GIFT TO NATIONAL TRUST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 302, 19 November 1935, Page 8

GIFT TO NATIONAL TRUST.

CEREMONY ON DUNKERY

BEACON

On Somerset’s highest point Dunkery Beacon, on the edge of Exmoor, whence seven counties may be seen, a striking ceremony took place recently, when Mrs Allan Hughes, of Lynch, near Minehead, unveiled a tablet on a cairn to mark the acceptance by the National Trust of the beacon and 9000 acres of surrounding moors.

The gift was initiated by the late Sir Thomas Acland, who gave an estate of 7000 acres, which has lately been added to by portions presented by the late Mr Allan Hughes and by Colonel W. W. Wiggins, of Exford, Master of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. Thus the Trust has received for the nation the largest area offered it, and in gratitude it has rebuilt the cairn which for centuries stood on the summit and had in recent years fallen into disrepair. Members of the Somerset Archaeological Society and Rural Community Council were among the hundreds who climbed to the beacon, 1700 ft above sea level, to watch the ceremonies, which were inaugurated by LieutenantGeneral Sir Gerald Ellison, chairman of the Countryside Committee of the Community Council. After Mrs Hughes had drawn aside the flag, which revealed the tablet. Sir Edgar lionham-Carter, on behalf of the National Trust, said that to-day, when towns were growing so rapidly, there was a very strong need for open spaces, and anyone who was satisfying that need to the benefit of the public and the nation was performing a work of genuine generosity and patriotism. He appealed for more subscribers to the National Trust, as it received no Government grants. Colonel Wiggui, speaking for the donors, visualised the whole of Exmoor being retained for public enjoyment through the control of the Trust. He said that they hoped that the gift would inspire other landowners to make this ideal a reality.