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The 24th April, 1932 saw the Mass Trespass when nearly 500 walkers left Manchester, Sheffield and other towns and cities to meet in the Peak District to defy landowners and their claims that this land was private and not for the pleasure of mere plebs. Arrests were made that day, but in 1949 the National Parks were created for the purpose of allowing the masses access to the nation's land. This in itself is doubly indicative of us as a nation; we love our countryside and we're prepared to fight against something we perceive as unjust and unfair.
For people living in what were once smog-choked cities like Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Birmingham or Port Talbot, there was a need to escape to the countryside come the weekend; walking and taking the air was a blessed relief, and often an absolute necessity. In time it became a huge part of our leisure time, an escape from the overwhelming bustle and even claustrophobia of our urban areas.
Unfortunately, whilst we can all visit the countryside for a ramble and a change of pace and scenery, it's getting harder and harder to actually live in Britain's bucolic countryside. In straitened economic times, it's tough to find work anywhere, but especially in our rural areas. If you add to this the difficulty in getting onto the property ladder in the countryside, forcing younger people to search for jobs and homes in our nation's metropolitan areas, our nation's demographics are constantly changing.