“A Sort of National Property:” British National Parks Are a Different Kettle of Fish (Zoom)

“A Sort of National Property:” British National Parks Are a Different Kettle of Fish (Zoom)

Spring (14 hrs or more) | Registration closed 5/2/2025

Online Lebanon, NH 03766 United States
Online Meeting
5/6/2025-6/17/2025
3:30 PM-5:30 PM EDT on Tue
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$90.00

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“A Sort of National Property:” British National Parks Are a Different Kettle of Fish (Zoom)

Spring (14 hrs or more) | Registration closed 5/2/2025

THIS IS THE ZOOM REGISTRATION OPTION FOR THIS COURSE.

In 1835, the poet William Wordsworth may have anticipated what we now call national parks when he described the Lake District, northwest England, as “a sort of national property.” The Lake District did indeed become a national park, but not before the Peak District National Park—the first in the U.K.— was created 23 days earlier on 17 April 1951.

The Peak District National Park, also in northwest England, was the national park of the Study Leader’s childhood. That experience informs this course, which begins by charting the decades-long and often tortuous legislative and civil society path, complete with sometimes violent mass trespasses on private land, that led to the creation of the first four U.K. national parks in 1951. The course then zeroes in on the Peak District National Park, first to illustrate how all the U.K. national parks are organized, governed, and managed, and then by describing its natural, socio-economic, and cultural history to illustrate why it was chosen as the first national park, and remains the most-visited park in the U.K.

Long before the course ends it will be very clear why U.K. national parks are a different kettle of fish from their U.S. counterparts.

This course will be presented in a lecture format.


  • Study Leader will provide a list of optional online reading materials.


Jeffries, Martin
Martin Jeffries

Martin is an accidental geophysicist and polar scientist, and, since 2021, a member of Osher at Dartmouth and the Curriculum Committee. He has given Osher courses about the Arctic and Antarctica, the socio-economic history of the U.K. (Liverpool & Slavery, Manchester & Cotton), and the Amoskeag cotton and wool mills on the Merrimack River at Manchester, NH. Martin is retired, lives in West Lebanon, NH, and is the Chair of the Polar Research Board of the National Academies.