When you open a roll of waxed paper in the Friends of the Peak District archive and find The Joint Committee 1939 National Park for the Peak District Proposal Map annotated by Lieutentant Colonel Gerald Haythornthwaite (husband of our founder Ethel Haythornthwaite) on to 1” to a mile @ordnancesurvey maps. Twelve years before the Park was established, the founders of the charity, and their friends, and fellow environmentalists in this part of England were plotting, planning, and campaigning to have the hills, moors, valleys and crags between Manchester and Sheffield rightly protected as a nationally important landscape. An archivist funded in part by @heritagefunduk, joined the staff of the charity today to lead on the professional archiving of our history, in collaboration with @sheffieldcitycouncil Archive and Libraries Service. We’re in conversations to find an author to write our history (we are 100 years old in 2024). I confess to kneeling in awe in front of the map and feeling a little peculiar. Exciting and important times. (Please note the ©️ to the map is owned by the charity. Thank you).