Protecting Rural England

'From the beginning CPRE
understood 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 the
English rural landscape, bringing new housing, towns, roads, infrastructure and
enterprise.



Amongst the environmental
organisations seeking to manage these changes The Campaign to Protect Rural
England (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 and
national government, assisted by experts and backed by public opinion.



In this new history of
CPRE, written to mark its first centenary, Matthew Kelly traces the development
of the organisation and shows how by responding to the demands placed on rural
England, it became a more democratic, inclusive, and environmental organisation,
and in turn more representative of the spirit of the country.