From aspiration to implementation — the establishment of the first national nature reserves in Britain

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Abstract
Much has been written on the initiatives leading up to the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, but relatively little on the ways in which the National Parks Commission and Nature Conservancy subsequently established themselves amongst other user‐interests in the countryside. This paper disputes the general assumption that the Nature Conservancy operated in a largely apolitical climate, acquiring and managing nature reserves on essentially scientific criteria. Particular attention is given to the assumptions on which the statutory powers of the Nature Conservancy were granted, the changing political context within which the Nature Conservancy acquired its network of nature reserves, and the changing understanding of the management needs of nature reserves. Consideration is also given to the attempts made to give tangible effect to the concept of enhancement and enrichment in the distinctive landscapes of nature reserves. Insights from archival evidence help to explain the urgency with which ‘conservation research’ came to be promoted by the early 1960s, and place in clearer perspective the more overtly political influences exerted on nature conservation in later decades.