History of Cumbria Like Wordsworth, he took a paternalistic view of the "lower-classes" saying that "I don't want to let them see Helvellyn while they are drunk." However, the project that really made the Lake District into national news was Manchester Corporation Water Works's scheme to dam Thirlmere to provide water to the city, first proposed in 1876 and finally "on tap" in 1894. Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, the future co-founder of the National Trust was undecided : he was a strong advocate of the Lake District's ability to provide recreation, rest and fresh-air, as well as aesthetic pleasure, but also knew just how
Hardwicke Rawnsley Rawnsley was elected as a member of the new Cumberland County Council and became chairman of its Highways Committee. He stood out against the construction of roads over lakeland passes, secured controls over mining pollution, and promoted adequate signposting of footpaths. Other targets for his reforming zeal included the brewing industry and in later years the cinema, where he was strongly against the depiction of sex and violence. While he opposed what he saw as excessive numbers of public houses, he was not a prohibitionist. In the last month of his life, after returning from a tour of French vineyards,