Protecting the Countryside: The First Century of CPRE

‘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.