Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
It is above all the spirit of Gower, in all its natural manifestations, that we have ultimately to pro-
tect.
J. Mansel Thomas
G
OWER HAD BEEN
well known and recognised as an important area for many years before its desig-
nation as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and this was reflected in a number of early acquisitions
by the National Trust. The first was a donation of land at Thurba Head on the south Gower coast in 1933,
followed by the donation of the nearby Pitton and Paviland Cliffs in 1939 (Fig. 165). The outbreak of the
SecondWorldWarinSeptemberofthatyear,however,boughtasuddenhalttoconservationactivity.Itwas
not until 1953 that the next Gower property, Bishopston Valley and Pennard Cliffs East, was acquired by
the Trust. Gower was also the site of the first purchase under the Enterprise Neptune campaign in 1965,
when Whiteford Burrows was bought. Further properties were acquired under the same scheme in 1967.
TheTrustnowactivelymanages2,226hectaresoflandinthepeninsula,including26miles(42kilometres)
of coast, which is 75 per cent of the entire coastline. However, awareness of the Trust's role is considered
to be low and a four-year project was set up in 2004 to address this.
Following the war, the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act in 1949 led to the establish-
ment ofthe National ParksCommission andthe Nature Conservancy.Indoingsoit unfortunately created a
fundamental and ultimately damaging division between recreation and nature conservation, which was not
addressed in Wales until the creation of the Countryside Council for Wales in 1991. The Act did declare,
however, that certain other areas, apart from the National Parks, should be preserved as Areas of Excep-
tional Natural Beauty, where 'public amenity should be of paramount concern'.
