Life of National Park trailblazer explored during public lecture

The life of Pauline Dower will be the focus of a lecture at Northumbria University next week.

As the only woman on the National Parks Commission, Pauline played a key role in the early history of the Northumberland National Park.

Alongside the park authorities, she sought to manage competing modern pressures and expectations, including the right of the public to access private land, the forestry sector’s voracious demand for new land, and the state’s need to site new infrastructure. 

The public lecture by Professor Matthew Kelly, is titled ‘Inconspicuous good’: Pauline Dower (née Trevelyan) and the first ten years of Northumberland National Park, and will focus on Pauline’s work as part of the National Parks Commission.

It will also explore her upbringing as a member of the Trevelyan family and the significance of her marriage to John Dower.

The lecture will take place on Monday 11 November at 6:30pm-7:30pm in Lecture Theatre 002, Business and Law Building at City Campus East.

If you would like to attend please register here.  Refreshments will be served from 6pm.

Matthew Kelly is a Professor of Modern British History at Northumbria University. His work focuses on the development of environmental policy in the post-war period, the cultural history of landscape, and the history of National Parks and nature conservation.

Find out more about Northumbria and our Department of Humanities.