The meaning of ‘natural beauty’
The term ‘natural beauty’ first gained currency in a legislative context in the 1907 Act, which gave legal status to the National Trust (‘for Places of Historic Interest and Natural Beauty’). It has been the basis for the designation of both National Landscapes and National Parks since the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act in which, however, the term was not defined. In June 2000 the Government confirmed that National Landscapes and National Parks are of equal status with regard to landscape quality and that they share the same level of protection. In the same year, the CRoW Act formally stated that natural beauty includes conservation of ‘flora, fauna and geological and physiographical features’ (S.92).
Natural beauty goes well beyond scenic or aesthetic value. The natural beauty of a National Landscape is to do with the relationship between people and place. It encompasses everything — ‘natural’ and human – that makes an area distinctive. It includes the area’s geology and landform, its climate and soils, its wildlife and ecology. It includes the rich history of human settlement and land use over the centuries, its archaeology and buildings, its cultural associations, and the people who live in it, past and present.
The key components of natural beauty in the North Pennines National Landscape might be defined as:
- a relative sense of remoteness, wildness and tranquillity;
- truly dark night skies;
- extensive tracts of blanket bog and other peat soils;
- species-rich grasslands, especially upland hay meadows
- upland oak/ash woodlands;
- the arctic alpine flora of Upper Teesdale;
- the suite of breeding upland wading birds;
- the rivers Tees (and its waterfalls), Wear, Derwent, South Tyne, Eden and East & West Allen; and
- a world class mineral wealth and associated mining heritage and its imprint on the landscape.
You can find out more about the North Pennines National Landscape and UNESCO Global Geopark throughout this plan and at http://www.northpennines.org.uk