Roger Cartwright – background information
Roger Cartwright took early retirement from Cumbria County Council in 1991, where he was Head of the Environment Section in the Planning Department.
He originally trained as a forester and has recently had a book published “Wind on the Hills” telling the story of this formative period in his life.
After returning from Nyasaland (Malawi) in 1961 he worked for a private Forestry Company in South West England and this combined with his previous forestry experience convinced him of the need to learn about landscape design and he became a student at the School of Architecture and Landscape at Cheltenham.
After qualifying as a landscape architect he worked for Lancashire County Council on landscape conservation and recreation for the Forest of Bowland AONB. The work included the design of Beacon Fell Country Park and the restoration of Glasson Dock and other schemes elsewhere in the county. He was on the planning team for the Morecambe Bay Barrage and took many of the ideas from this to his next job in Northumberland.
Landscape design was appreciated in Northumberland and the team were responsible for tree and forestry advice for the whole County Council. This included the early evolution of consultation agreements on forestry, particularly in the Northumberland National Park and work on other large-scale developments such as quarries, opencast coal mining, new roads and reservoirs.
The most significant of these was the future Kielder Water - including plans for recreation and reservoir drawdown mitigation and working with the Forestry Commission on a Management Plan for the surrounding Kielder Forest.
He moved to work with Cumbria County Council in 1974 to do similar work and continue living in the countryside.
