Lake District National Park Partnership Management Plan Consultation

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Linnel Doublet (“Rusty”) as a pack pony on the bridleway over Burnmoor in the Lake District

Linnel Doublet (“Rusty”) as a pack pony on the bridleway over Burnmoor in the Lake District

The Lake District National Park and its partners including Friends of the Lake District are crafting a new plan to address many changes in the context in which the park is managed, including Brexit and climate change. Until June 23, they are soliciting feedback on their plan via a survey (click here).

As you know if you have followed my work in the past few years, I believe we in the Fell Pony community have opportunities to increase the visibility of our breed and its historic role in the Lake District, thanks especially to the ‘cultural landscape’ category that was used to obtain World Heritage Site designation in 2017. The cultural landscape categorization calls out the role of agriculture and industry in shaping the Lake District we know today. Packhorses (ancestors of our Fell Ponies) were integral for hundreds of years in moving goods around the Lake District before roads and railways. Trackways and packhorse bridges are some of the historic marks on the landscape left by this form of transport. Unfortunately, packhorse history and Fell Ponies were not well integrated into the World Heritage Site plan, so the current revision of the park’s management plan provides us with a new opportunity.

I had three main concerns that were not necessarily easy to express in the survey:

  • The agropastoral and industrial past on which the World Heritage Site is partially based emphasizes farming and mining and woodland industries but rarely mentions how materials were moved about (packhorses in their day) and the routes packhorses used, including trackways and bridges. Also rarely mentioned are the presence of mills (fulling, bobbin, corn) which were serviced by packhorses in their day. I think we in the Fell Pony community need to herald the historic role of packhorses for transport, possibly not only in the ‘Farming, Forestry, and Nature’ section but perhaps also in the Transport section.

  • One of the themes of the new plan is ‘more sustainable transportation,’ and I think if you are interested in bridleways, it would be important to comment, since in the past, foot traffic has seemed to preempt equine traffic in planning circles. The picture here shows Linnel Doublet (“Rusty”) as a pack pony on the bridleway over Burnmoor.

  • While farming is acknowledged as a part of the Lake District, it seems like farming will be important in the future for its ‘nature recovery’ role more than its ability to produce food. I think it’s not only possible but important to emphasize that both are possible at the same time and necessary. It seems to me, though, that ‘nature recovery’ gets top billing by a long way.

There are places in the survey where you are asked if you can help. Please consider what you might be able to do. I let them know about my work to document the packhorse history of the Lake District.

Thank you for your interest in this topic.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2021