DESIGNATION HISTORY SERIES

BRECON BEACONS NATIONAL PARK

Ray Woolmore BA(Hons), MRTPI, FRGS April 2011

BRECON BEACONS NATIONAL PARK Origin

1. The Government first considered the setting up of national parks and other similar areas in England and Wales when, in 1929, Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour politician to become Prime Minister, established a National Park Committee, chaired by the Rt. Hon. Christopher Addison* MP, MD. The “Addison” Committee reported1 to Government, and their Report showed, not surprisingly, that five witnesses (individuals or organisations) ie the Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales (CPRW); the National Trust (NT); the Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society, Professor Patrick Abercrombie, and George Pepler (both the aforementioned were town and country planners), had proposed the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains as being suitable for national park status. The main recommendation of the Addison Committee was for a “National Authority” to select national park areas, to formulate national policies and to stimulate the involvement of local authorities and others in the management of these areas.

2. No National (Park) Authority was established, nor national parks created as a result of the Addison Committee’s 1931 recommendations, which unfortunately were made at a time when the Government was preoccupied with dealing with the major financial crisis and economic depression then affecting the country. However, the lack of government action following from the Addison Report did lead to the establishment of the Standing Committee on National Parks (SCNP) by the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE) and CPRW. SCNP put a well-argued case for the creation of National Parks in its publication2, “The Case for National Parks in Great Britain”, addressed to Government in 1936, and, significantly for the future, drafted by the architect/planner, John Dower**. War intervened, but the Wartime Coalition Government and its Committee on Land Utilisation in Rural Areas (1942), chaired by Lord Justice Scott, supported SCNP’s case as part of a desire for a “Better Britain” emerging after the trauma of war, and requested John Dower (by then a temporary civil servant) to prepare an official report on National Parks in England and Wales. Dower, in his Report3, published as a White Paper in May 1945, included the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons (covering 470 square

* When appointed as Chairman of the National Park Committee, Christopher Addison was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. He had a varied and distinguished career in medicine and in government, becoming Viscount Addison of Stallingborough in 1945. In 1949, given his Chairmanship twenty years before of the first Government Committee on National Parks, it was most apposite that as leader of the House of Lords he took part in the passage of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Bill through Parliament. He died in 1951.

** John Dower (1900-47) an architect/planner and supporter of several conservation and recreation organisations, was, as noted in para 2 above, the Drafting Secretary to SCNP drafting2 “The Case for National Parks”. He became a temporary civil servant in 1942, working first for the Ministry of Works and Planning, then for the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, and did much to inform and influence future Government policy on the setting up of National Parks. Following the Scott Report’s (Land Utilisation in Rural Areas 1942) support for National Parks, Dower was requested to prepare an official report on National Parks in England and Wales, and this became a White Paper, published in May 1945. The new Labour Government’s National Parks Committee, chaired by Sir Arthur Hobhouse, established in July 1945, considered Dower’s proposals in more detail, and Dower was appointed as one of the Committee’s ten members. Sadly, he died only three months after the publication, in July 1947, of the Hobhouse Report which, again, as noted above, provided the basis of the legislation in the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. (In writing this footnote the author has borrowed some material on John Dower from John Cousins’ recently published history of the Friends of the Lake District, “Friends of the Lake District: the early years”, 2009, Centre for North-West Regional Studies. As John Cousins acknowledges, this information was provided by Professor Michael Dower, John Dower’s eldest son, in correspondence with him in January 2006.) miles of land), as one of the ten candidate areas (see Map 1) in his Division A list of “Suggested National Parks”, extensive areas of beautiful and relatively wild country which he proposed should be established as National Parks during the first five years of the operation of an Act enabling their designation. Finally, in his Report, Dower, like Addison fourteen years before, called for the creation of a National Parks “Authority”, responsible for future designations, suggesting it could be either a “National Parks Commission” or a “National Parks Service”, under the charge of an appropriate Government Ministry.

3. Acting almost immediately after the publication of the “Dower” Report, the newly elected Labour Government established its National Parks Committee4 (England and Wales) chaired by Sir Arthur Hobhouse*, in July 1945, to consider Dower’s proposals in more detail. The Committee needed to look, inter alia, at all ten of John Dower’s National Park candidate areas, which as mentioned above, included the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons, and from 15 August to 20 August 1945, the Committee’s Chairman, Sir Arthur Hobhouse, and its Secretary, Mr. J. B. Bowers, with two Committee members, Lt. Col. Edward N. Buxton** and Dr. Julian Huxley***, surveyed the whole area and, in particular, highlighted problems of delimiting some parts of the boundary. In their tour of the proposed area, the Committee’s inspecting party met with the County Planning Officers (CPOs) of both the Carmarthen and Brecon Joint Planning Committee, Mr Boardman and Mr Holbourn****, respectively. Their Report5, NPC6, like some similar reports for other areas identified by John Dower, were considered by the full Committee at their 2nd meeting on 16/17 October 1945. The area surveyed covered a slightly larger area (Map 2), 520 square miles, than Dower’s proposed National Park (Map 1) (470 square miles), but nevertheless covered much the same area, the two considerable mountain masses – the Black Mountains to the North-East and the Brecon Beacons and the Carmarthen Vans to the South and West, the two masses being separated by the valley of the River Usk.

4. The “Hobhouse” Report was eventually published in July 1947, and included in its list of twelve proposed National Parks, was a proposal in the third instalment of the list, for the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains National Park, covering 511 square miles (a slightly smaller area than that surveyed by the inspecting committee in 1945). As with the other proposed Parks, a map at 1:625,000 scale, of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains National Park, was included in the 1947 Report, together with a detailed description4 of the Proposed Park and its Problems and

* Before being appointed Chairman of the National Parks Committee, Sir Arthur Hobhouse had a long political career as a county councillor in Somerset (he had also briefly been MP for Wells 1923-24), being Chairman of the County Council frm 1940- 47. He became Chairman of the County Council’s Association (England and Wales) from 1947-50, and then President of that body from 1951-53.

** Lt. Col. E. N. Buxton was a Verderer and resident of Epping Forest, Director of a National Brewery; National Trust representative on SCNP, CPRE, and the Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society.

*** Dr. Julian S. Huxley (1887-1975) was a famous biologist, zoologist and natural history writer.

**** Mr. P. R. H. S. Holbourn, a planner and architect, became the County Planning Officer (CPO) of Brecon County Council in 1947, and from 1957-74 acted as the Planning Officer for the Breconshire Park Planning Committee, and as one of the three CPOs advising the Brecon Beacons National Park Joint Advisory Committee established in 1959. Requirements. The Park included the great northward facing scarped sandstone summits of the Brecon Beacons and the Carmarthen Vans reaching nearly 3000’, while southwards the Park extended over Carboniferous Limestone country to the Coal Measures marking the northern limits of the industrialised and urbanised Valleys of South Wales. North-eastwards, across the Abergavenny – Brecon road, were the Black Mountains of Monmouthshire, overlooking the Wye Valley, and extending across the England/Wales border into western Herefordshire. The magnificent, largely unspoiled, mountain scenery of the proposed Park with almost unlimited access for walkers, clearly formed an area of high recreational value, being close to the highly populated areas of South Wales. In its description of the Park the Report also highlighted the wealth of historical and archaeological interest within the proposed Park, including large British and Roman Camps and hill forts, Norman and mediaeval castles, and ecclesiastical ruins like Llanthony Abbey. The towns of Abergavenny and Brecon were excluded from the “Hobhouse” Committee’s proposed Park, but the area did include many large villages, like Crickhowell and Talybont, in the Usk Valley. Interestingly enough, for the future, (see para 56) reference was made in the Report to the Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal and the possibility of providing “a peaceful waterway for canoes and ideal sites for boating stations and hostels along its wooded banks”.

5. Finally, with regard to the Hobhouse Report, it should be noted that, like Addison and Dower before them, the Hobhouse Committee also recommended the creation of a national body to designate, and frame policy for, National Parks. This recommendation was, of course, taken up by the Government some two years later in their establishment of a National Parks Commission (NPC) under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (the 1949 Act). Amongst the NPC’s duties, under the 1949 Act, was the task of designating both National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

Designation History I

6. Early Steps. Under its first Chairman, Sir Patrick Duff*, the first major task of the NPC, in early 1950, was to select those areas which should constitute the initial tranche of National Parks, and the NPC’s first annual report6 made it very clear that its National Park Designation programme would be based on the twelve areas selected by Hobhouse, including the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains. The latter area, in the final instalment of Hobhouse’s list, was accorded only low priority in the programme. However, by March7 1953 the NPC agreed to undertake a preliminary review of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains proposal, taking in the Elenith Mountains to the north. This task was given to the NPC’s newly

* Sir Patrick Duff had had a long and distinguished career as a Civil Servant (including being Personal Secretary to three successive Prime Ministers). Knighted in 1932, he entered the Diplomatic Service in 1941, serving at High Commissioner level in Canada and New Zealand. He became the NPC’s first Chairman in 1949 and served in this capacity till 1954. established Committee “B”, which, under the chairmanship of Francis Ritchie*, was to deal, inter alia, with the detail of the National Park programme in the south of the country. The members** of the Committee B Inspecting Party reported to the meeting8 of Committee B on 8 June 1953. It was their view that the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains area was suitable for designation as a National Park, and the full Committee accepted this recommendation. Importantly the inspection party stressed that, should the process of boundary making continue, then certain delicate administrative problems could arise in relation to the inclusion of a small area administered by Glamorgan CC and Merthyr Tydfil CB, and the exclusion of land to the north within Brecknockshire and to the Elenith Mountains. At their meeting10 the following day (9 June 1953) the NPC endorsed their Committee B’s recommendation.

7. Progress on the proposal was slow until a Parliamentary Question by G. Thomas MP (Cardiff West) on 16 February 1954 highlighted the apparent delay. Mr. Thomas asked the then Minister of Housing and Local Government, the Rt. Hon. Harold Macmillan MP, as to the reason for his delay in designating the Brecon Beacons as a National Park. Ernest Marples MP, the Junior Minister representing MHLG, replied that the NPC had not yet submitted a Designation Order, and that he saw no reason to interfere with the NPC’s current programme of designation. Mr. Llewellyn MP (Cardiff North) asked when the area would be designated, and Harold Macmillan replied that the NPC determined the timing of the submission of National Park Designation Orders though he had to confirm any Order submitted. At the meeting11 of the NPC on the same day (16 February 1954), W. H. Vaughan***, a newly appointed Commissioner, brought these Parliamentary Questions to the Commission’s attention, and Sir Patrick Duff (who retired as Chairman on 28 February) informed him of the Commission’s decision, following a visit by Commissioners, on 9 June 1953 that the area was suitable for designation as a National Park, adding that a further visit by the NPC to consider boundary details would take place in the summer (1954). 8. Committee B12, meeting on 15 March 1954, generally discussed the next steps in the designation, looking at the likely effect of excluding outlying areas from the proposed Park on the form of administration. The Committee recommended Commission staff prepared a paper on this. This paper, NPC/G/176, was considered by Committee B at their meeting13 on 12 April 1954, and their recommendations

* Francis Ritchie was one of the original members of the NPC appointed in December 1949; he remained a member till 1966; and also achieved high office in the Council for National Parks (CNP) (he was one of the founder members), CPRE, the Open Spaces Society and the Ramblers’ Association (RA).

** Unfortunately no reference is made on file as to whom the members of the Inspecting Party were, though it seems likely that Mr. Ritchie , as Chairman of Committee B, and Lord Merthyr were amongst them. Only the detailed itinerary9 survives on file.

*** W. H. Vaughan joined the NPC on 15 February 1954. He had a long and eminent career serving in local government and several other local bodies in South Wales and remained Chairman of the Welsh Land Settlement Society Ltd, and a member of both the Forestry Commission and the NPC until his death in 1959. were put to the meeting14 of the full Commission, now chaired by Lord Strang*, on the following day. The NPC agreed with their Committee B that the best course would be to designate those parts of the “Hobhouse” Committee’s National Park within the three counties of Brecknock, Carmarthen and Monmouth. It was also agreed that Lord Strang and two Welsh Commissioners should visit informally the Chairmen of the three county councils to seek their views, and that the NPC Secretary, Harold Abrahams**, would prepare the way for the NPC visit by preliminary meetings with the three County Council Clerks.

9. Harold Abrahams met with all three of the County Council Clerks in the last week of April, and reported on these meetings to both the NPC’s Committee15 B (10 May 1954) and to the full NPC meeting16 on the following day. In his report he mentioned that while there was some opposition to the setting up of a Joint Board for the Park, there was little opposition to the designation of a National Park as such. The time seemed ideal for Commissioners to meet with the three County Council Chairmen and their County Planning Committees and Lord Strang with Commissioners, Dr. Nancy Davies*** and Mr. G. Vaughan, met with the delegations from the three County Councils. The meeting was held in Brecon on 10 June 1954 and, while amenable, confirmed the opposition of the three County Councils to a National Park administered by a Joint Board. In reporting the Brecon meeting to the full NPC17 on 15 June 1954 the Chairman said that he believed that they should give further consideration to the question of administration, mentioning that similar opposition to Joint Boards were likely to arise if the Yorkshire Dales and Exmoor National Park Designation Orders were confirmed by the Minister of Housing and Local Government. The NPC decided to prepare a paper on the Commission policies on Joint Boards and single Planning Officers for each Park. Arrangements were also made for an NPC visit to look at the proposed boundaries of the Brecon Beacons NP from 3-5 July 1954, and the inspecting party would consist of Dr. Nancy Davies, Professor R. C. McLean**** , Mr. D. Francis Morgan***** , Mr. G. Vaughan, and Mr. W. B Yapp******. L. J. Watson****** the NPC’s Senior Field Officer and previously

* Like his predecessor, William Strang had had a long and distinguished career in Government service, and also had been a diplomat. Knighted in 1943, his last post before retirement in 1953 was Permanent Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. He became Baron Strang in 1954, and was appointed the second Chairman of the NPC in March of that year. ** Harold Abrahams, 1922 Olympic Gold Medallist (in 100 metres track event), Senior Civil Servant and Athletics Correspondent for the Sunday Times, had been appointed Secretary of the NPC in 1950, continuing in this post until his retirement in 1964. *** Dr. Nancy Davies, a retired Surgeon and Physician, living in Aberayron, Cardiganshire, was appointed a Commissioner in March 1953, resigning in November 1956. **** Professor R. C. McLean, a Professor of Botany at University College, Cardiff, was appointed as one of the original Commissioners, retiring in 1957. He was also a member of the Nature Conservancy. ***** Mr. D. Francis Morgan, a lawyer, was appointed in February 1959 and resigned in March 1961. ****** Brunsden Yapp, an academic geographer from the West Midlands, was appointed a Commissioner in January 1953, and served thirteen years in that position till June 1966. ****** L. J. Watson, a landscape architect and artist, had been employed by the MTCP as a Technical Officer, but had been “borrowed” by the National Parks Committee from 1945-47, as their landscape adviser. Subsequently he became the Senior Field Officer for the National Parks Commission, and worked for the Countryside Commission as a landscape consultant until 1973. Uniquely, he provided continuity and consistency in giving advice on landscape designations from 1945-73. His influential role is often understated, and is best understood by reference to his masterly reports and papers, mostly on files in what is now The National Archives. He was also an artist of considerable talent – his 1946 oil painting “The New Religion” showing four naturalists in the field, forms the the Landscape Adviser to the Hobhouse Committee, would also accompany the NPC’s party.

10. Lord Strang, the Commission Chairman, was unable to join the inspection, but conveyed his concerns18 to Professor McLean about the need for the NPC to set down, for their own information, and for record, the reasons which prompted the NPC to make a Designation Order for the proposed Park. Recent experiences at the Exmoor NP public inquiry earlier in the year made him believe that a clear statement as to why the NPC believed it was “especially desirable*” to establish a National Park in the Brecon Beacons area would be of great assistance to the NPC if an inquiry was called. While he hoped that a public inquiry would not be necessary in the case of the Brecon Beacons, he still believed that it would be wise to strengthen the NPC’s hand, in the event of an inquiry, by the survey party preparing such a statement, for which Professor McLean, as the senior Commissioner in the party, would be responsible. 11. The itinerary19 prepared by L. J. Watson for the visit demonstrated a fairly intensive inspection of the “Hobhouse” NP, which included taking in the Herefordshire section, but also, on the last day, looking at the Mynydd Epynt “Hobhouse” conservation area to the north of the Usk Valley. Meetings also took place, en route, with Mr. J. Kegie**, the Monmouthshire CPO, Mr. R. L Randles, the Carmarthenshire CPO, and the route within Breconshire was agreed beforehand with Mr. Holbourn, the Breconshire CPO. Professor McLean reported on the inspection to Committee B of the NPC, at their meeting20 on 12 July 1954, and the likely amendments to the boundary of the Hobhouse NP, consequent on the inspection, were discussed. At the same time, Paper21 B/G/81, the Statement prepared by Professor McLean at Lord Strang’s earlier request (see para 10 above) was also discussed, and adopted, by the Committee. Meeting22 the next day (13 July 1954), the full NPC decided a draft designation map should be prepared by the members of the inspecting party in concert with Mrs. Dower***, another Commissioner, who had independently visited the area. It was proposed that this map, and the reports and recommendations of the Inspecting Party should be considered in September, but it was not until the NPC meeting on 12 October 1954 that the map and reports were considered. In the meantime Brecon County Council had resolved that in the event of the designation of the National Park by the NPC, the Council would make representations to the Minister that, by reason of special circumstances, administration of the Park should be by means of a Joint Advisory Committee. This resolution was conveyed to the NPC and was first23 considered by frontispiece of Peter Marren’s New Naturalist volume “The New Naturalists” first published by Harper/Collins in 1995, and is owned by Natural England, at their Peterborough office. * Section 5(2) 1949 Act. ** James Kegie, 1913-84, town planner and surveyor, started his planning career in Durham, before moving south to West Sussex, Cheshire and eventually Monmouthshire, where he became CPO in 1945. He played a leading role in the designation of the Wye Valley AONB, and on retirement in 1974, became a member of the Countryside Commission for eight years until 1982. He was also a member of the Commission’s Committee for Wales over the same period, and Chairman of that Committee from 1981-82. *** Pauline Dower was the widow of John Dower, the author of the 1945 Seminal Report on National Parks (see para 2 above), and was a founder member of the NPC, and one of its longest serving members, (along with Francis Ritchie) relinquishing that role in June 1966. As a Commissioner she played a major role in the formulation, through site visits and reports, of the boundaries of several National Parks and AONBs. Committee B at their meeting on 13 September 1954. Committee B agreed to request Lord Strang to talk again with representatives of the three County Councils, making it clear to them what the effects of National Park designation would be and the scale of the administrative costs involved. At their meeting24 the next day (14 September 1954), the NPC agreed with Committee B’s views about the need for a further Chairman level meeting with the County Councils. The less contentious issue of the details of the proposed boundaries were left, for the time being, to the NPC Field Officers and the local authority planning officers concerned.

12. The boundaries of the proposed NP again took centre stage in October 1954, with the consideration of an NPC paper25 (B/G/8) on the proposed NP, setting out the amendments to the Draft Boundary (based on the “Hobhouse” proposal and Map 2 of this history) considered by the NPC Inspection party and the three CPOs. In Brecknockshire the paper argued very strongly for the inclusion of the historic town, and tourist centre, of Brecon in the Park, plus the adjacent northern half of the Pen- y-Crug, which together with Slwch Tump afforded magnificent views of the Brecon Beacons and the Usk Valley. It was also argued that the northern strip of the Usk Valley, from Aberyscir to Sennybridge should be included in the NP. It was not only attractive in its own right, like the Usk Valley by the town of Brecon, but also afforded fine views of the Beacons and their moorland slopes. Finally, in Brecknockshire, a small area of “dullish” moorland north of Ystradgynlais, with a colliery and open-cast coal workings were proposed for exclusion. In Carmarthenshire, south of Llandovery, a strip of land west of Myddfai was proposed to be added to avoid the division of the community; while a small area of land near Llandilo, which, in the view of the Carmarthenshire CPO, “belonged more properly to the Towy Valley” was proposed for exclusion. A small area, forming the westernmost tip of the Black Mountain moorland, overlooking Ammanford, was also proposed for exclusion because of the “ugly sporadic development” which had taken place. The addition of one very small area, and the exclusion of a similarly small area, both at Brynamman, were proposed. An area of moorland, adjoining the Brecknock boundary at the head of the Twrch Valley, was also proposed for exclusion. In Monmouthshire, two areas near Abergavenny, were proposed to be included to accord with the Development Plan Town Map boundary, while southwards from the Blorenge, it was proposed to extend the boundary along the ridge as far as the southern boundary of Llanover Fawr.

13. In Glamorganshire, the small areas, in the Hobhouse NP, near Hirwaun and Aberdare and the square mile within the County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil, were proposed for exclusion. Though not mentioned in the paper the author suspects that the exclusion of these small areas, like the exclusion of the much larger Olchon Valley area in Herefordshire was for administrative convenience. The involvement of two more county councils, and one of them English, in the administration of the NP would add even more to the problems the NPC faced with the three County Councils of Breconshire, Carmarthenshire and Monmouthshire, all of whom seemed most likely to oppose the establishment of a separate National Park Planning Board, despite their support for the designation of the National Park itself.

14. The NPC Committee B26, in their initial consideration of Paper B/G/8 on 11 October 1954, agreed to accept all the proposed changes to the boundary, except the proposed exclusion of a small area of land in Carmarthenshire near Llandilo, which they believed should be included. The Committee agreed not to include* the town of Hay within the Park, and also noted that Lord Strang would be meeting the County Councils in late November to discuss the administration of the Park. At their meeting27 the following day, 12 October, the NPC agreed with views their Committee had already expressed on the boundary. Lord Strang’s proposed meeting with the County Councils did not take place until 1-2 February 1955, when with Harold Abrahams, the NPC Secretary, and Mr. G. Vaughan, the lead Commissioner on the Brecon Beacons NP proposal, he then28 met Chairmen, members and officers of Brecon and Carmarthen CCs. A similar informal meeting with Monmouth CC, with administration the main subject of discussion, took place on 22 February 1955. No agreement was reached on administration, though it appeared29 unlikely that this would become a major issue before confirmation of the Designation Order for the Park. Further progress, however, was made on the details of the proposed boundary, and copies of the Draft Map were prepared in accordance with the instructions of the Commission. This meant that formal consultation30 with local authorities under Section 7(1) of the 1949 Act could begin.

15. Formal Consultation on the boundary with local authorities and other bodies commenced when letters, the boundary description and the 1:63,360 scale draft map were sent on 4 March 1955 to the fourteen local authorities31 affected by the proposal and, on 9 March 1955, to the eight bodies32 consulted under the NPC’s usual practice. In addition to the three CCs of Breconshire, Carmarthenshire and Monmouthshire, seven DCs were consulted in Breconshire ie Brecon BC, Brecknock, Hay, Crickhowell, Vaynor & Penderyn, and Ystradgynlais RDCs, and Brynmawr UDC; two DCs in Carmarthenshire ie Llandilo RDC and Llandovery BC; and two DCs in Monmouthshire ie Abergavenny BC and Abergavenny RDC. Hay UDC was also added to the consultation list33 on 25 May 1955, when the Commission heard from the Breconshire CC Clerk, Mr. Wells, that the UDC had agreed to request the inclusion of their Urban District, basically the town, within the Park, and that this request had the support of the Brecon County Planning Committee. Following usual practice, the Nature Conservancy (NC), Forestry Commission (FC), Welsh Office, Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG), Crown Lands Commission, Ramblers’ Association (RA), Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales (CPRW) and the National Trust (NT), were also consulted.

16. Representations. The NPC’s Committee B, with Mr. G. Vaughan as lead Commissioner, reported to, and made recommendations to the NPC as to the eventual formal views of the NPC on the representations received following the formal consultation. These views, and the changes made to the boundary, are set out in the NPC minutes from April onwards to September 1955, when the NPC

* The Committee was later to change its mind on this, (para 15) following strong representations by the Breconshire County Planning Committee and Hay UDC at the formal consultation stage. resolved34 to approve the making of the Brecon Beacons NP Designation Order 1955. The main representations, with the NPC response, are set out in the following paragraphs (paras 17 – 33).

17. In Breconshire, Breconshire CC, as well as giving its own comments on the boundary, sought to co-ordinate the views of the DCs in the county through its County Planning Committee. The County Council first requested informally that two slight amendments should be made with the objective of including both banks of the Newport – Brecon Canal and of the Swansea Canal, in the proposed Park. The NPC’s Committee B, meeting on 13 April 1955, approved35 this, and the NPC then wrote to the District Councils concerned, promoting the inclusion of both banks of the Canals, the southern banks of which had been shown as the proposed boundary of the Park on the consultation map. Breconshire CC also sought adjustment of the boundary so that the Park included small areas at Trecastle (Map 3), Trefeca and Talgarth (Map 4), the town of Hay (Map 5) (see also para 15 above), and a small area at Brynmawr (Map 6). At their meeting36 on 10 May 1955, the NPC noted that, the day before, their Committee B37, had recommended the approval of these small adjustments.

18. Vaynor & Penderyn RDC, in their response38 of 15 April 1955, pointed out that the NPC’s boundary description did not accord with the consultation map at Hirwaun, where the map excluded the township of Hirwaun west of the railway station. The RDC assumed that the map boundary was correct. In his letter of 2 May 195539, Mr. Weintroub of the NPC Secretariat, confirmed that the map was correct and that the boundary description would be amended.

19. Ystradgynlais RDC, in their Clerk’s (W. H. G. Jeffreys) letter40 of 4 May 1955, responded that they would have no objection to the proposed NP provided an assurance was given by the NPC that the NP Order would not affect any future development of the Council’s Housing Sites within the NP. On administration and any delegated powers given to the NP, the Council, following the views of most other local authorities, hoped that an opportunity would be given in the future to make representations on the matter. In a letter (15 June 1955) to the Clerk of Breconshire CC, Mr. Jeffreys41 suggested that the boundary could be changed so as not to interfere with future housing proposals, and that the boundary “should be diverted at the confluence of the Rivers Tawe and Llech, continue along the Tawe as far as Penycae, and then westerly in a straight line to join up with the junction of the Rivers Giedd and Cyw, and thence in a straight line to join the River Twrch near Penywern”. Though Mr. Jeffreys noted that the Breconshire CPO, Mr. Holbourn, did not agree with the proposed diversion, he also repeated his view that it would not be necessary if the NPC gave the Council the assurance that the proposed NP would not affect the extension of housing sites in the Rural District. Despite a meeting with the NPC Secretary, Harold Abrahams, in July, to discuss the RDC’s concerns, Mr. Jeffreys repeated the RDC’s views in his letter42 of 4 August 1955 to the NPC Secretary, also expressing the Council’s regret that the NPC did not believe the diversion was justified. He reported his Council’s decision to pursue their proposal and to give notice of objection when the NP Order was published. The NPC Secretariat, in Mr. Millar’s* letter43 of 18 August 1955, requested Mr. W. H. Vaughan, the lead Commissioner for the Brecon Beacons NP proposal, to attempt, with the help of Mr. Tudor Watkin** MP, to persuade the Council to withdraw their potential objection. After discussions with the Breconshire CPO, Mr. Holbourn, and Mr. Vaughan, Mr. Tudor Watkins MP met with the Council. The MP, not without some difficulty and the raising of new issues relating to trespass on farmland, was eventually successful44,45 in persuading the Council to withdraw their potential objection. This was confirmed in a letter46, dated 1 September 1955, from the Ystradgynlais RDC Clerk, to the NPC Secretary.

20. Brecknock and Crickhowell RDCs both wrote in April 1955 to the NPC Secretary seeking more information on the implications of National Park designation, particularly with regard to administration and planning. Despite the Breconshire CC Clerk, Mr. Wells, and the CPO, Mr. Holbourn, attempting to explain matters to these Councils, and, indeed, to the other DCs (Brecon BC, Ystradgynlais RDC) which had raised similar questions, the NPC Secretary proposed that he might meet with the DCs to provide the information they required. Harold Abrahams visited the area on 13 July 1955, and apparently supplied the DCs with the information. No objections to the proposed Order were forthcoming from Brecknock and Crickhowell RDCs.

21. Brecon BC responded to the consultation in their letter of 11 March 1955, stating that they had decided not to object to the proposed boundaries, though the Clerk did request, like most other authorities, information on the setting up of a Joint Planning Board for the Park. Tom Millar’s letter47 of 14 March 1955, to the Brecon BC Clerk, explained the legislation relating to the Joint Planning Board and the fall- back provision for a Joint Advisory Committee.

22. Hay RDC and Hay UDC. In June 1955 both these DCs were informed that the NPC (see para 17 above) had approved, at their meeting on 10 May 1955, the proposals by Breconshire CC to add areas at Talgarth, Trefecca and the town of Hay to the proposed NP. The same information was given to Brecknock RDC in relation to the added land in the Llanfihangel – Talyllyn area and also much further west at Llywel. Both Hay RDC and Hay UDC, in their Joint Clerk’s (C. W. Tarrant) letters48,49

* T. G. (Tom) Millar became an Assistant Field Officer for the NPC in 1959, working in this role till 1967 when he became Head of the NPC’s (later the Countryside Commission’s) Long Distance Paths Branch. In 1972 he joined the Department of the Environment and later, in 1977, produced an authoritative and well-illustrated guide on the Long Distance Paths of England and Wales.

** Tudor Elwyn Watkins (1903-1983), after working as a coalminer in his early years, became a local alderman and politician, before being elected Labour MP for Brecon and Radnor from 1948-70, during which time he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales (1964-68). In 1972 he became a Life Peer (Baron Watkins of Glyntawe, Brecknock), later serving as Lord Lieutenant of Powys, Chairman of Powys CC, and Chairman of the Brecon Beacons National Park Committee (1974-78). His local background and obvious skills as a politician and mediator were clearly crucial in persuading Ystradgynlais RDC to withdraw their potential objection to the Brecon Beacons NP Order. of 7 July 1955, advised the NPC Secretary that their Councils agreed with the amended boundaries.

23. Brynmawr UDC apparently approved the small addition of land to the Park just north-east of the town of Brynmawr itself (Map 6), which had been proposed by Breconshire CC, and was subsequently approved by the NPC in May 1955 (para 17 above)

24. In Monmouthshire, Monmouthshire CC, responding to the NPC’s formal consultation letter, had resolved50 that while there was no objection to the NPC’s most recent proposal, promoted by Breconshire CC (para 17 above), to include within the eastern boundary of the Park, the eastern bank and towpath of the Monmouth and Brecon Canal, there was strong objection to the additional 610 acres covering the villages of Llanover, Llanellen and Llanfoist. At their meeting51on 14 June 1955, the NPC agreed their Committee B’s recommendation, made the previous day, that the boundary of the proposed Park should be drawn so as to include both banks of the Monmouth and Brecon Canal, but excluding, as requested by Monmouthshire CC, the land including the villages of Llanover, Llanellen and Llanfoist.

25. Abergavenny RDC were again consulted by the NPC, in T. G. Millar’s letter52 of 21 April 1955, which also reported the Commission’s proposal (following the Breconshire CC initiative for the full length of the canal) to include within the Park the whole lateral extent of the Brecon-Newport Canal and not merely one half of its width. The letter also extolled the advantages which would come through the grants available under the 1949 Act for the improvement of recreational facilities of waterways within the NP. The RDC apparently made no objection to the amended boundary.

26. Abergavenny BC were also consulted on the 9 March 1955, and apparently made no objection to the proposed boundary.

27. In Carmarthenshire, Carmarthenshire CC apparently made no objection to the 9 March 1955 consultation, nor to the amended proposal to include both banks of the Swansea Canal within the Park.

28. Llandilo RDC, as well as being formally consulted on 9 March 1955, was also consulted53 on the NPC’s amended Canal boundary on 21 April 1955. The Council was informed of the grants available for recreational facilities along the waterway in the same letter. In their reply54 of 2 May 1955 the RDC stated that they had no observations on the amended boundary proposals.

29. Llandovery BC, apparently, did not object to the proposed boundary.

30. Of the bodies consulted under normal practice, though not by statute, CPRW, in its Acting Secretary’s (H. G. Griffin*) letter55 of 6 June 1955, welcomed the proposed designation, but drew attention to the exclusion of the Olchon Valley area, in Herefordshire, from the NP. CPRW pointed out that this area had been recommended for inclusion by the Hobhouse Committee (Map 2 of this history), but supposed the area had been excluded because of the administrative problems of bringing a fourth, and an English, county into the Park, and not because the NPC believed it lacked scenic merit. Mr. Griffin added that if their supposition was correct then CPRW would not press the point further. He also mentioned that the SCNP wished to be associated with CPRW’s observations. In his reply56 of 15 July 1955 to Mr. Griffin, Mr. Millar of the NPC Secretariat confirmed that CPRW’s supposition was correct.

31. The Welsh Office, in its response57 of 22 March 1955, indicated that it was not aware of any proposed local authority boundary alteration affecting the proposed NP, while both the Office of the Commissioners of Crown Land58 and the National Trust59 responded that they had no comment on the proposed NP boundaries. The NC, FC and the MHLG made no written response to the NPC’s informal consultation.

32. Progress on receiving responses to the NPC’s formal March 1955 consultation, and the subsequent proposed boundary amendments were reported60 to the NPC’s Committee B meeting on 11 July 1955 by Mr. Vaughan, the lead Commissioner for the NP proposal, and the NPC Secretary. Though at the time of the meeting the outstanding issue with Ystradgynlais RDC still awaited resolution, the Committee agreed to recommend to the NPC, meeting the following day61, that they approved the making of the Brecon Beacons NP Designation Order 1955. Though the NPC did agree their Committee B’s recommendation they added that the Order should not be made until the NPC meeting in September 1955.

33. The NPC Committee B, meeting62 on 12 September 1955, were informed of the successful efforts (para 19 above) of Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Tudor Watkins MP in persuading Ystradgynlais RDC to withdraw their proposed objection to the NP boundary. The Committee recorded their appreciation of Mr. Vaughan’s efforts and recommended that the NPC Chairman be requested to write to Mr. Tudor Watkins MP, also thanking him for his efforts in the matter. The Committee were also informed that it was understood that the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) was considering a proposal relating to the winning of agricultural lime in the south-eastern section of the proposed NP. No boundary proposals relating to this proposal had

* H. (Herbert) G. Griffin was Secretary of CPRE from its founding in 1926 to 1969. He also acted as Secretary to CPRW and to SCNP. In September 1955 he was appointed a member of the NPC, remaining in that role till 1966. He was knighted in 1957. been made to the NPC, though MAF were clearly aware that the NPC were proposing to make the Designation Order in September. Any boundary changes they wished to suggest would need to be made direct* to the Minister once the Order had been submitted to him.

34. Finally the NPC Committee B agreed to recommend to the full NPC, meeting the next day, that the resolution taken at the July 1955 NPC meeting61 to make the Brecon Beacons NP Designation Order, be implemented. The NPC, meeting62 on 13 September 1955, agreed their Committee B’s recommendation, and it was announced that the Brecon Beacons NP Designation Order 1955 would be signed by the Chairman, Lord Strang and the Secretary, Harold Abrahams, on 20 September 1955, with a press release being issued for publication on 23 September 1955. The NPC also asked their Chairman to thank Mr. Tudor Watkins MP in negotiating a successful outcome to the boundary problem raised by Ystradgynlais RDC, and thanked the lead Commissioner for the NP proposal, Mr. Vaughan, for his special services.

35. The Making of the Brecon Beacons NP Designation Order 1955. Following the NPC’s decision at their September 1955 meeting the Order was duly made with the Commission’s Seal affixed and signed by the NPC’s Chairman and Secretary on 20 September 1955. 36. In accordance with the statutory requirements of Schedule 1 of the 1949 Act, the NPC, through its Secretary, Harold Abrahams, gave notice, from 27 September – 10 October, in the London Gazette63, national (Times and Telegraph) and local newspapers (Amman Valley Chronicle, Brecon & Radnor Express, Western Mail, Abergavenny Chronicle, South Wales Voice, Carmarthen Journal, South Wales Weekly Argus and Merthyr Express) that the Order had been made, and was about to be submitted to the then Minister of Housing and Local Government, the Rt. Hon. Duncan Sandys MP, for confirmation. Copies of the Order, the Map, and the Boundary Description had been put on public deposit in the offices of the local authorities throughout the area affected, and at the NPC Offices at Chester Gate, Regent’s Park, London. Representations and objections relating to the Order were invited, and were to be made in writing to the Secretary of MHLG by 1 November 1955.

37. The NP Order and the Map, with copies of the Statutory Notice, a list of the newspapers in which the notice had been inserted, a Statement of the grounds on which the NPC considered the Order should be confirmed, and a certificate listing the fifteen local authorities formally consulted, were sent by the NPC Secretary to the MHLG Secretary, for the consideration of the Minister, with a covering letter64, on 14 October 1955.

* Paras 38-45 demonstrate that no boundary changes relating to the agricultural lime proposal were suggested directly to the Minister by MAF. 38. Formal Representations to MHLG. Letters of objection to the National Park Order were received from Cardiff, Newport and Swansea County Borough Councils (CBCs) relating to access on, and control of development on, water-gathering grounds used by these CBCs within the proposed NP. These objections were reported to the NPC at their meeting65 on 8 November 1955. The NPC decided to approach MHLG to ascertain more about the terms of these objections to see whether any misapprehensions could be allayed. Accordingly, Mr. Millar of the NPC Secretariat, wrote66, on 15 November 1955, to Mr. Crabbe of the Welsh Office Section of MHLG, pointing out that the NPC were familiar with similar fears in other NPs, and might therefore be able to advise, informally, and hopefully allay the fears, of the three Councils at an early stage. The NPC also sought advice from Mr. Crabbe as to whether this kind of objection (if sustained) from local authorities outside the boundary of a proposed NP, would oblige the Minister to hold a public inquiry under Schedule 1 of the 1949 Act.

39. Mr. B. E. Laugharne of the MHLG’s Welsh Office replied67 to Mr. Millar on 25 November 1955. In summary, Mr. Laugharne’s reply was that, in the last instance, control of development on the water-undertakers’ gathering grounds in the National Park would be exercised by the Minister, and not by the water-undertakers themselves. No reply was given to the NPC’s question as to whether the objection from the three CBCs (the administrative areas of which lay well outside the proposed NP) would trigger a public inquiry under Schedule 1 of the 1949 Act. Mr. H. N. Jerman, MHLG Principal, in advising Mr. Laugharne further68 on 22 December 1955, said that MHLG could not object to the NPC Secretary, Mr. Abrahams, talking to the three CBCs over their water-undertaking role in the proposed NP.

40. The NPC Secretary and Mr. Vaughan (as lead Commissioner for the NP proposal) together met representatives of the three CPCs and the Taf Fechan Water Board on 13 January 1956. A statement had been agreed on the position of water- undertakers under a National Park administration, and arrangements were being made for the prior agreement of MHLG’s Welsh Office and the British Waterworks Association, on behalf of the authorities, to a document which, it was anticipated, would cause the CBCs to withdraw their objection. The latter outcome was reported to the NPC at their meeting69 on 25 January 1956. Copies of the proposed statement70 were sent to the MHLG’s Welsh Office from the three CBCs seeking confirmation from that Office that the statement gave an accurate picture of the position after NP designation. In his informal71 response to the MHLG Assistant Secretary, Mr. Vose, Mr. Jerman advised that he had doubts over involving the Minister in this process and believed that the NPC, the legal advisers to the water- undertakers, and the British Waterworks Association were better placed to give, what could only be, an informal confirmation of the position. He also suggested that it would be preferable, if the water-undertakers were not willing to withdraw their objection unless the Minister confirmed the statement, for the objections to be dealt with by public inquiry, through the statutory Schedule 1 procedure (1949 Act).

41. The Welsh Office informal view not to involve the Minister in confirming the statement clearly did not satisfy the three CBCs, and they wrote72 to the Secretary of the British Waterworks Association at the end of July 1956, asking him to submit the statement to the Ministry for their acceptance as a condition for the three CBCs withdrawing their objections. A letter73 was duly sent by the British Waterworks Association in August 1956 to the Under-Secretary of the MHLG’s Welsh Office requesting confirmation of the statement as a condition for withdrawal of the objection. Following an informal meeting74 on 6 September 1956, between the NPC Chairman, Lord Strang and Blaise Gillie, the Under-Secretary at the Welsh Office of the MHLG, it was agreed that the Welsh Office of MHLG could not give the confirmation of the statement sought by the three CBCs and that, if necessary, the Welsh Office and the NPC would put up with the need for a public inquiry under Schedule 1 to the 1949 Act. Mr. Blaise Gillie gave this view in his response of 20 September 1956 to the British Waterworks Association’s letter of the previous month. Fortunately, after more deliberation, the three CBCs all withdrew their Councils’ objections75 to the Order in November 1956.

42. A second objection to the Order, dated 29 October 1955 from Messrs Thornton Brothers in respect of their farm of 130 acres at Blenn Onneu in the proposed NP, about five miles north of Ebbw Vale. Mr. Laugharne of the MHLG’s Welsh Office, wrote to the Thornton Brothers on 25 November 1955, seeking to allay their fears about the NP designation bringing more trespass and vandalism, and, accordingly, for them to withdraw their objection. Despite similar informal efforts by the NPC Secretary69 the objection was maintained and a hearing* (rather than a full public inquiry) in connection with the objection took place on 5 December 1956 at the Ebbw Vale UDC Offices, Ebbw Vale. Colin Buchanan** MRTPI was the presiding Inspector76, while Mr. H. C. Thornton represented his brothers and himself, and Mr. T. Millar represented the NPC. At the hearing Mr. Thornton described the experiences he and his brothers had had with “rough customers and unleashed dogs” over the sheep runs and moorland now proposed as part of the NP. He feared that NP designation would bring more such experiences. Mr. Millar, for the NPC, while expressing sympathy over the fears expressed by Mr. Thornton pointed out that similar fears had been raised in the cases of other NPs. He added that NP designation would confer no extra rights of access to the public, but could bring legal access agreements, a warden service and by-laws which would be made to control public behaviour.

43. In his written comments on the hearing Mr. Buchanan, while understanding the sincerity of Mr. Thornton’s objection, believed the objection was one of principle and did not relate simply to Mr. Thornton’s land. He added that he thought the

* Schedule 1, paragraph 2(2)(b) of the 1949 Act provides “to afford to any person by whom any representation or objection has been duly made and not withdrawn an opportunity of being heard by a person appointed by (the Minister) for the purpose”.

** Sir Colin Buchanan (1907 – 2001) a Civil Engineer and Town Planner, joined the MTCP in 1946 after war service, working on traffic and planning in Greater London before moving to the Planning Inspectorate, where the Brecon Beacons National Park Hearing will have been undertaken amongst more celebrated major inquiries. Still working in Government, his report ‘Traffic in Towns’, made him the founding father of the new practice of Land Use Transport Planning. He moved to academia in 1963, and also established a traffic and planning consultancy which is still in existence today. objection reflected a far too gloomy view of the impact of designation, and did not credit the improvement of public behaviour which would be one of the aims of the Park Authority. In conclusion he stated that if the objectives of the 1949 Act were to be achieved then it was clear that the objection should be dismissed, and he recommended the Minister accordingly.

44. By 1 April 1957, Mr. Jerman, by then an Assistant Secretary at MHLG Welsh Office, felt able to write77 to Mr. Sylvester-Evans, the Private Secretary to the new Minister of Housing and Local Government, the Rt. Hon. Henry Brooke MP*, bringing to his attention the final stage in the progress of the NP Order, and enclosing the Order and other related papers for Ministerial agreement. He outlined the progress of the Order since its submission to the Ministry in October 1955, and referred to the objections received from the three CBCs of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea, and their subsequent withdrawal in November 1956. Finally, he referred to the objection by farming interests which was the subject of a hearing in December 1956, and the Inspector’s recommendation that it was an objection in principle, not relating to any particular land, and if the objectives of the 1949 Act were to be achieved then the objection should be dismissed.

45. Henry Brooke’s consideration of the Order was swift, and on 2 April 1957, his Private Secretary was able to inform78 Mr. Jerman that the Minister agreed that the Brecon Beacons NP (Designation) Order should be confirmed.

46. Confirmation of the Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Order 1955 on 17 April 195779. Mr. J. T. Palmer (Principal) of the MHLG Welsh Office wrote79 to the NPC Secretary on 16 April 1957 to report that the Minister had considered the Order and the report of his Inspector on the Hearing held on 5 December 1956, and had decided to confirm the Order. Mr. Palmer added that a copy of his letter had also gone to Messrs. Thornton Brothers. The Confirming Order80 for the Designation of the Brecon Beacons National Park (covering 515 square miles) was made on 17 April 1957, and signed by H. N. Jerman, as Assistant Secretary, MHLG Welsh Office. On the same day the MHLG Welsh Office issued a press statement81 with the headlines that the Brecon Beacons was the third NP to be created in Wales, and the tenth in England and Wales, and covered the southern part of Breconshire, extending into Carmarthenshire in the west and Monmouthshire in the east. The statement went on to say that its 515 square miles included the Brecon Beacons, the Black Mountains, the Carmarthenshire Vans, and that its varied scenery of river and moorland, of mountain slope and wooded valley was amongst the finest in the country. Significantly, in view of the fears expressed at the Hearing into the National Park Order, the statement made it clear that National Park designation did not confer any additional freedom of access to private land, did not affect ownership of the land, and that normal life and work in the area continued.

* Henry Brooke, Conservative politician and MP from 1938-64; Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1954-57, Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs 1957 – 1961, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General 1961 – 62, and Home Secretary 1962 – 64. He became Baron Brooke of Cumnor (in the Royal County of Berkshire) in 1966.

47. The area as confirmed is shown on Map 7, and is as described, without modification, in the written description of the boundary submitted to MHLG in September 1955, and re-published82 in May 1957.

48. One final legal hurdle remained before the confirmed Order could fully come into operation. Under paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 of the 1949 Act, the NPC published, on 6 June 1957, a notice83 stating that the Order had been confirmed on 17 April 1957, by the Minister, and that a certified copy of the NP Order and Map, as confirmed, had been put on public deposit in the offices of the fifteen local authorities affected, and at the NPC Offices in London. Importantly the Notice stated that the Order would become operative as from 7 June 1957, but also said, as required by statute, that if any party aggrieved by the Order wanted to question its validity, that party could, within six weeks of the date of publication of the notice (6 June 1957) make an application to the High Court. No application questioning the validity of the Order was made, but attention then turned to the form of Administration for the National Park, a problem which had been already raised by most of the fifteen local authorities affected by the National Park.

49. The Designation Process in Retrospect. Since the NPC decision in March 1953 to review the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains NP proposal, prior to its inclusion in the NPC’s NP designation programme, the process had taken just over four years before the NP Order, as submitted by the NPC, was confirmed, without modification by Henry Brooke, the MHLG Minister. The boundary of the confirmed NP varied in only two major respects from the Hobhouse proposal; it included the historic town of Brecon, but excluded the Olchon Valley and Black Mountains area of Herefordshire in England. Brecon itself, and some hills to the north had been brought into the NPC proposal following an NPC inspection in July 1954, while, even earlier, in May 1954, the NPC had decided to exclude consideration of the Herefordshire area, because of the administrative problems it posed, not because it lacked scenic merit. This area of Herefordshire was to be considered in reviews of both proposed NPs and AONBs undertaken by the Countryside Commission (the 1968 successor to the NPC) but remained, like a few other areas, as “unfinished business”. The Hobhouse NP covered 511 square miles, and despite the omission of the Herefordshire area, the NP, as confirmed, was slightly larger, 515 square miles, reflecting the inclusion of Brecon, as well as some minor additions elsewhere, as at Talgarth and Hay. Also, it should be noted that the County Councils’ promotion of ensuring the inclusion of both banks, with the towpath, of the canal forming much of the northern and eastern boundaries of the NP, and the NPC approval of their initiative, was to have two major outcomes over the next decade. It was to facilitate not just the making of the 1966 NP Variation Order, bringing into the Park a further section of the Monmouth-Brecon Canal but also the future use of the Canal as a recreation facility part funded through a 1949 Act NP grant.

50. The successful outcome of designation process owed much to the NPC’s painstaking approach to liaising first, informally, with the local authorities and others, and second, working formally, within the framework of Section 7 of the 1949 Act, with the local authorities, particularly the County Councils, and their officers. The efforts of Mr. Vaughan, the lead Commissioner for the proposed NP, involving sensitive diplomacy and close working with the NPC Secretary and Mr. Tudor Watkins MP, had been crucial in persuading both potential and actual objectors to remove their objections to the proposed NP. However, the NPC’s success in enlisting the strong support of the three County Councils for the designation of the NP, was not repeated (as recounted in the paragraph below) in similar success persuading the CCs and the other local authorities to accept the establishment of a National Park Joint Planning Board under Section 8(2) of the 1949 Act.

51. Early Administration. At their first meeting84 on 30 April 1957, after the Minister’s confirmation of the NP Order, the NPC Committee B discussed the form of NP administration likely to be acceptable to the County Councils concerned. Mr. Vaughan, well aware of the strong opposition of the local authorities to a Joint Board, undertook to discuss this informally with them. These informal discussions continued for some time, and, unusually for Mr. Vaughan, were without success, for the three County Councils still held their own independent discussions on the form of administration. The fact that by 1957, three multi-County NPs (ie Snowdonia, Yorkshire Dales and Exmoor) already had administrations which left control in the hands of individual County Councils, with only Joint Advisory Committees (JACs) covering the whole of the Parks, clearly reinforced the three County Councils’ case in making representations to the Minister under Section 8(2) of the Act for him to establish a similar form of administration (and not a Joint Board) in the Brecon Beacons NP. The NPC Committee B still recorded85, in February 1958, their view that the NP should be administered by a Joint Board.

52. Formal letters from the three CCs were addressed to the Minister in late 1958, requesting him to direct postponing the formation of a Joint Board in the Brecon Beacons NP. In their letters both Carmarthenshire and Monmouthshire CCs had argued that their areas within the Park were small, and no benefit would be gained in planning terms, from the additional expenditure of establishing a new body, other than a JAC, which would only act in an advisory capacity over the NP. The Minister carefully considered the representations made by the three CCs, and also consulted the NPC. Mr. H. N. Jerman, Assistant Secretary, set out the Minister’s response in his letter to the County Council Clerks of 5 February 1959. This letter86, while saying that he saw no good topographical reasons why the Park area should not be administered by a Board run as a unit from offices in Brecon, argued that the smallness of the Park areas in Carmarthenshire and Monmouthshire and the desirability of not placing additional expenditure on the local authorities, posed special circumstances. These persuaded him to make a direction on the same day postponing the establishment of a Joint Board. The direction and related Order also established87 the Brecon Beacons National Park JAC for three years, after which the direction would be reviewed. The Committee was constituted over a year later, 1 June 1960. Eighteen members made up the JAC, with twelve appointed by the three constituent CCs (eight by Breconshire and two each by Carmarthenshire and Monmouthshire). The remaining six, nominated by the Minister, were appointed jointly by the Councils. The three CPOs advised the JAC, which also had the power to appoint consultants to advise on particular matters or when required to by the Minister. Significantly, given his historic and crucial role in working with the NP to remove objections to the Park Order, Alderman Tudor Watkins MP (one of the eight members representing Breconshire) was the first Chairman of the JAC, as well as being the first Chairman of the Breconshire Park Planning Committee (see para 53). C. M. Wells, the Breconshire County Clerk was appointed as the JAC’s Clerk. Meeting at least four times a year the JAC appointed a Development Control Sub- Committee to expedite consideration of applications referred to the JAC for advice.

53. Each of the three CCs had its own Park Planning Committee, which exercised planning control on behalf of the Councils in their areas of the Park, excepting the preparation of Development Plans, applications delegated to the District Councils, and functions relating to footpaths and the restriction of traffic on certain roads. The Park Planning Committees, meeting quarterly, were also served by their respective CPOs, all three of whom had worked closely with the NPC during the designation process for the NP. The Breconshire Park Planning Committee had twenty-one members, including seven appointed by the CC upon the nomination of the Minister, while both the Carmarthenshire and Monmouthshire Park Planning Committees had nine members each, three of whom were appointed by each CC upon the nomination of the Minister.

54. Though, as was the case in three of the other five multi-County NPs, the three CCs had persuaded the Minister not to establish a Park Planning Board, and to retain their planning powers over the Park area, the form of administration and the Committee members and County Officers involved were not wholly inimical to the NPC and National Park objectives. The NPC, as with all NPs, advised the Minister on the nomination of members to both the JAC and the Park Planning Committees, and all four Committees had, over the time of their existence (to 1974), nominated members whom had been either past or future NPC members.

55. The February 1959 Direction setting up the administration was subject to review in three years, but in 1962, the MHLG Welsh Office88, with the agreement of the NPC, postponed this review for a further three years, a process which continued until the 1972 legislation setting up National Park Planning Committees came into force in April 1974.

Designation History II 56. The Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Variation Order 1966. The case for the making of this Order, by the newly established Welsh Office (established as a separate Government Department, independent from MHLG in 1964, by Harold Wilson’s Labour Government) had a long and complex early history relating primarily to the implementation of a proposal for the recreational use of the Brecon-Monmouth Canal. The potential for the recreational use of the Canal was first referred to in the Hobhouse4 Report (last sentence para 4 of this history). When the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Bill 1949 was before Parliament the then disused Brecon-Monmouth Canal was also mentioned in connection with Clause 13, introduced to enable local planning authorities to improve waterways for recreational purposes. This Clause was approved and subsequently became Section 13 of the 1949 Act. Following the Government’s consideration of a Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Inland Waterways Redevelopment Advisory Committee was established in April 1959, with the role of making recommendations on schemes for the amenity and recreational use of inland waterways. In 1961 this Committee invited the NPC, the Brecon and Monmouthshire NP Planning Committees and British Transport Waterways to investigate89 a scheme which closed the canal for commercial transport but highlighted its maintenance and preservation both for its landscape and potential recreational value.

57. A detailed scheme was worked up under which the length of the Canal from Brecon to Jockey Bridge, just north of Pontypool, would be preserved and managed jointly by the NP planning authorities and British Waterways for the purposes of National Park recreation. This scheme was approved by the NP planning authorities and the NPC, and was submitted to MHLG’s Welsh Office under Sections 13 and 97 of the 1949 Act (which then provided that grants of up to 100% could be payable to the NP planning authorities on expenditure incurred in improving waterways in NPs for open-air recreation.

58. Considerable progress was made on plans for implementing the scheme, and in October 1964, Margaret Davies*, a Commissioner90, was able to report to the NPC** that a pre-requisite for the payment of Exchequer grant for the whole 32 miles of the Canal for recreational purposes would be to extend the boundary of the NP to include the seven miles of the Canal from the then southern boundary of the NP, south-west of Llanover, to Jockey Bridge. A four and a half square mile area, with the Canal as its eastern boundary had been proposed by the NP planning authorities and the NPC, as an southern extension to the NP, and the NPC90 agreed that this proposed extension was acceptable. Unfortunately, the NPC91 had no statutory powers to make a National Park Variation Order and only the Welsh Office Minister had the powers*** to carry out the extension as a National Park Variation Order. The Welsh Office (by then, 1965, independent of MHLG), and with its own Secretary of

* Margaret Davies, an academic geographer, with an extensive knowledge of England and Wales, joined the NPC in 1959 and served as a member of the NPC, and its 1968 successor, the Countryside Commission, for 14 years, until her retirement in 1973. From 1969 to 1973 she also served as the first Chairman of the Countryside Commission’s Committee for Wales. ** By this time the NPC also had a new Secretary, Mervyn Bell, previously a Senior Civil Servant at MHLG. He had succeeded Harold Abrahams, the NPC’s first Secretary in 1963, and continued on as Secretary to the new Countryside Commission which replaced the NPC in September 1968. He retired in 1971 when the post of Secretary was replaced with that of Director. *** 1949 Act, Section 7(4) – “The Minister may, by Order made after consultation with the Commission, vary an Order designating a National Park”. It was not until the coming into force of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (Section 45) that the successor of the NPC, the Countryside Commission, had the power to make an Order varying or amending an Order made under Section 5 of the 1949 Act. This power was also held by the Countryside Agency (the Commission’s 1999 successor), and since 2006 is held by Natural England. In Wales, since 1992, the Section 45 power has been held by CCW. Variation Orders made under Section 45 still, of course, have to be confirmed by the appropriate Government Minister. State, accepted the request for making the extension from the NPC and the NP planning authorities, and worked on preparing the Order in 1965-66, making all the consultations required.

59. The Extension Area. The 4½ square mile area (Map 8 in this history), which all parties had agreed92 should become the subject of the NP Variation Order, ran south from the 1955 NP boundary, west of Llanover, in a narrowing “peninsula” of the proposed NP to Jockey Bridge, less than a mile north-east of the town of Pontypool. On its western boundary it followed a 400m watershed, taking in the steep partially wooded eastern slopes of Mynydd Garnclochdy and Mynedd Garn- wen. Between the steep moorland hill slopes and the extension’s eastern boundary, the Brecon-Monmouth Canal, was attractive undulating countryside, partly in agriculture and partly in woodland, with an even scatter of farms and hamlets.

60. Public Advertisement by the Secretary of State for Wales of his proposal to make the National Park Variation Order. H. N. Jerman, an Assistant Secretary for the Welsh Office, made the Notice93 of the Secretary of State’s proposed order varying the original NP Order (1955) on 27 January 1966. In this notice he stated that copies of the draft order94, and a map (Map 8 in this history) of the area proposed for the extension were on public deposit in the offices of Pontypool UDC, Pontypool RDC and Monmouth CC, and that any objection to the Order had to be made to the Secretary of the Welsh Office before 11 March 1966. The notice was published, on 8 February 1966, in the London Gazette, Times, Daily Telegraph, Western Mail and South Wales Argus.

61. Formal letters95 had been sent on 4 February 1966 from the Welsh Office to the Clerks of the three local authorities with land affected by the draft Variation Order, namely, Pontypool UDC, Pontypool RDC and Monmouth CC. These letters included copies of the draft Order, Map, notice and a description96 of the boundary of the extension, all to be put on public deposit in the offices of the three local authorities. The letters also reminded the authorities that any representation which their Council wished to make on the proposal were to be sent to the Welsh Office before 11 March 1966. Letters97 from the Welsh Office, dated 7 February 1966, informed the remaining fourteen local authorities with land within the NP (but not within the proposed extension) of the Secretary of State’s intention to make the Variation Order, and included copies of the draft Order, Map, notice and boundary description. A similar letter98 of the same date, with enclosures, was sent to the NPC Secretary, as required by statute (1949 Act Section 7(4)).

62. More informal letters99, dated 7 February 1966, from the Welsh Office, inviting comments on the Variation Order were sent to the Brecon Beacons NP JAC, the NT, and to the following Government Departments and bodies – Ministry of Aviation, Board of Trade (Wales), Board of Health (Wales), Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF), Ministry of Defence, Post Office, FC, Ministry of Public Buildings and Works (MPBW), Ministry of Power and the NC.

63. The Making of the Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Variation Order 1966, by the Secretary of State for Wales, on 21 June 1966. No representations on the Order were received by the Welsh Office, and, accordingly, the Secretary of State for Wales, the Rt. Hon. Cledwyn Hughes MP * made the Order100, extending the Brecon Beacons NP to include a further 4½ square miles of land (as described in para 59 above, and shown on Map 8 in this history) in the County of Monmouthshire. Formal letters101, dated 30 June 1966, from the Welsh Office were sent to the three local authorities affected by the Order, informing them of the Minister’s decision. The letters contained certified copies of the Order and Map, and the Local Authority Clerks were requested to put these on public deposit. A similar letter102 of the same date, with copies of the Order, notice and Map were sent to the NPC Secretary, and to the Clerk of the Brecon Beacons NP JAC. The NPC** also issued a Press Release103 giving wider publicity to Mr. Cledwyn Hughes’s decision. Though not mentioned in the Press Release the total area of the National Park became 519 square miles.

64. There was, however, one delayed effect of the making of the Variation Order on the Administration of the NP. The Clerk of Pontypool RDC wrote104, on 25 July 1966, to the Welsh Office Secretary noting, with pleasure, the making of the Order, but also seeking representation on the National Park Committee for Monmouthshire. K. C. M. Brown105 of the Welsh Office replied to this request on 10 August 1966, pointing out that the appointment of the members of a Park Planning Committee was the responsibility of the appropriate planning authority. No immediate action resulted, though two years later106 in 1968, Monmouthshire CC had increased the number of members on the Monmouthshire Park Planning Committee from nine to fifteen. One of these members was a councillor representing Pontypool RDC.

65. Administration 1974 – 2011. Following an agreement between the NPC’s successor, the Countryside Commission***, and the then Association of County Councils, Schedule 17 of the Local Government Act 1972 (the 1972 Act), coming into force on 1 April 1974, required those CCs with National Parks within their areas to establish single National Park Committees. (In the cases of the Peak District and the Lake District, the two autonomous Boards remained.) A Brecon Beacons

* Cledwyn Hughes, Labour politician and Solicitor (after RAF War Service), Acting Clerk to Holyhead UDC, and Anglesey CC; Labour MP for Anglesey from 1951, Minister of State, Commonwealth Relations 1964 – 66, Secretary of State for Wales 1966 – 68, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1968 – 70. ** By this date the NPC had a new Chairman. Baroness Wootton took over from Lord Strang in May 1966, and continued as Chairman of the Countryside Commission (which replaced the NPC in September 1968) till 1970. Unlike the first two Chairmen (Sir Patrick Duff and Lord Strang), both of whom had been Senior Civil Servants and diplomats, Baroness Wootton had an academic background as an eminent economist and social scientist. However, as a Peeress from 1955, she had played an increasingly important role in Government, sitting on a number of Royal Commissions and Inter-Departmental Committees and from 1967 being a Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords. *** The Countryside Act 1968 (Section 1) led to the establishment of the Countryside Commission, which both replaced, and enlarged, the functions of the National Parks Commission, in September 1968. Though the Countryside Commission had a much broader countryside remit, it was still responsible for the designation of AONBs and National Parks. National Park Committee was, accordingly, established on 1 April 1974, and the three County Park Planning Committees and the JAC were abolished. The new National Park Committees had “development control” and “countryside” functions delegated to them, and had statutory duties to appoint a National Park Officer, and to prepare a National Park Plan. The Act also provided for major funding of National Parks by Government (in the case of the Brecon Beacons NP, the Welsh Office) through the National Park Supplementary Grant (NPSG) which accounted for 75% of Park expenditure. Twenty-five per cent of the NPs. Expenditure came from local authorities, though because of the rate support mechanism, monies coming from rural local authorities with small populations were often less and Central Government’s contribution correspondingly higher than 75%. Two-thirds of National Park Committee members were appointed by the local authorities, with numbers subject to agreement between them, while one-third were appointed by the Secretaries of State for the Environment, and for Wales (in the case of the three NPs in Wales), following nomination by the Countryside Commission, and its Committee for Wales.

66. The Brecon Beacons National Park Committee established on 1 April 1974, had twenty-seven members, including its first Chairman, Baron Tudor Elwyn Watkins (also a Powys CC Councillor). Powys CC was represented by eight councillors, while there were two councillors each for Gwent, Mid-Glamorgan and Dyfed CCs. Four councillors were appointed to the Committee by the Borough / District Councils of Blaenau Gwent, Monmouth, Dinefwr, Brecknock, Cynon Valley, Merthyr Tydfil and Torfaen, and nine members were appointed by the Secretary of State for Wales. John Bradley was the first National Park Officer (NPO), while the National Park Offices were at Powys CC’s New County Hall, Glamorgan Street, in Brecon. Following John Bradley’s tragic death in the hills of the Park in February 1986, Mike Beresford became the second NPO, before moving over to academia and being succeeded by Martin Fitton in 1990, previously the Countryside Commission’s Senior Officer in Wales.

67. National Park Boundary Review. Though the 1972 Act had strengthened the administration and resources of each of the English and Welsh NPs, the power to vary the boundaries of the Park still remained with the appropriate Minister. The Countryside Commission (and its Committee for Wales) merely had to be consulted on any boundary changes initiated by the Minister. Only in Wales had there been any National Park Variation Orders, one (as seen in para 63 above) affecting the Brecon Beacons NP and the other affecting two areas of the Snowdonia NP. In England the boundaries of all seven NPs had remained unchanged.

68. Following on from one of the recommendations of the Government’s 1972 National Park Committee* (chaired by Lord Sandford) Section 45 of the Wildlife and

* The National Park Policies Review Committee, chaired by Lord Sandford, was set up by Edward Heath’s Conservative Government in July 1971 with terms of reference “To review how far the National Parks have fulfilled the purpose for which they were established, to consider the implications of the changes that have occurred, and may be expected, in social and economic conditions and to make recommendations as regards future policies.” Amongst the various recommendations made Countryside Act 1981, gave the Countryside Commission the power to prepare National Park boundary variation orders, subject to Ministerial confirmation. Taking advantage of this new power the Commission prepared, in consultation with the National Park Authorities, a programme of national park boundary reviews. 69. Commission Paper 84/70107 described this programme in some detail, and for the Brecon Beacons NP reflected the matters raised in an informal meeting, early in 1984, held between the National Park Officer, John Bradley, and officers of the Countryside Commission (including the author of this history). On major variations, only one possible candidate for change arose, the Black Mountains and Olchon Valley, in Herefordshire, an area originally included in both Dower’s and Hobhouse’s proposed NP. This proposal had been considered during the process for the designation of the NP (see paras 30 and 49), but because of the administrative problems caused by incorporating part of an English County in an otherwise Welsh NP, had been shelved. Similarly, its continued identification as an area suitable for an NP extension following the Commission’s internal AONB review, 1971 – 73, had also been shelved. Any resurrection of this proposal, however much justified on landscape quality grounds, clearly needed to be conducted with great care because of the political and administrative problems it raised. Apart from a few possibilities for minor changes on the southern urban fringe of the NP where the construction of the Heads of the Valleys Road had resulted in boundary anomalies, there appeared to be no real pressures for even minor changes, and eventually the Commission*, at their meeting in October 1984, accorded the Brecon Beacons NP only the lowest priority in their programme.

70. The Commission’s National Park Boundary Review Programme was brought to an abrupt end in the early 1990s because the two completed reviews (for Dartmoor and Pembrokeshire Coast NPs both with long public inquiries) had consumed too much in terms of staff and financial resources. No changes were therefore made to the existing boundaries of the Brecon Beacons NP. However, as part of a re-measurement process for all NPs and AONBs undertaken in 1991 by the Countryside Commission, using computerised equipment, a figure of 1,351 square kilometres (rather than the figure of 1,357 square kilometres used since 1974 and based on an erroneous figure of 524 square miles) emerged as the correct figure for the area of the National Park. This is the figure which has been consistently used, and quoted, since 1991.

71. The Brecon Beacons National Park Authority April 1996. In accordance with the provisions of Part III of the Environment Act 1995, applying to all NPs in England and Wales, a new Brecon Beacons National Park Authority (NPA), free- standing from the local authorities, and having full planning and management powers, replaced the Brecon Beacons National Park Committee in April 1996. The by the Committee were those relating to boundaries, including a recommendation that the law should be changed to enable the Countryside Commission to initiate the variation of National Park boundaries. Although this recommendation was endorsed by Government, it took until 1981 before Section 45 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act enabled the Commission to prepare National Park Variation Orders. * At this time the Chairman of the Countryside Commission was Sir Derek Barber (Chairman from 1981 to 1991), and its Chief Officer was Adrian Phillips (Director-General 1981-92). members of the NPA totalled twenty-four (reduced from the twenty-seven members of the previous National Park Committee). Sixteen members were appointed by the local authorities ie eight from Powys, two each from Monmouthshire and Carmarthenshire, and one each from Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taff, and Torfaen. Additionally, eight members were appointed by the Secretary of State for Wales, in consultation with the Countryside Council for Wales* (CCW). The first NPA Chairman was Councillor Gwyn Gwillim (1996 – 99), and the current NPA Chairman, appointed in 2010, is Councillor Eric Saxon.

72. Martin Fitton continued to be NPO under the new NPA until 2001, when he was succeeded by Chris Gledhill, during whose tenure as NPO, the National Park Offices moved to Plas y Ffynnon, Cambrian Way, Brecon. The current Chief Executive Officer and NPO, John Cook, took office in January 2009.

73. Future Changes. The boundaries of the NP have remained without any change except in 1966 when the otherwise untouched 1957 confirmed boundaries were extended in the extreme south-east corner of the NP, for largely practical reasons, to include, within the NP, a small 4½ square mile area of moorland hills, farmland and woodland, and a strategically significant section of the Brecon - Monmouth Canal, soon to become, in its totality, one of the Park’s major resources for quiet outdoor recreation. The Countryside Commission’s National Park Boundary Review of the 1980s raised no real enthusiasm from the National Park Committee or its officers for further change, though it was generally accepted that the lack of any official recognition of the natural beauty of the area of the Black Mountains and the Olchon Valley in the English County of Herefordshire constituted “unfinished business”. Whether this “unfinished business” will ever be considered jointly by Natural England** and CCW is questionable, not just because of the difficult administrative and political problems raised by proposing an extension of a Welsh National Park into an English County, but also because of the inevitable use of monies and staff resources that the proper consideration of such a proposal would bring. Additionally, too, the proposal would need the strong support of the Brecon Beacons NPA, and the Welsh and English local authorities and communities affected, and ultimately, tacit agreement to pursue the proposal by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England, and by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) in Wales. Without doubt the difficulties involved in serious consideration of this proposal would be both manifold and novel***; and, in reality, the proposal is likely, for the immediate present, at least, to remain as “unfinished business”.

* In 1992, under Section 130 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the functions of the Countryside Commission in Wales were transferred to the new Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) which thus became the Government’s (and later the Welsh Assembly Government’s) main adviser on NPs (inter alia) in Wales. ** In 1999 the Countryside Commission was succeeded by the Countryside Agency, a body which took over the functions of the Commission, and also some of the functions of the Rural Development Commission. Some seven years later, in October 2006, Natural England, established under Section 1 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, brought together English Nature, the landscape, access and recreation elements of the Countryside Agency and the environmental land management functions of the Rural Development Service. *** Novel, of course, in relation to a National Park. Only a few miles east is the Wye Valley AONB, the AONB shared by England and Wales, but with two separate Designation Orders. Additionally, too, the Offa’s Dyke National Trail is shared by England and Wales, following, in the main, an ancient border between the two countries.

74. Finally, notwithstanding the major proposal discussed above, there may be other proposals, within Wales, for changes to the boundary to remove minor boundary anomalies that may have arisen since the NP Designation Order, in 1957, and the NP Variation Order was made, in 1966. These proposals, of course, could only be put forward by CCW, and be confirmed by WAG. In practical terms, too, they should have the strong support of the NPA and the local authorities and communities affected.

References

1. The National Park Committee, (Chairman – the Rt. Hon. Christopher Addison MP, MD) “Report of the National Park Committee”, The Treasury, Cmd 3851, London, 1931.

2. The Standing Committee on National Parks, “The Case for National Parks in Great Britain”, London, July 1938 (reprinted December 1938).

3. John Dower, “National Parks in England and Wales”, Cmd 6628, HMSO, London, May 1945.

4. The National Parks Committee (Chairman – Sir Arthur Hobhouse), “Report of the National Parks Committee (England and Wales), Cmd 7171, HMSO, London, 1947.

5. The National Parks Committee (England and Wales), Summary Survey Report – Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains, 15-20 August 1945, NPC6 – 9.10.1. (Un-numbered folio – MTCP file 95249/A/8 1944-1946 – TNA file HLG/93/15.)

6. National Parks Commission, “First Report of the National Parks Commission for the period ending 30 September 1950”, HMSO, London, December 1950.

7. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 34th meeting of the NPC (410(2)) held on 10 March 1953”.

8. National Parks Commission, “Tour of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains – 16th-18th May, and the Elenith Mountains – 19th and 20th May 1953”, Itinerary for the Tour of the NPC Committee B inspection party. (Folio 5 Brecon Beacons Designation NPC file BB/1 – TNA file COU/887.)

9. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 5th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (105) held on 8 June 1953”.

10. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of 37th meeting of the NPC (439) held on 9 June 1953”.

11. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 44th meeting of the NPC (534) held on 16 February 1954”.

12. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 13th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (242) held on 15 March 1954”.

13. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 14th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (256) held on 12 April 1954”.

14. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 46th meeting of the NPC (564) held on 13 April, 1954”.

15. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 15th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (265) held on 10 May 1954”.

16. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 47th meeting of the NPC (578) held on 11 May 1954.

17. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 48th meeting of the NPC (581(e)) held on 15 June 1954”.

18. Letter from Lord Strang, NPC Chairman, dated 1 July 1954, to Professor R. McClean, Commissioner, requesting a statement on the reasoning behind the choice of National Park following the NPC visit (folios 69 and 69A NPC file BB/1 – TNA file COU1/887.)

19. L. J. Watson, NPC Senior Field Officer, “National Parks Commission, Survey of Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains, 305 July 1954 – Itinerary”, LJW 28.6.54. (Un-numbered folio in NPC file BB/1 – TNA file COU1/887.)

20. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 17th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (285) held on 12 July 1954”.

21. Professor McLean, NP Commissioner, NPC Paper B/G/81, “The Proposed National Area of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains”, TGM 12.7.54. (Folio 73A NPC file BB/1 – TNA file COU1/887.)

22. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 49th meeting of the NPC (604(b)) held on 13 July 1954”.

23. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 18th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (302) held on 13 September 1954”.

24. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 50th meeting of the NPC (611) held on 14 September 1954”.

25. National Parks Commission, “Paper B/G/98, Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains – Proposed National Park – Amendments to the Draft Boundary considered by the Survey Party and the County Planning Offices” B.W.W. 5.10.54. (Folio 110 NPC file BB/1 – TNA file COU1/887.)

26. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 19th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (322) held on 11 October 1954”.

27. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 51st meeting of the NPC (640) held on 12 October 1954”.

28. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 55th meeting of the NP (701) held on 8 February 1955”.

29. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 24th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (452) held on 7 March 1955”.

30. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 56th meeting of the NPC (729) held on 8 March 1955”.

31. Letter from H. M. Abrahams, NPC Secretary, dated 4 March 1955, to the Brecknock RDC Clerk, being the formal consultation on the proposed Brecon Beacons NP, with the local authorities required under Section 7(1) of the 1949 Act. The letter was accompanied with a 1” map of the proposed Park and a description of the boundary. A similar letter was sent to the Clerks of the other thirteen local authorities affected by the proposal. (Folio 19 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

32. Letter from M. Weintroub, for the NPC Secretary, dated 9 March 1955, to the Director General of the Nature Conservancy, seeking his comments on the Draft NP map. A similar letter was sent to eight other bodies, as was usual practice, and for information to the MHLG Minister’s Private Secretary. (Folio 45 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

33. Letter (copy without signature) from the NPC Secretary, dated 25 May 1955, to C. W. Tarrant, Clerk to Hay UDC, formally consulting the Council under the provisions of Section 7(1) of the 1949 Act on whether any part of Hay UD should be included within the Brecon Beacons NP. (Folio 116 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

34. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 61st meeting of the NPC (811) held on 13 September 1955”.

35. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 25th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (488) held on 13 April 1955”.

36. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 48th meeting of the NPC (765) held on 10 May 1955”.

37. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 26th meeting of the NPC’s Committee B (527) held on 9 May 1955”.

38. Letter from Ronald H. Rose, Clerk of the Vaynor & Penderyn RDC, dated 16 April 1955, to Harold Abrahams, the NPC Secretary, pointing to the inconsistency between the map boundary and the written description at Hirwaun west of the railway station. (Folio 92 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

39. Letter from Mr. Weintroub, for the NPC Secretary, dated 2 May 1955, to R. H. Rose, the Vaynor & Pendryn RDC Clerk, saying that the NPC would be amending the written description to accord with the accurate map boundary, thus confirming the township of Hirwaun west of the station was excluded from the proposed NP. (Folio 103 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

40. Letter from Mr. W. H. G. Jeffreys, the Ystradgynlais RDC Clerk, dated 4 May 1955, to the NPC Secretary saying that the RDC had no objection to the proposed NP provided an assurance was given by the NPC that the proposed NP Order would not affect any future Council housing sites within the proposed NP. (Folio 108 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

41. Copy of letter from Mr. W. H. G. Jeffreys, the Ystradgynlais RDC Clerk, dated 15 June 1955, to Mr. C. M. S. Wells, Breconshire CC Clerk describing the Council’s proposed boundary diversion for the NP should the NPC not give an assurance on housing sites within the proposed NP. (Folio 125A NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

42. Letter from Mr. W. H. Jeffreys, the Ystradgynlais RDC Clerk, dated 4 August 1955, to the NPC Secretary, reporting his Council’s decision to pursue their diversion proposals and to give notice of their potential objection. (Folio 156 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

43. Letter from Mr. T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, dated 18 August 1955, to W. H. Vaughan, NPC member, requesting his help, along with that of Mr. Tudor Watkins MP, in persuading Ystradgynlais RDC not to make an objection to the proposed NP. (Folio 164 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

44. Letter from Mr. W. H. Vaughan, NPC member, dated 31 August 1955, to Mr. T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, reporting Mr. Tudor Watkins’s (MP) success in persuading Ystradgynlais RDC to withdraw their potential objection to the proposed NP. (Folio 168 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

45. Report (Anon) from the South Wales Evening Post (p8) for Wednesday 31 August 1955 “Objections to park boundaries are withdrawn”. (Un-numbered folio in NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

46. Letter from Mr. W. H. G. Jeffreys, the Ystradgynlais RDC Clerk, dated 1 September 1955 to the NPC Secretary, confirming that the Council had decided to withdraw the potential objection to the proposed NP as it affected the Rural District. (Folio 169 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

47. Letter from T. H. Millar, NPC Secretariat, dated 14 March 1955, to W. E. W. Lloyd, Brecon BC Town Clerk, acknowledging the Council’s letter of 11 March 1955, raising no objection to the Park. The letter also explained the legislation relating to Joint Planning Boards and Joint Advisory Committees. (Folio 62, NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

48. Letter from C. W. Tarrant, Hay UDC Clerk, dated 7 July 1955, to the NPC Secretary, stating that the Council agree the NP boundary as amended. (Folio 138, NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

49. Letter from C. W. Tarrant, Hay RDC Clerk, dated 7 July 1955, stating that the Council agree the NP boundary as amended. (Folio 140, NPC file CC/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

50. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 27th meeting of the NPC Committee B (573) held on 13 June 1955”.

51. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 59th meeting of the NPC (782) held on 14 June 1955”.

52. Letter from T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, dated 21 April 1955, to A. J. Rodgers, Abergavenny RDC Clerk, consulting the Council on the amended boundary to include both banks of the Brecon – Newport Canal. (Folio 95 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

53. Letter from T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, dated 21 April 1955, to D. T. M. Jones, Llandilo RDC Clerk, consulting the Council on the Canal boundary amendment. (Folio 96 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

54. Letter from D. T. M. Jones, Llandilo RDC Clerk, dated 2 May 1955, to T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, stating that the Council had no observations on the NPC’s amended boundary. (Folio 102 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277/)

55. Letter from H. G. Griffin, Acting Secretary CPRW, dated 6 June 1955, to the NPC Secretary, drawing attention to the Olchon Valley area of Herefordshire, which the CPRW supposed had been excluded from the Park because of administrative reasons. (Folio 117 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

56. Letter from T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, dated 15 July 1955, to H. G. Griffin, Acting Secretary CPRW, confirming that CPRW’s supposition on the reasoning for the exclusion of the Olchon Valley area of Herefordshire was correct. (Folio 147 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

57. Letter from C. Naish of the Welsh Office, dated 22 March 1955, to M. Weintroub, NPC Secretariat, stating that there were no local authority boundary alterations proposed which would affect the proposed NP. (Folio 72 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

58. Letter from R. E. Mildren, Office of Commissioners of Crown Land, dated 2 April 1955, saying that the Commissioners had no comment on the proposed NP. (Folio 74 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

59. Letter from the NT’s Deputy Chief Agent, dated 12 August 1955, to T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, stating that the NT had no comment on the proposed boundaries of the NP. (Folio 161 NPC file BB/1/1 – TNA file COU1/1277.)

60. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 28th meeting of the NPC Committee B (612) on 11 July 1955”.

61. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 60th meeting of the NPC (802) held on 12 July 1955”.

62. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 29th meeting of the NPC Committee B (661) held on 12 September 1955”. 63. Harold M. Abrahams, NPC Secretary, “National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, 1949, NATIONAL PARKS COMMISSION, The Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Order 1955” dated 21 September 1955, and appearing in the London Gazette on 27 September 1955. This notice which also appeared in two national and eight local newspapers, announced that the Order had been made and was about to be submitted to MHLG for confirmation. It also announced that the Order, map, and boundary description had been put on public deposit in the offices of the fifteen local authorities affected and the NPC offices, and that any representations or objections should be sent to the MHLG Secretary by 1 November 1955. (Folio 119, NPC file BB/1/2 – TNA file COU1/888.)

64. Letter from Harold M. Abrahams, NPC Secretary, dated 14 October 1955 to the Secretary MHLG, accompanying the Brecon Beacons NP (Designation) Order 1955, Map and other documents for the consideration of the Minister. (Folio 127 BB/1/2 – TNA file COU1/888.)

65. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 63rd meeting of the NPC (862) held on 8 November 1955”.

66. Letter from T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, dated 15 November 1955, to M. A. Crabbe of MHLG Welsh Office, stating that the fears expressed in the objection to the NP Order by the three CBCs of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea, were not unfamiliar to the NPC, and could possibly be allayed through informal means. He also asked whether this kind of objection by three CBCs outside the NP could trigger a public inquiry under Schedule 1 of the 1949 Act. (Folio 132 NPC file BB/1/7 – TNA file ??.)

67. Letter from B. E. Laugharne, MLHG Welsh Office, dated 25 November 1955, to T. G. Millar, NPC Secretariat, saying that, in the last instance, control of development and access on the water-undertakers’ gathering grounds in the proposed NP would be exercised by the Minister. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD/28/863.)

68. Memo from H. N. Jerman, Principal MHLG Welsh Office, dated 22 December 1955, to B. Laugharne MHLG Welsh Office, saying that MHLG Welsh Office would not object to the NPC Secretary liaising informally with the three CBCs over their objections to the NP Order, and seeking to persuade them to withdraw the objections. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD28/863.)

69. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 65th meeting of the NPC (904) held on 25 January 1956”.

70. Cardiff CBC Town Clerk, copy of a letter sent in January 1956, to the Under- Secretary MHLG Welsh Office, with a statement setting out NPC’s and the three CBCs’ understanding of the position as to the likely effects of NP designation on the interests of the three authorities as water-undertakers in the proposed NP. The Town Clerk requested that the Ministry confirmed the Statement was accurate, and stated that if this was confirmed, then the Council would consider withdrawing their objections to the NP Order. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

71. Memo from H. N. Jerman, Principal MHLG Welsh Office, dated 4 February 1956, to Mr. Vose, Assistant Secretary MHLG Welsh Office, giving his view that the Welsh Office could not give a formal response to the Statement prepared by the three CBCs and the NPC, and that it would be preferable if the objections were dealt with formally through a Schedule 1 (1949 Act) public inquiry. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

72. Letter from S. Tapper-Jones, Cardiff CBC Clerk, dated 31 July 1956, to Leonard Mills, Secretary of the British Waterworks Association, asking him to submit, on behalf of the three CBCs, the Statement on the effects of designation on Water- Undertakers, to the Minister for his confirmation. The letter would indicate that if the MHLG Welsh Office confirmed the Statement was accurate then the three CBCs would withdraw their objections to the NP Order. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

73. Letter from Leonard Mills, Secretary of the British Waterworks Association, dated 14 August 1956, to the Under-Secretary, MHLG Welsh Office, asking him to confirm whether the Statement prepared by the three CBCs and the NPC was accurate, in which event, the three CBCs would withdraw the objections to the NP Order lodged with the Minister. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

74. File Note from Blaise Gillie, Under-Secretary MHLG Welsh Office, dated 10 September 1956, stating that he had met informally with the NPC Chairman, Lord Strang, and that they had agreed the Ministry could not accept the statement formally and that, if necessary, a public inquiry on the objections would be held. (Un-numbered folio MLHG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

75. Letters from the Town Clerks of Cardiff CBC (19 November 1956), Newport CBC (21 November 1956), and Swansea CBC (20 November 1956), addressed to the Under-Secretary, MHLG Welsh Office, formally withdrawing their Councils’ objections to the NP order. (Un-numbered folios MHLG Welsh Office file PG371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

76. C. D. Buchanan, MHLG Inspector “National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, Report of Hearing on 5 December 1956, regarding an objection by Messrs. Thornton Brothers to the Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Order 1955” addressed to the Rt. Hon. Duncan Sandys MP, Minister of Housing and Local Government. MHLG Caxton House, London, January 1957, (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

77. Minute from H. N. Jerman, Assistant Secretary MHLG Welsh Office, dated 1 April 1957, to Mr. Sylvester-Evans, Private Secretary to the Rt. Hon. Henry Brooke MP, Minister of Housing and Local Government, informing him of the completion of the designation process for the Brecon Beacons NP. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/A – TNA file BD 28/863.)

78. Minute from Mr. Sylvester-Evans, Private Secretary to the Rt. Hon. Henry Brooke MP, Minister of Housing and Local Government, dated 2 April 1957, to Mr. T. N. Jerman, Assistant Secretary, MHLG Welsh Office, informing him that the Minister had seen the Order and related papers and agreed the Order should be confirmed. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

79. Letter from J. L. Palmer, Principal MHLG Welsh Office, dated 16 April 1957, to the NPC Secretary, informing him that the Minister, after consideration of the Order and the related hearing, had decided to confirm the NP Order. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

80. MHLG Welsh Office, dated 17 April 1957, “National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 – Confirming Order for the Designation of a National Park – Brecon Beacons National Park – Given under the Official Seal of the Minister of Housing and Local Government 17 April 1957 and signed by H. N. Jerman, Assistant Secretary, Welsh Office MHLG”. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

81. MHLG Welsh Office, Press Statement dated 17 April 1957 “Brecon Beacons National Park – Third to be created in Wales”, publicising the confirmation of the NP Order by the Rt. Hon. Henry Brooke MP, Minister of Housing and Local Government. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

82. National Parks Commission “Brecon Beacons NP – Description of the Boundary shown on One Inch to the Mile Ordnance Survey Maps” B.W.W. 16 May 1957. Boundary description accompanying the Notice dated 6 June 1957, publicising the confirmation of the Order. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

83. National Parks Commission, “Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Order 1955”. Notice stating where the Order confirmed on 17 April 1957 is on public deposit and the procedure to be followed by any aggrieved party questioning validity of the Order by application to the High Court, Harold M. Abrahams NPC Secretary 6 June 1957. Notice as published in the London Gazette 7 June 1957. (Un-numbered folio MHLG Welsh Office file PG 371C/1 – TNA file BD 28/863.)

84. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 47th meeting of the NPC Committee B (1146) held on 30 April 1957”.

85. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 55th meeting of the NPC Committee B (1336) held on 25 February 1958”.

86. National Parks Commission, “Tenth Report of the NPC for the Year Ending 30 September 1959 – Appendix D. (Copy of letter dated 5 February 1959, from H. N. Jerman, Assistant Secretary MHLG Welsh Office to the Monmouthshire County Clerk), HMSO London, December 1959”. (Mr. Jerman’s letter refers to the direction made by the Minister postponing the establishment of the Joint Board for the Brecon Beacons NP.)

87. National Parks Commission, “Eleventh Report of the NPC for the year ending 30 September 1960 – Appendix B, pp49 – 52, HMSO December 1960.” (This appendix gives the details of the various Committees established, including the JAC, for the Brecon Beacons NP, following the Ministerial direction of 5 February 1959.)

88. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 132nd meeting of the NPC (2228) held on 27/28 February 1962”.

89. National Parks Commission, “Twelfth Report of the NPC for the year ending 30 September 1961 (pp 16-17 para 32) HMSO January 1962”. This paragraph outlines the history and origins of the scheme for the Canal.

90. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 161st meeting of the NPC (3213) held on 20/21 October 1964”.

91. National Parks Commission, “Sixteenth Report of the NPC for the year ending 30 September 1965 (pp 20-21 para 39) HMSO December 1965”. This paragraph explains why the Welsh Office made the NP Variation Order.

92. National Parks Commission, “Minutes of the 169th meeting of the NPC (3416) held on 27 July 1965”.

93. H. N. Jerman, Assistant Secretary, Welsh Office, “National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 – Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Variation Order 1966”. Notice, dated 27 January 1966, announcing that the Secretary of State for Wales proposed to make the Variation Order, the location of the three local authority offices where the Draft Order and Map (showing the proposed extension) were on public deposit, and inviting any objection to be made to the Welsh Office Secretary before 11 March 1966. (Un-numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

94. Secretary of State for Wales – “DRAFT ORDER National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Variation Order 1966”. (Un-numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

95. Letter from D. J. Tallis, Welsh Office, dated 4 February 1966, to the Clerk of Monmouthshire CC, informing him that the Secretary of State proposed to make the NP Variation Order, enclosing copies of the Draft Order, Map, notice and boundary description, and inviting any representation on the proposed Order before 11 March 1966. A similar letter was also sent to the Clerks of Pontypool UDC and RDC. (Un- numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

96. Anon, Welsh Office “Description of proposed extension to the Brecon Beacons National Park”, undated, but clearly 1966. (Un-numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

97. Letter from K. C. M. Brown, Welsh Office, dated 7 February 1966 to the Clerks of the fourteen Brecon Beacons NP local authorities not affected by the proposed Variation Order, informing them (and enclosing draft Order, Map, notice and boundary description) that the Secretary of State proposed to make the NP Variation Order. (Un-numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

98. Letter from K. C. M. Brown, Welsh Office, dated 7 February 1966, to the NPC Secretary, formally telling him that the Secretary of State proposed to make the NP Variation Order, and enclosing copies of the draft Order, Map, notice and boundary description. (Folio 21 NPC file BB/1/8 – TNA file COU1/ ? .)

99. Letter from K. C. M. Brown, Welsh Office, dated 7 February 1966, to the Secretary, Ministry of Defence, informing him that the Secretary of State proposed to make the Brecon Beacons NP Variation Order, covering 4½ square miles of land as shown on an enclosed map, and inviting any comments. A similar letter was sent to several other Government Departments, bodies, and the NT and Brecon Beacons NP JAC. (Un-numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

100. Cledwyn Hughes, one of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State (for Wales), “National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Variation Order 1966 – 21 June 1966”.

101. Letter from D. J. Tallis, Welsh Office, dated 30 June 1966, to the Clerk of Monmouthshire CC, informing him of the making of the Variation Order by the Secretary of State on 21 June 1966, and requesting him to put the Order and Map on public deposit. A similar letter was sent to the Clerks of Pontypool UDC and RDC. (Un-numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

102. Letter from K. C. M. Brown, Welsh Office, dated 30 June 1966, to the NPC Secretary, informing him of the making of the Variation Order by the Secretary of State on 21 June 1966, and enclosing copies of the Order, Notice and Map. (Folio 31 NPC file BB/1/8 – TNA file COU1/?.)

103. NPC Press Release (not dated) “Brecon Beacons National Park – Extension of the Boundary”. This Press Release publicised the Secretary of State making the Variation Order, the land covered, and the purpose of the Order and its effects. (Folio 30 NPC file BB/1/8 – TNA file COU1?.)

104. Letter from Philip E. Jones, Clerk to Pontypool RDC, dated 25 July 1966, to the Secretary of the Welsh Office, welcoming the making of the Variation Order, but requesting representation for the RDC on the Monmouthshire Park Planning Committee. (Un-numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

105. Letter from K. C. M. Brown, Welsh Office, dated 11 August 1966, to the Clerk of Pontypool RDC, referring to the Clerk’s letter of 25 July 1966, and pointing out the appointment of the members of a Park Planning Committee was the responsibility of the appropriate planning authority. (Un-numbered folio Welsh Office file PG 371C/1/1 – TNA file BD 28/864.)

106. National Parks Commission, “Nineteenth Report of the NPC and First Report of the Countryside Commission for the year ending 30 September 1968 – (Page 72 – Monmouthshire Park Planning Committee) HMSO London, December 1968”.

107. Countryside Commission, “Paper 84/70 – A Provisional Programme for the National Park Boundary Review”, October 1984.

Folios

The folios with the longer versions of this history are numbered the same as the references listed above. Black hard-back copies of this history, with all 107 folios are held at the Brecon Beacons NP Offices at Plas y Ffynnon, Cambrian Way, Brecon, and at the Libraries of Natural England at Peterborough, and the Countryside Council for Wales at Bangor. Shorter versions of the history without folios, but including copies of the maps, have been circulated among interested parties. The history is in the public domain. Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the valuable help given to him in searching out facts for this history by Bradley Welch, PhD, the Brecon Beacons NP Management Plan Officer. He also wishes to acknowledge the unstinting help given to him by his typist, Jasia Krabbe, Jane Mitchell, Cartographer; John Bohdanec, Records Manager, Jayne Ellis, Records Manager, and Rachael Mills, the Designation History Series Project Officer, all based prior to January 2011, at Natural England’s Cheltenham Office.

List of files consulted

MTCP, MLGP, MHLG, Title Welsh Office or NPC TNA Number number National Parks Committee A. Potential National Parks Areas MTCP 95249A/8 HLG/93/15 B. Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons 1945- 1946 Brecon Beacons NP Designation Order 1955 – PG 371C/1 BD 28/863 1961 Brecon Beacons NP PG 371C/1/1 (Designation) Variation BD 28/864 1965 – 1973 Order 1966 Brecon Beacons BB/1 COU1/887 Designation Brecon Beacons Designation Stage 1 Draft BB/1/1 COU/1277 Map Brecon Beacons Designation Stage 2 BB/1/2 COU1/888 Making and Display of Order Brecon Beacons NP (Designation) Variation BB/1/8 ? Not found in TNA Order 1966

List of Maps

Map 1 – “Map I Areas suggested for the first 10 National Parks in England and Wales”, page 11, the Dower Report (ref 3), 1945.

Map 2 – “The Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains National Park”, at the scale of 1:625,000 reproduced from Map 11 at the back of the Hobhouse Report (ref 4), 1947.

Map 3 – Extract from the NPC’s Brecon Beacons National Park proposed Designation Area, map at scale of 1:63,360 (as used for formal consutation with the local authorities, March 1955), showing the addition approved, bounded by a green line, at Trecastle.

Map 4 – Extract from the NPC’s Brecon Beacons National Park proposed Designation Area, map at scale of 1:63,360 (as used for formal consultation with the local authorities, March 1955), showing the addition approved at Talgarth and Trefeca.

Map 5 – Extract from the Brecon Beacons National Park proposed Designation Area, map at scale of 1:63,360 (as used for formal consultation with the local authorities, March 1955), showing the addition approved, bounded by a green line, at Hay-on- Wye.

Map 6 – Extract from the NPC’s Brecon Beacons National Park proposed Designation Area, map at scale of 1:63,360 (as used for formal consultation with the local authorities, March 1955), showing the approved addition at Brynmawr.

Map 7 – “The Brecon Beacons National Park” Scale: 10 miles to 1 inch, reproduced from the first four maps at the rear (following page 66) of the 8th Report of the NPC for the year ending 30 September 1957. This map shows the National Park as confirmed by the Rt. Hon. Henry Brooke MP, Minister of Housing and Local Government, on 17 April 1957.

Map 8 – The Brecon Beacons National Park (Designation) Variation Order 1966”. Map, at the scale of 1:25,000, as attached to the Variation Order made by the Secretary of State for Wales on 21 June 1966. This map shows the 4½ square mile extension to the National Park.

Map 9 – “The Brecon Beacons National Park”, at the scale of 1:250,000. Derived from Map showing both NPs and AONBs in England & Wales produced by Natural England. This map shows the boundaries as confirmed by the MHLG Minister in 1957, and varied by the Secretary of State for Wales in 1966. These boundaries have remained unchanged since 1966.

MAP 1

MAP 2

MAP 3

MAP 4

MAP 5

MAP 6

MAP 7

MAP 8

MAP 9