The concept of the country park: a critical evaluation

This study is about the rise of a new phenomenon in the long history of the English countryside: the 'Country Park' or 'Leisure Park' as defined by the Countryside Commission under the Countryside Act of 1968: 'a park which will be accessible to large numbers of people within easy distance of large conurbations; which will provide facilities and services for the enjoyment and convenience of the public…and which will therefore ease pressure on remote places, i.e. the National Parks and reduce the amount of damage caused to agriculture by recreation.' The purpose of the study is to examine the ancestry of such parks, to trace their development from their idealistic origins through the complexities of legislation and the changing needs of the public to the realities of country park provision in the 1980s. [Continues.]