A Designation History - East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural ...

Sensing a need to apply pressure, groups of leisure activity enthusiasts
and nature conservationists, including the recently established Rambler’s
Association, the Youth Hostels’ Association (YHA), the Council for the
Preservation for Rural England (CPRE) and the Council for the
Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW) rallied to lobby the Government for
measures to protect, and allow access to the countryside, for the benefit
of the nation. By 1936, no doubt spurred by the lack of government
action, these organisations had formed a voluntary sector Standing
Committee on National Parks (SCNP) which argued the case for
National Parks and urged the Government to act.
SCNP put a well-argued
case for the creation of
National Parks in its
publication 2 , ‘The Case for
National Parks in Great
Britain’ addressed to
Government in 1938, and,
significantly, for the future,
drafted by the architect/
planner, John Dower.*
John Dower
*John Dower was a civil servant and architect, who, as secretary of the Standing Committee on
National Parks, produced in 1945 the first post-war official report which set out what National Parks
in England and Wales should be like. This report, and a subsequent one by Arthur Hobhouse, laid
the foundations for the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 which created the
National Park system. The headqarters building of the former Countryside Agency was named John
Dower House in his honour.