This year will mark the 80th anniversary of the formation of CPRE Oxfordshire back in 1931. The founding meeting actually took place on Saturday 7th March 1931 at the County Hall in Oxford. At the time “CPRE” stood for “The Council for the Preservation of Rural England” and the national committee had only been founded two years earlier in 1929.

The Oxford meeting followed an important public exhibition in the city called “Save the Countryside” illustrating the issues that CPRE were concerned about at the time. It had been organised by the Oxfordshire Amenities Group in association with the CPRE and had been opened by John Buchan.

John Buchan, the famous author, MP and statesman, lived at Elsfield Manor near Oxford from 1919 to 1935 and was a passionate advocate of preserving the English countryside. He in fact presided at the key meeting of influential people on 7th March, when the decision was taken to create a county branch of the CPRE, and he became its first Chairman.

There was extensive coverage in the Oxford Times, Oxford Mail and national newspapers such as The Times. Fortunately it is still possible to read what John Buchan said and these two extracts illustrate his theme - that it should be possible to have progress and prosperity without destroying the essential qualities of the English countryside we all cherish:

“This countryside of ours is at the heart of all our literature and all our history; it has always been in the background of our national life, and if we lose it we lose something which is vital to our English character.”

“A beautiful England need not be unprogressive. Changes must come but they need not interfere with our purpose.”

In the 1930s there was great consternation at the way the countryside was changing with the relatively unchecked growth of towns and cities and sprawling ribbon development. Planning as we know it did not exist.

During this period CPRE campaigned for three things:

An effective planning system

Green belts around major cities to control sprawl

National Parks to protect our most important landscapes

Over time all three were achieved: with the Town and Country Planning Act 1947, The National Parks and Countryside Act 1949 and the introduction of Green Belts in the 1950s. Proposals for an Oxford Green Belt were finally put forward in 1956.

In his autobiography “Memory Hold the Door” John Buchan described Oxford and the land soon to be designated as Green Belt:

“No one can understand Oxford unless he knows the Oxford countryside. Half her beauty lies in her setting. Cambridge… is a city of the plains, and over what she calls her hills one is apt to walk without noticing them. But Oxford has a cincture of green uplands and a multitude of little valleys. It is only from her adjacent heights that her charms can be compromised into one picture and the true background found to her towers.”

The current Chairman of CPRE Oxfordshire, Alan Jones, comments:

“The whole Branch is very proud to be marking 80 years and we plan to hold a number of different events through the year. We are devoting our Spring Bulletin to reviewing the past eight decades and highlighting some of the milestones for CPRE in Oxfordshire.

However, when you look at all the battles that have been fought over the countryside in Oxfordshire, you soon realise there is continuous conflict between the pressures of economic growth and increasing prosperity and the need to protect our fragile countryside and natural environment. We live on a crowded island and the South East is the most densely developed region of all. A civilised society has to find ways to mediate between these conflicting interests to try to give us all the best of both. As John Buchan argued in 1931, can we not have beauty with progress?

I am sure that CPRE will continue to be an influential voice in this important debate for many years to come.”