Sir, The National Trust in the Lake District is a proactive land manager, balancing the needs of conservation and access in this wonderful place, while trying to ensure a viable livelihood for farm tenants and communities.

As national and European legislation changes, so we must respond, and farming as it has always been done' in the past is no longer an option. We cannot stand, Canute-like against the tides of time.

Our respected tenant at High Yewdale Farm retires this year, and it would have been remiss of us simply to have tried to re-let the farm to a new tenant, in the almost sure knowledge that the farm as it sits in the context of the valley which has five farms, was not viable. This would have most probably led to one or more of the farms without a long term future.

What we have done, over a long period of time, is consider various options, and taken the one which should ensure the future of the four neighbouring families' livelihoods. The land will be divided between each of those farmers; the house re-let to a family.

Not one square inch of farming land is to be lost it will continue to be a farmed landscape; and visually the farmstead will remain in its iconic, beautiful setting.

As for Beatrix Potter's concerns, she was a conservationist, a farmer and an astute business woman. She would have been sitting around the table with us, discussing the best way forward for a livelihood for the farms she was a pioneer in encouraging her farmers to look for ways to expand their livelihoods, and indeed, bought the furniture to enable Yew Tree Farm in Coniston to open as one of the first ever tea-rooms here!

As farmers retire, surely your readers and our members would expect us, as a responsible organisation, to look at each farm's viability and work through the best future for that farm, and the valley in which it sits. Change is inevitable, and it is our responsibility to make it change for the better wherever possible.

The Lake District has been a changing, evolving landscape since time began, and it is up to us and our partners to embrace that change, work with it and ensure a positive, vibrant future for all who live, visit and work here.

John Darlington National Trust Area Manager, The Lake District n Sir, The breaking up of Beatrix Potter's farm is not only causing consternation among the local community - the whole of the Lake Districts farming community is up in arms (Gazette, January 21, Beatrix farm to be broken up').

The National Trust says it needs to restructure farms on its land but they do not seem to realise what an intricate web the system of farming heafed sheep is. One thread depends on the next to function properly.

Despite National Trust rhetoric about CAP reform etc, High Yewdale is viable, more so than the four neighbouring farms that it is to be merged with.

The National Trust is reluctant to make any new investment. The investment required equates to a mere 5p from each of its three million members. Why not start a Save a Fell Farm Campaign?

The National Trust personnel are unwilling to listen to locals. They have been lobbied from many bodies on this issue: the NFU, Westorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins, the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association, and countless individuals.

They conceded to a hastily arranged meeting, with a small number of tenants and had certainly not realised the depth of feeling, only to carry on their pre-determined course.

I feel passionately that if the National Trust split this particular farm it is nothing short of criminal. They are tearing the heart out of the social fabric of our community.

As a descendent of a family who can be traced back to breeding Herdwick sheep since the 1800s, I feel I am a species severely under threat, one of a diminishing number of those who have the skills to maintain this landscape our forefathers created. Are we not worthy of some input into shaping our descendants' future?

People whose ancestors certainly had no part to play in creating the Lake District are making these decisions. Mistakes of this magnitude cannot be reversed. Will the same people be here to see the result?

Is this preservation or asset stripping?

D. Wilkinson Tilberthwaite Farm Coniston n Sir, The National Trust are bemoaning the costs of keeping High Yewdale viable and want it broken up, but I and all the other NT members haven't been asked for our opinion.

This farm doesn't belong to NT Area Manager John Darlington; it belongs to the country, which is what Beatrix Heelis intended it for.

Mrs Heelis was a very practical-minded lady and understood the need for change but also the need for preserving our history for our future.

It is, after all, the suffocation inflicted by the trust on their tenants that has prevented expansion, diversification and profitability in the first place with their (NT) thou shalt not attitude' regarding what tenants can and can't do.

It does bring a wry smile, though, that if this property was in the south the thought of it being non-viable wouldn't even occur and widespread campaigns for funds would be instigated to keep it intact.

If the trust does insist on going ahead with this, how much longer will Hill Top have? After all, that too is a farm.

One thing is certain though, the trust will no longer have my support in any form.

C. Pearson Kingswinford