People and the Countryside

Rapid and radical changes were taking place in the countryside. Originally published in 1970, People and the Countryside discusses the legislation affecting the countryside which appeared in the late 1940s and the work of the Countryside in 1970 Conferences with which the author had been closely connected.

The book examines the role played by man in the shaping of the British landscape, and discusses the considerable changes there have been in our time in, for example, the number and distribution of people over the country and the availability of work in the countryside. Dr Bracey assesses the influence of developments in mobility on life in the country, and looks at rural local government with especial regard to land-use planning.

As more people used more of the countryside for many new purposes, there was a growing concern about access to open spaces, common land and forest, and about the provision of facilities and the conservation of amenities. Dr Bracey shows how the Countryside Act of 1968, which he describes as a townsman’s charter for the greater use of the countryside for recreation, at the same time pays heed to the needs of the countryside and the claims of country people. The final chapters of the book look at the Government White Paper, ‘Leisure in the Countryside’, and explore its real meaning in the context of leisure in general, the recreational use of land, the facilities needed for exploiting and conserving countryside amenities, and the need for ‘management’ of the countryside in the 1970s. Today it can be read in its historical context.

Howard E. Bracey (1905 –1996) had an international reputation as a rural sociologist, from his work with the European Society for Rural Sociology and the International Committee for Cooperation in Rural Sociology. He was English editor of the European journal Sociologia Ruralis for a number of years and his published works include Social Provision in Rural Wiltshire (1952), English Rural Life (1959), Industry and the Countryside (1963), Neighbours (1964) and In Retirement (1966). At the time of original publication Dr Bracey was a Research Fellow in Rural Sociology with the status of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Bristol.