Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The gradual transition towards more 'private rural landscapes for the more affluent and
higher social classes' began a process of restricting access to the countryside which has
remained a source of contention ever since. At the same time, the rise of rural retreats and
landed estates, a feature of earlier leisure history, is complemented by the 'movement of
the upper and middle classes into the countryside…. During the nineteenth century,
however, the scale of movement in Britain, Europe and North America increased
considerably' (Towner 1996:232-3).
While there is a debate as to whether such changes led to a rejection of urban
environments and values in some cities (e.g. Paris), Green (1990) argues that a distinct
cultural attitude developed whereby the town and country were viewed as a continuum
rather than as two distinct resources juxtaposed to each other. Thus the rural environment
was more than a simple playground for elites. In England, not only did the urban middle
classes begin to visit the countryside in growing numbers in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries as recreationists and tourists, visiting scenic areas (e.g. the Lake
District) and more remote areas (e.g. the Highlands of Scotland: see Butler and Wall
1985), but also it raised spatial issues of access for increasing numbers of urbanites that
were celebrated by the mass trespass of Kinder Scout in the Derbyshire Peak District in
1932, which anticipated the controversy over access to the countryside and continues in
Britain to the present day. Such pressures certainly contributed to the establishment of the
principle of access in the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 in the
UK, while similar legislative changes in other countries led to further measures to
improve access to such resources (Jenkins and Prin 1998).
The 'Grand Tour' in Europe by the British landed classes in the mid-sixteenth to
eighteenth centuries and thereafter by the middle classes incorporated a specific interest
in rural environments which contained elements of romanticism and scenery (Towner
1985), while innovations in transport technology facilitated a move away from a focus on
urban centres to rural environments. Arguably, the advent of mass domestic tourism in
the nineteenth century in England and Wales (Walton 1983) with the rise of the seaside
resort, and in Europe (Towner 1996), was followed by the development of the rise of
second homes in the early twentieth century, which all contributed to a greater use of
rural landscapes for tourist consumption.
Rural areas have emerged as a new focus for recreational and tourism activities in the
post-war period within most developed countries as their accessibility and attraction for
the domestic population, and to a lesser degree, the international visitor, has earned them
the reputation as the 'playground of the urban population'. For example, Ward and Hardy
(1986) document the development of the English holiday camp with its origins in the late
nineteenth century and the rise of entrepreneurs such as Butlins, Warner and Pontins in
the 1930s that led to an increasing consumption of rural and coastal locales for lower
middle-class and skilled working-class tourism.
