The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 5

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 2000 5 Back to the land: More and more of the population have a wish to return to their roots in the countryside, reports Anthony King Britons hold on to dream of rural idyll 1939 1989 Now In a city 39 28 29 In the countryside 61 71 70 Threats to the countryside Where would you like to live? 1989 Now Pollution of rivers, lakes, waterways 93 91 New housing developments 77 82 Farmers using too many pesticides, herbicides 87 80 Building of new motorways 76 79 Too much traffic 73 79 Acid rain 80 74 Building of out-of-town supermarkets, shopping malls n.a. 72 Farmers digging up hedgerows 63 63 Too many people moving into the country from towns, cities 48 53 Too many visitors, tourists 35 40 NEWS Telegraph Gallup BRITONS' love affair with the countryside is as passionate as ever, Gallup's survey for The Daily Telegraph makes plain. Only about one Briton in five actually lives in either a village or the countryside but far more, well over half, wish they did. Rural nostalgia along with urban congestion, rising crime and poor inner-city schools is almost certainly one of the factors prompting the wish for a migration out of London and other big southern cities into the country. Despite being the world's first nation of city dwellers, the British have never been entirely happy in them.

They were among the first to adopt green belts in an effort to contain their urban sprawl. Newly ennobled peers of the realm almost invariably take titles that connect them, however tenuously, to rural life. Shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939, Gallup's interviewers asked: If you were in a position to where you liked, would line. choose to live in the city or the countryside? The same question was asked roughly a decade ago and again in Gallup's latest survey. As the figures in the chart show, the proportion of people wishing to live in the countryside was high in 1939 61 per cent but is even higher now.

Before the war, the countryside must have seemed unimaginably remote to many city dwellers. Many child evacuees had never seen a sheep. Now the car and television have made country life a vivid reality for most of the population. In this case, greater familiarity has bred not contempt but an apparently intense longing. Certainly, people's image of Britain as a whole is heavily influenced by their feeling for the countryside.

Despite more than a century of overwhelming urban dominance, almost half the population, 48 per cent, still report to Gallup's interviewers that they "associate Britain more with the countryside than Only 39 per cent, when they think of Britain, think of urban areas. Personal links between town and country also remain strong. Almost three quarters, 71 per cent, of the dwellers in Gallup's sample claim to have friends or relatives who live in the countryside or in a village. Half claim to spend time in the country at least once a month. city dwellers who visit the country do so overwhelmingly to see friends and relatives (29 per cent), to get some peace and quiet (17 per cent), to go for a walk (16 per cent) or simply to enjoy the beauty of the countryside Have you ever seen in the Picture: MADELEINE WALLER don't yes no know Hedgehog 93 7 0 Fox 88 12 Deer 77 23 0 Swallow 74 22 Owl 73 26 Bat 71 29 0 Skylark 47 40 12 Badger 46 53 0 Barn Owl Picture: DAVID BURGES If you could make one change in the one change choosing each of the following: following: 33 herbicides 23 countryside 23 shopping malls 19 Ban foxhunting Forbid farmers from using pesticides, Ban new housing developments in the Ban building of out-of -town supermarkets, None of these don't know (14 per cent).

They clearly like the place. Gallup's interviewers reminded respondents that "some people say the British countryside is in danger" and asked: Is that a view you share or not? It emerged that 70 per cent of people believe that the countryside is in danger. Fewer than half that number, 28 per cent, think it is not. Gallup's interviewers then read out a list of 10 alleged "threats to the countryside" and asked in connection with each: Could you tell me whether you personally think it constitutes a threat or not? The results are set out in the chart. Although not a great I Clarissa Dickson Wright, the television chef, and Johnny Scott, her new partner in a forthcoming BBC2 series, drive sheep over London Bridge as part of St Bartholomew's Fair celebrations, a tradition that has lapsed.

Footage recorded on the bridge will be used in the opening sequence of Clarissa and the Countryman, about rural life in Britain, to be shown in October matched by real familiarity with it. Could you, Gallup's interviewers asked, tell me which of the following birds and animals you personally have ever seen in the wild? The respondent did not have to have seen any of the creatures recently. He or she had only to have seen them once outside a zoo or nature reserve. Even so, as the chart makes clear, fewer than three quarters of Britons have ever at any time in their lives seen a swallow, an owl, a bat, a skylark or a badger. Considerable proportions have never seen even a fox or a deer.

As the second row from the bottom Boy, six, survives after four of his family die in car crash By Thomas Harding A BOY of six was critically ill last night after a head-on car crash killed four members of his family while on holiday in Ireland. Eric Pickford, 45, his wife Gillian, 35, their son Simon, four, and Emma Bintliff, 14, Mrs Pickford's daughter by a previous marriage, died when their vehicle burst into flames after colliding with a lorry in Co Cork. Their other son, Matthew, was taken to Cork's University Hospital after being dragged to safety by motorists. Mrs Pickford's other son David, 14, who was not with them on holiday, and her former husband, John Bintliff, a fireman, flew to Ireland to help identity the victims and to be with Matthew. Mrs Pickford's mother, Marjorie Smart, said: "We are devastated.

This is a huge The family, from Marple, Greater Manchester, had arrived in Ireland by car ferry on Friday. Their Mitsubishi Space Wagon crashed into a lorry Destroyed: the car in which four people died on the road between Mallow and Mitchelstown, Co Cork, on Saturday. Customers from a nearby pub and other motorists used fire extinguishers and managed to pull Matthew from the blazing wreckage after smashing a window. The lorry driver, who received only minor injuries, also tried to help reach the family. Jane Hulmes, who lived car insurance Average £92 off! Guess who's surprisingly passionate about saving you money? 0800 200 300 surprisingly passionate about car insurance Car insurance not available in N.

Ireland, nor if main driver under 21.0 Calls are recorded. Picture: JIMMY GASTON GO OF LOCON LONDON banning foxhunting, only 23 per cent of country dwellers feel the same. Conversely, whereas 31 per cent of those who live in the country feel especially strongly about pesticides and herbicides, the comparable figure among town dwellers is a more modest 21 per cent. The Gallup Organisation conducted 1,020 telephone interviews with adults across Britain between Aug 16 and 22. Anthony King is professor of government at Essex University.

Editorial Comment: Page 19 NT snubs hunt lobby in ballot for council By Charles Clover Environment Editor HUNT supporters are seeking greater influence in the National Trust, which has banned stag hunting, by supporting the election of Sir Nicholas Soames to its ruling council in a ballot of the trust's million members this autumn. However, the trust has delivered a snub to countryside interests, in the same ballot papers, by trying to exclude the National Farmers' Union and the Countryside Alliance from the list of 26 organisations that can automatically appoint a member to the council under the trust's Act of 1907. Last year Friends of the National Trust, the pro-huntnarrowly failed to secured the election to the trust's council of Robin Page, The Daily Telegraph columnist, with Robin Hanbury-Tenison, former director of the Countryside Alliance, and Lucinda Green, the Olympic horsewoman. This year the body has decided to concentrate its efforts on recommending Sir Nicholas, a former defence and agriculture minister and supporter of country interests in the Commons. It is also recommending the re-election of five "sympathetic" existing members: Ruth Blok, Wendy Bundy, John Townsend, Hugh Matheson and Pamela Wright.

Hunt supporters led by Timothy Cassell, QC, are proposing a resolution to the annual meeting to stop Charles Nunneley, the chairman, from using his proxy votes to prevent pro-hunting candidates being elected, as happened last year. The trust is consulting its members before adjusting the list of bodies that can nominate members to the council in the postal ballot. It has chosen to nominate Transport 2000, the Garden History Society and the British Tourist Authority, for endorsement by the trust's members. Excluded are the Countryside Alliance, Friends of the Earth, the National Farmers' Union, the Twentieth Century Society, the National Art Collections Fund and the RSPCA. Country people are reconciled to the exclusion of the Countryside Alliance and the RSPCA, as the two bodies are on opposite sides of the hunting debate and cancel out each other.

But the trust's decision not to nominate the National Farmers', Union, representing tenant farmers as well as landowners, has offended many countryside interests. deal has changed since a similar question was asked a decade ago, there is clearly increasing concern about the "urbanisation" of Britain. More in 1989 fear new housing developments, the building of new motorways, the increase in traffic in rural areas and the migration of town dwellers to the countryside. In addition, a new threat has emerged over the past decade: the building of outof -town supermarkets. Almost as many people think these pose a threat as think the same of acid rain and traffic congestion.

However, affection for the countryside is not invariably next door to the Pickfords, said: "Eric and Gill were besotted with the children and the children were just lovely. "They were really genuine, friendly people. I can't believe it. "This has stunned us all. I don't think it has sunk in yet." Mrs Hulmes, who went to school with Mrs Pickford, described them as "lovely of the chart indicates, one person in eight is unclear what a skylark looks or sounds like.

People fared better when confronted with the problem of what a plough was for. Sixty-six per cent know that ploughs are for cutting, lifting or turning the soil and a further 21 per cent know that farmers plough to prepare the soil for sowing making a total of 87 per cent correct. Gallup also pressed respondents to say what single change in the countryside from a list of four they would bring about if they could. Not surprisingly, a ban on foxhunting headed the list but, as the figures in Britons flee forest fires on Corfu BRITONS living on the Greek island of Corfu fled their homes yesterday as forest fires continued to blaze and a state of emergency was declared, writes Paul Anast in Athens. Police said that 11 inland villages were evacuated as firefighting planes and helicopters struggled to contain the blazes.

"Unfortunately the situation is very serious. The winds are very strong and the situation looks bad," said a fire department official. A police spokesman said there had been no injuries and that none of the areas affected was a significant tourist resort. No hotels had been evacuated. Foreign Office spokesman said the island was safe for British tourists.

"They have declared a state of emergency, but apparently they are getting the fires under control." He urged holidaymakers already in Corfu to be sensible and listen to the advice they were given. Fires, which have killed seven people, continued in north-western Greece near loannina and in Arcadia in the southern Peloponnese. the chart show, considerably more people are worried about one or other of pesticides and herbicides, new housing developments and On whole, the views of town supermarkets. the 79 per cent of Gallup's respondents who described themselves as city or town dwellers differed little from those of the smaller proportion, 20 per cent, who described themselves as living in the countryside or a village. One of the few exceptions concerned what one change in the countryside they would like to bring about.

Whereas 35 per cent of townies would give top priority to Kray 'too ill to be moved' REGGIE KRAY is hoping against the odds that he will spend his last days at home in London's East End. The gangland killer, who has been in prison for the past 32 years, spent his first day of freedom in hospital yesterday. Prison officers were removed from his bedside after Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, intervened to release Kray on humanitarian grounds. The 66-year-old gangster is suffering from terminal cancer of the bladder and has days to live. Doctors at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital said yesterday that he was too ill to be moved in the immediate future.

But his family said there was still hope that he would leave prison and spend his last days with relatives. Kray was moved to the hospital three weeks ago Wayland prison near Watton, Norfolk, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of Jack "The Hat" McVitie. He and his identical twin Ronnie were Britain's most notorious gangland figures until they were jailed for murder in 1969. Kray has been out of jail three times in the past 32 years, for the funerals of Vio- Churchill archive to go on internet THE papers of Sir Winston Churchill, By Sam Wallace and the University of Southampton, almost a million documents that span which will copy the collection on to his career as soldier, journalist and when £13 million of lottery money was microfilm before publication. Only 10 wartime prime minister, will be pub- used to buy them from a private Chur- per cent of the papers have previously lished on the internet.

chill family trust. been published. The collection, stored in 2,500 boxes rest of the collection was The first published documents will at Churchill College, Cambridge, will bequeathed by Lady Spencer-Churchill include papers that Churchill wrote take four years to process and publish in 1980 to Churchill College, which while planning more than 1,300 before an online version is launched. handed it over to the Sir Winston Chur- speeches from 1897, when he was 23, up The Chartwell Papers, cover chill Archive Trust. to his death 1965.

The documents the period of Churchill's life up to July The project to put the papers on the will also include papers from Chur28, 1945, attracted controversy in 1995 internet is being carried out by the trust chill's ministerial career. By Sandra Laville ing let, his mother, and his brothers Ronnie and Charlie. Kray's wife, Roberta, who married him in jail three years ago, was at his bedside yesterday as well-wishers arrived to pay their respects. "There are mixed emotions," she said. "'I'm pleased that he has got his freedom.

It is something he has been waiting so long for. But he is seriously ill. "He will not be leaving hospital in the immediate future. However we're hopthat he will able to get out family added: "Gill was so excited about this holiday. She came round on Friday night saying 'we're all packed', Eric had made a a a a a a a new roofrack and the car was loaded up.

"Eric was a lovely man. A real giggle. And Gill was a lovely person who loved her mother and spent a lot of time with her. She also had a great love of baking. They were really nice people.

"Their normal holiday was spent renting a cottage. They had been up to the Highlands in Scotland lots of times before this was the first time Gill had been to Both Emma and David attended Marple Hall High School. Matthew was a pupil at Peacefield Primary School. David had not gone on the holiday after recently receiving his GCSE results. Irish police identified the dead and injured through a phone number found in handbag recovered from their vehicle.

A senior Irish police officer said the scene of the crash was for a few days. He is conscious and able to speak but it is a difficult time." Trevor Linn, Kray's solicitor, said that his client was "overjoyed" by the Home Office decision and hoped to leave the hospital with his wife. The Home Office said it took the decision to free Kray on compassionate grounds after a hospital consultant said that he could have only days to live. THE WOOLWICH CH New Interest Rates with effect from 28 August 2000 Amount Current Annual New New Annual New Monthly Interest Interest Interest Card ISAVE Card Saver £50 £24,999 5.00 4.75 4.75 4.65 £25,000 £49,999 5.00 5.00 5.00 4.89 £50,000 5.50 5.25 5.25 5.13 Woolwich for Kids 5.00 5.25 5.25 Maturity Options Account £1 1.15 1.25 1.25 1.24 Premier Instant £1 £9,999 2.10 1.85 1.85 1.83 £10,000 £24,999 2.20 2.00 2.00 1.98 £25,000 £49,999 2.95 2.75 2.75 2.72 £50,000 £99,999 3.45 3.25 3.25 3.20 £100,000 4.05 4.05 4.05 3.98 Prime Gold incl. December Interest and Card £1 £9,999 0.75 0.50 0.50 0.50 £10,000 1.00 00 0.50 0.50 0.50 DETAILS OF OTHER SAVINGS AND CURRENT ACCOUNT INTEREST RATES REMAIN UNCHANGED AND CAN BE OBTAINED BY CALLING 0808 100 2032 (MONDAY TO FRIDAY 8AM TO 6PM; SATURDAY 9AM TO 1PM) OR BY LOOKING ON OUR INTERNET SITE.

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