A peatland legend: “Gordon the Warden” is 80!

Steve Brown meets the man who was a pioneer warden and has brought park rangers together from around the world.

THE Peak District National Park celebrated its 70th anniversary earlier this year and its story has already been recounted in this publication and in many others. However, the history of our national parks is as much about the people that made it all happen as well as the glorious landscapes. To one young man from Stockport, a visit to the Peak District and a talk from its first National Park Warden at his school in his teenage years in the Fifties proved to be life-changing experiences; as he went on not just to become a guardian of this beautiful park but the founder of a worldwide movement of countryside professionals, as well as one of the most respected residents in Edale village…