Protecting The Countryside : The First Century of CPRE

Protecting Rural England is a new history of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) by Matthew Kelly, for its 100th birthday. The book details the ways in which CPRE shaped our understanding of the countryside and its own development.

'From the beginning CPREunderstood that ordinary countryside matters: the fields beyond the village,the hedgerows along a lane, the footpaths where people walk and cyclists ride.'Simon Murray, CPRE Chair. Over the past century,unprecedented economic, social and political changes have transformed theEnglish rural landscape, bringing new housing, towns, roads, infrastructure andenterprise. Amongst the environmentalorganisations seeking to manage these changes The Campaign to Protect RuralEngland (CPRE) led the charge. Alarmed by the willy-nilly development of roads,new unsympathetic buildings, and the pylons and telephone lines of the 'wirescape',CPRE's founders believed development must be brought under political control. Preserving rural England, it insisted, was the responsibility of local andnational government, assisted by experts and backed by public opinion. In this new history ofCPRE, written to mark its first centenary, Matthew Kelly traces the developmentof the organisation and shows how by responding to the demands placed on ruralEngland, it became a more democratic, inclusive, and environmental organisation,and in turn more representative of the spirit of the country.