1930s
Soaring car ownership brought thousands of visitors to the countryside: Combe Gibbet, Berkshire. Photo: © CPRE 1931
The Minister of Transport appoints CPRE as official advisors to the Electricity Commissioners on the positioning of overhead electricity cables to minimise visual impact on the countryside — 40 cases are dealt with in 1931, and many more in the years to come.
1933
Raymond Unwin's proposed Green Girdle for London — which was to become Britain's first Green Belt — was endorsed by CPRE, who had proposed an 'open belt' of protected countryside around London three years earlier.
CPRE give evidence to the Select Committee on Sky-Writing to call for the protection of the sky as a national asset.
1934
CPRE introduce a national scheme of Countryside Wardens to enforce a 'Code of Courtesy for the Countryside' — later adopted by the National Parks Commission as the 'Country Code'.
1935
The Restriction of Ribbon Development Act 1935 crowned CPRE's nine-year campaign against sprawl.
1936
A joint agreement was signed between CPRE and the Forestry Commission to prevent large scale commercial forestry plantation in the Lake District's central fells.
The then Vice-President of CPRE, Guy Dawber, wrote to The Times urging a revival of the old custom of individually painted pub signs with historic local connections (Hogarth and Millais were two of the most famous practitioners of the art). The ensuing CPRE campaign (supported by the Brewers Society and Edward Lutyens) aroused much public interest - an exhibition of 260 inn signs in Bond Street that November received over 18,000 visitors, even meriting a review in the New York Times.
1937
The Armed Forces' demand for land escalated as war clouds gathered. CPRE accepted the need but pressed for land take to be minimised and for high standards of management.
1938
CPRE set up an individual membership scheme at a guinea a year and appealed for donations towards the £5,000 per annum needed to run the organisation.
CPRE produce a film as part of its campaign for National Parks. Rural England: the Case for the Defence was shown in 925 cinemas across the country and received good reviews from The Sunday Times and the BBC.
CPRE: The Case for the Defence from CPRE on Vimeo.
