Haylesbury on the peak district (Peak District)

Member Name: haylesbury

Product:	Peak District
Date:	30/10/06 (238 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful! well worth visiting, stunning and protecting our precious land

Disadvantages: None!

I have been to the peak district national park a couple of times and love it there, I think the beautiful surroundings and stunning scenes may have something to do with that. Not only that but I am a huge lover of conserving and protecting the environment so this is right up my street. Hope you enjoy reading about the peak district National Park

Peak District National Park

(The following time line is what is thought has happened to the peak district and how it has developed throughout its history)

Time Line

350 million years ago

Derbyshire (The area most covered by the Peak district) is covered by clear warm seas and is filled with life forms. The species diversity is high and the area is filled with plant and marine life

300 million years ago

Derbyshire is in the centre of a huge river which collects and drops sand, stones and mud over much of England. The mud’s forming in deep water became shale; a weak rock which forms a barrier to water, and the sands became gritstone; a rock filled with tiny holes which water can move through without making an impact on the rock. Before this, limestone was the main known rock form; limestone dissolves in rain, so much of the limestone dissolved with the mass of water.

280 million years ago

Derbyshire now taken over by tropical swamps which are randomly flooded by the sea

60-280 million years ago

Derbyshire is at or below the sea level. Long periods completely underwater resulted in large amounts of rock forming above the base of gritstone

60 million years ago

Area finally emerges from the sea, the thick rock layers begin to erode and leave behind much of the current day peak district

1 million years ago

Ice ages begins, between periods of time when the weather is as it is now. At the start of the ice build up, the peak district was covered hundreds of feet high with ice, the ice stopped at Leeds south facing. The peak was put through an intense ice cold period. As the frozen areas slowly began to thaw out, many landslides occurred and boulders fell to create steep hills and rocks at low levels.

20,000 years ago

The first people came to the peak district in large numbers, these people modified the natural landscape by burning woodland and hunting. People living in the area continued to harm the National Park, which is why it has now become a protected area.

The peak district national park is a much visited area and it is highly valued by the visitors and workers/conservers of the area.

The peak district national park was initially established as Britain’s very first National Park in 1951 and it covers parts of 6 counties. This was put in place to help to conserve the beautiful and sometimes the wilder parts of our environment.

Before the Peak District became a National Park, most of the walks within it were out of bounds to the public as they were considered dangerous and no safety measures had been put into practise. At this time the peak district was very natural and had not been recorded as how it developed as work was not done and the area was derelict.

In 1935 the idea for making a public area in the peak district and creating walks which the public can use to view the area was first thought of.

The Peak district was given the heading as a National park by 1951, and the first long distance footpath in Britain “Pennine Way” was opened.

The purpose of the park is the following;


• Remarkable beauty and character to the natural landscape

• Very significant and relevant geological features

• The public have reported a “sense of wildness and remoteness”

• The area offers clean water, air and earth

• The environment has a strong range of wildlife and an extremely unique biodiversity

• There is much human history to be found on the landscape through many years of working on pathways and improvements, to keep the environment as natural as possible, but offering practicalities for visitors

• There is a strong and distinctive character to the villages and settlements

• There is a huge array of historic buildings, parks and gardens

• The area is very quiet and offers much enjoyment to the visitors

• There are many opportunities for outdoors adventures and recreation activities

• The area is very easy to access

• There is a strong and vibrant sense of community

• There are many customs, legends, traditions and arts in connection with the area

• The methods of farming and working on the land are environmentally friendly

• There are many craft and cottage industries

• There is much value attached to the park by surrounding communities.

Most of the National Park’s land is now used for farming, forestry or game. These are very powerful in the shaping and maintenance of the landscape and they are responsible for a lot of the maintenance which takes place. For this reason farmers and workers in these industries are encouraged to practice effective management.

More than 22 million visitors visit the national park every year, so there is a huge amount of pressure for the standard of the park to be very high. The visitors play part in a small problem as the impact is not thought to be good for the national park’s maintenance due to the constant impact cycles.

The European Union has been a big influence on the Peak district and it has grown dramatically since the first national park plan was written, various areas of the park are bound to the Union programmes or protection.

The environmental act of 1995 was a significant part of the legislations for the national parks. This was a reminder that national park designation provides a very high status of protection for the landscape and beauty in the area.

The main things about sustainable development is the link between global and local environments, as well as people and the economy and in this park it has already been addressed. This was shown and talked about at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. This was the first time that the worlds leaders accepted that the way they had been working was no longer working.

The government has offered numerous initiatives, such as putting in indicators to measure the sustainability. The local measures will then be based on this and used to test whether actions used from the management plan are going to move the national park toward a sustainable future.

The authorities work in company with communities and both are willing to break boundaries to improve on their listening skills and work together as part of a team. Plans are worked on for the communities and local authorities to improve quality of life.
The park is now working for a better environment. They aim to produce and implement management action plans, recognising distinctive assets and issues, for specific areas of opportunity or concern.

It is also being worked for better people relations within the park. This is meant to be done by fostering sustainable communities with a range of local services and ‘affordable’ homes, focusing on designated local plan settlements.

Summary: WOW