National Trust
Society:1800sIn 1895 the world's first National Trust was set up in England.
Octavia Hill, Canon Rawnsley and Sir Robert Hunter
Octavia campaigned against building on suburban woodlands, and helped to save Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill Fields from development. She coined the term "Green Belt" for the protected rural areas surrounding London.
Hill, Rawnsley and Hunter 1895
In 1876 Hill became the treasurer of the Kyrle Society, founded in that year by her eldest sister, Miranda, as a "Society for the Diffusion of Beauty". It was a template for the National Trust, 20 years later.
Hill was engaged in a campaign in 1883 to stop the construction of railways in the English Lake District. Here she met and gained support from Canon Rawnsley, Ruskin and Sir Robert Hunter who was solicitor to the Commons Preservation Society.
On 16 November 1893, Hill, Hunter and Rawnsley agreed on the name 'National Trust' to protect open spaces and endangered buildings of historic interest.
