The history of the Country Park, 1966-2005: Towards a renaissance?

The origins of the Country Park are examined and the implications of those origins are analysed. Country Parks are followed through to the present, including their enthusiastic sponsorship by the Countryside Commission, their role in local authority policy and practice, and the decline noted in the 1999 House of Commons Select Committee inquiry into Town and Country Parks. In the last two years, the Country Parks Network, administered by Green Space and funded by the government, has shown the tenacity of the Country Park, and there are encouraging signs from the Countryside Agency of renewed interest, and its hopes for a `Renaissance in Country Parks'. A summary of this period is also included, but an assessment of the effectiveness of its initiatives must wait for more time to pass.