The Wildlife Trusts history

During the early years, membership tended to be made up of specialist naturalists and its growth was comparatively slow. It aimed initially to draw up a list of the country's best wildlife sites with a view to purchase for protection as nature reserves, and by 1915 it had drawn up a list of 284 (including the Farne Islands and the Norfolk Broads), known as Rothschild Reserves.

Encouraged by the growing number of Trusts, the SPNR began in 1957 to discuss the possibility of forming a national federation of Naturalists' Trusts.

Kent Naturalists Trust was established in 1958 with SPNR being active in encouraging its formation.

In the following year the SPNR established the County Naturalists' Committee, which organised the first national conference for Naturalists' Trusts at Skegness in 1960.

By 1964, the number of Trusts had increased to 36 and the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves had changed its name to The Society for the Promotion of Nature Conservation.

Membership topped 100,000 in 1975, and in that year Wildlife Watch was launched as a children's naturalist club.

In 1980, the first urban Wildlife Trust (now the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country) was established in the West Midlands, rapidly followed by others in London, Bristol and Sheffield.

In recognition of the movement's growing importance, its name was changed to The Royal Society for Nature Conservation in 1981.

In 2002 the group changed their name to The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.