ordovician rocks, which
make up the Howgill
Fells.
Many of the upland areas consist of heather moorland, used for grouse shooting in the months following
12 August each year (the ‘Glorious Twelfth’).
Gaping Gill
Because of the limestone that runs throughout
the “Dales” there are extensive cave
systems present across the area making it one of the major areas for caving in the UK. Many of these are open
to the public for tours and for caving.
The Lake District, also known as The
Lakes or Lakeland, is a rural area in North
West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its
lakes and its mountains (or fells), and its associations with the early
19th century poetry and writings of William
Wordsworth and the Lake Poets.
The central and most-visited part of the area
is contained in the Lake District National Park, one of fourteen National Parks in the United Kingdom. It lies
entirely within Cumbria, and is one of England's few mountainous regions. All the land in England higher than three thousand feet above sea level lies within the National Park, including Scafell Pike, the highest
mountain in England
The
Lake District is approximately 34 miles (55 km) across. Its features are a
result of periods of glaciation,
the most recent of which ended
some 15,000 years ago. These include the ice-carved wide U-shaped valleys, many of
which are now filled with the lakes that give the park its name. The upper
regions contain a number of glacial cirques, which are
typically filled with tarns.
The higher fells are rocky, with lower fells being open moorland, notable for its
wide bracken and heather coverage. Below the
tree line, native oak woodlands sit alongside nineteenth century
pine plantations. Much of the land is often boggy, due to the high rainfall. The Lake District is one of the most highly populated national parks. Its total area is near
885 square miles (2,292 km2), and the Lake District was designated
as a National Park in 1951.
In Neolithic times, the Lake
District was a major source of stone axes,
examples of which have been found all over Britain. The primary site, on the
slopes of the Langdale Pikes, is sometimes described as a "stone axe
factory" of the Langdale
axe industry. Some of the earliest stone circles in Britain are connected with this industry.
Since Roman times, farming, in particular of sheep, was the major
industry in the region. The breed most closely associated with the area is the
tough Herdwick,
with Rough
Fell and Swaledale
sheep also common. Sheep farming remains important both for the economy of the
region and for preserving the landscape which visitors want to see. Features
such as dry stone
walls, for example, are there as a result of sheep farming. Some
land is also used for silage
and dairy farming. There are
extensive plantations of non-native pine trees.
The area was badly affected by the foot-and-mouth
outbreak across the United
Kingdom in 2001. Thousands of sheep, grazing on the fellsides across
the District, were destroyed. In replacing the sheep, one problem to overcome
was that many of the lost sheep were heafed, that is, they knew their
part of the unfenced fell and did not stray, with this knowledge being passed
between generations. With all the sheep lost at once, this knowledge has to be
re-learnt and some of the fells have
had discreet electric fences strung across them for a period of five years, to
allow the sheep to "re-heaf".
Mining, particularly of copper, lead (often associated with quantities of silver), baryte, graphite and slate, was historically a major Lakeland
industry, mainly from the 16th century to the 19th century. Coppiced woodland
was used extensively to provide charcoal for smelting. Some mining still takes
place today-for example slate mining continues at the Honister
Mines, at the top of Honister Pass. Abandoned
mine-workings can be found on fell-sides throughout the district. The
locally-mined graphite led to the development of the pencil industry, especially around Keswick.
In the middle of the 19th century, half the
world textile industry's bobbin supply came from the Lake District area. Over
the past century, however, tourism
has grown rapidly to become the area's primary source of income.
Early visitors to the Lake District, who
travelled for the education and pleasure of the journey, include Celia Fiennes who in 1698
undertook a journey the length of England,
including riding through Kendal
and over Kirkstone
Pass into Patterdale.
Her experiences and impressions were published in her book Great Journey to
Newcastle and Cornwall:
As I walked down at this place I was walled on
both sides by those inaccessible high rocky barren hills which hang over one’s
head in some places and appear very terrible; and from them springs many little
currents of water from the sides and clefts which trickle down to some lower
part where it runs swiftly over the stones and shelves in the way, which makes
a pleasant rush and murmuring noise and like a snowball is increased by each
spring trickling down on either side of those hills, and so descends into the
bottoms which are a Moorish ground in which in many places the waters stand,
and so form some of those Lakes as it did here.
In 1724, Daniel Defoe published the
first volume of A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain. He commented
on Westmorland that it was:
the wildest, most barren and frightful of any
that I have passed over in England, or even Wales itself; the west side, which
borders on Cumberland, is indeed bounded by a chain of almost unpassable
mountains which, in the language of the country, are called fells.
Towards the end of the 18th century, the area
was becoming more popular with travellers. This was partly a result of wars in Continental
Europe, restricting the possibility of travel there. In 1778 Father
Thomas West produced A Guide to the Lakes, which began the
era of modern tourism.
West listed "stations"-viewpoints
where tourists could enjoy the best views of the landscape, being encouraged to
appreciated the formal qualities of the landscape and to apply aesthetic values.
At some of these stations, buildings were erected to help this process. The
remains of Claife Station (on the western shore of Windermere below Claife Heights) can be visited today.
William
Wordsworth published his Guide to the Lakes in 1810, and by
1835 it had reached its fifth edition, now called A Guide through the District
of the Lakes in the North of England. This book was particularly
influential in popularising the region. Wordsworth's favourite valley was
Dunnerdale or the Duddon
Valley nestling in the south-west of the Lake District.
The railways led to another expansion in
tourism. The Kendal and Windermere Railway was the first to penetrate the Lake District, reaching Kendal in 1846 and Windermere in 1847. The
line to Coniston
opened in 1848 (although until 1857 this was only linked to the national
network with ferries between Fleetwood
and Barrow-in-Furness);
the line from Penrith
through Keswick
to Cockermouth in 1865; and
the line to Lakeside
at the foot of Windermere
in 1869. The railways, built with traditional industry in mind, brought with
them a huge increase in the number of visitors, thus contributing to the growth
of the tourism industry. Railway services were supplemented by steamer boats on
the major lakes of Ullswater,
Windermere,
Coniston Water, and Derwent Water.
The growth in tourist numbers continued into
the age of the motor car, when railways began to be closed or run down. The
formation of the Lake District National Park in 1951 recognised the need to
protect the Lake District environment from excessive commercial or industrial
exploitation, preserving that which visitors come to see, without (so far) any
restriction on the movement of people into and around the district. The M6 Motorway helped bring
traffic to the Lakes, passing up its eastern flank. The narrow roads present a
challenge for traffic flow and, from the 1960s, certain areas have been very
congested.
Whilst the roads and railways provided easier
access to the area, many people were drawn to the Lakes by the publication of
the Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells by Alfred Wainwright. First
published between 1952 and 1965, these books provided detailed information on
214 peaks across the region, with carefully hand-drawn maps and panoramas, and
also stories and asides which add to the colour of the area. They are still
used by many visitors to the area as guides for walking excursions, with the
ultimate goal of bagging
the complete list of Wainwrights.
The famous guides are being revised by Chris Jesty to reflect changes, mainly
in valley access and paths.
Since the early 1960s, the park has hired
rangers to monitor the grounds to cope with increasing tourism and development,
the first being John Wyatt, who has since written a number of guide books. He
was joined two years later by a second, and since then the number of rangers
has been rising.
The area has also become associated with
writer Beatrix
Potter. A number of tourists visit to see her family home, with
particularly large numbers coming from Japan.
Tourism has now become the park's major
industry, with about 14 million visitors each year, mainly from the UK's larger settlements, China, Japan, Spain, Germany and the USA. [3] Windermere
Lake Steamers are now the UK's second most popular charging tourist attraction
and the local economy is dependent upon tourists. The negative impact of
tourism has been seen, however. Soil erosion, caused by
walking, is now a significant problem, with millions of pounds being spent to
protect over-used paths. In 2006, two Tourist Information Centres
in the National Park were closed.
Cultural tourism is becoming an increasingly
important part of the wider tourist industry. The Lake District's links with a
wealth of artists and writers and its strong history of providing summer
theatre performances in the old Blue Box of Century Theatre are strong
attractions for visiting tourists. The tradition of theatre is carried on by
venues such as Theatre
by the Lake in Keswick with its Summer Season of six plays in repertoire,
Christmas and Easter productions and the many literature, film, mountaineering,
jazz and creative arts festivals.
When I was doing this project I learned a
lot of incredible and interesting information about the parks.
For exmaple: That
Dartmoor has inspired a number of artists and writers, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventure of Silver Blaze, Eden Phillpotts, Beatrice Chase, Agatha Christie and the
Reverend Sabine
Baring-Gould. And that the first roads in the Peak District National Park were constructed by the Romans. I get to know the legend about phantom cat in Exmoor park and ect.
After this I can do my own conclusion: despite the fact that all of the parks British, they are
totally different. Each its own history, legends ect. Each is unique. Humanity
must establish and maintain such beautiful place on Earth.
Bovey Castle. Dartmoor
National ParkVillarrica
Lake District Park Hotel
Queen Elizabeth Park
Yorkshire Dales National Park
Dartmoor National Park
1.
www.wikipedia.com
2.
www.travel.com
3.
www.greatbritan.com
4.
www.tour-england.net
5.
www.visitnewforest.com