 |
  | ||||||
| Sefton Coast Partnership | Shoreline Management | Nature and Wildlife | Coastal Heritage | Visiting the Coast | Students and Teachers | Coastlines | |
|
Summer 1995The National TrustGuardians of Land and CoastlineThe National Trust, created in 1895, celebrated its centenary on 12 January 1995. Its a charity, constituted under Act of Parliament, independent of Government, and supported largely by over 2.2 million subscribing members. The Trust's purpose, laid down by Parliament, is the preservation, in perpetuity and for the benefit of the nation, of land and buildings of Historic interest or natural beauty. This remit covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland (there is a separate national trust for Scotland). The purpose is carried out through the freehold ownership and management of landscape and buildings which merit protection. The trust is the largest private landowner in Britain and ownership of its properties is permanent. This is ensured through the power granted through an act of Parliament in 1907 to claim its properties were inalienable. Once so declared, they cannot be voluntarily sold or mortgaged. In their diversity, beauty and interest the properties of the National Trust have no parallel in any other conservation body. From its inception the Trust has preserved commons and open spaces. It owns, as trustee for the nation, mountains and moorland, woods and farms, villages and mills, nature reserves and archaeological sites. It protects large parts of the Lake District, Snowdonia and the Peak District. The Trust's properties include over 230 houses open to the public. Many of the Trusts country hoses have retained their estates, parks and garden and contents. Perhaps the best loved of all the National Trust properties are the gardens, of which there are some 160. When the national trust was founded, it set out to curb the growing environmental menaces of urban growth and industrialization, and to preserve open spaces for people's use and enjoyment. Nowhere is the value of this amenity more apparent than on Britain's Coastline; as well as being the defining characteristic of Britain's island heritage, our coast is home to a thriving plant and animal life, the resort of thousands of visitors every year and the inspiration for generations of artists, writers, musicians and poets. In February 1895, the National Trust made its very first property acquisition: 4 1/2 acres of sea cliff at Dinas Oleu, overlooking Cardigan Bay. Over the next 70 years, 187 miles of unspoilt coastline came into the trusts care through legacies, donations and purchases. In the 1960's however, pressure for development of Britain's coastlines was immense: the combined effects of industrial and agricultural development, an expanding leisure market and lax post-war planning controls were taking their toll. In 1963, the Trust made coastal conservation its most important objective, and began the first ever complete survey of the coastline of Britain. Completed in 1964, the survey revealed that a total of about 3000 miles of coast, a third had been developed beyond the possibility of conservation. Another third was found to be of little scenic or recreational importance, but the remaining third - 940 miles altogether - was deemed to be of outstanding natural beauty and worthy of permanent preservation. This is the coast which the National Trust sets its eyes on acquiring, and it embarked on the largest conservation project ever undertaken in the UK, called enterprise Neptune. Neptune was launched on 15th May 1965 by HRH Duke of Edinburgh with the stated aim of raising a purchase fund of £2million. Enterprise Neptune immediately caught the imagination of the British people: the £2million target was passed in 1973, by which time 338 miles of the coast were in the Trust's hands. Enterprise Neptune is by far the most popular appeal that the National Trust has ever run: Over £20million has been raised, and the tally of coastline permanently protected by the trust stands at more than 550 miles, or roughly one in every six miles of coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 450 acres (181.1 ha) of land at Formby Point were purchased from the Ince Blundell Settled Estates on 14th of April 1967 by public subscription, as part of Enterprise Neptune. Subsequently, the Trust's holding has increased to about 520 acres, through a gift in 1927 of the former tobacco waste areas by the British Nicotine Company, the purchase in 1985 of the Larkhill Lane heathland area from Ideal Homes ltd and the recent purchase of the former agricultural area north of Wicks Lane.
|
|
