A BLUE plaque honouring one of the founders of the National Trust has been unveiled in St Paul's.

It commemorates a man who once described the area as filled with "muck heaps and farm refuse", featuring "a few public houses of the worst sort".

Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (1851 to 1920) was a clergyman, poet, writer of hymns and conservationist.

As an Anglican vicar in the English Lake District for more than 30 years, he worked for the protection of the countryside, and secured the support of people of influence for his campaigns.

In 1875 he was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England and became the first curate of Bristol's Clifton College mission in the parish of St Barnabas, St Pauls.

Rawnsley found himself ministering to one of the city's poorest communities.

He described the area as he first saw it: "Muck-heaps and farm refuse, on which jerry builders had set up rows of houses, which periodically got flooded and sucked up fever and death from chill for the poor folk who lived there. No lamps. Streets only wadeable through. A few public-houses of the worst sort..."

After a few years, Rawnsley left Bristol for a life in the Lake District and champion of England's natural countryside, coastline and historic buildings.

He co-founded the National Trust in 1895 with two other Victorian philanthropists – Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter. Rawnsley's views on preserving the natural beauty of Lake District had a lasting effect on Beatrix Potter, who was already taken with the area.

He was the first published author she met, and he took a great interest in her drawings, later encouraging her to publish her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Rawnsley published more than 40 books, mostly non-fiction, some on religious subjects and many with a Lake District theme.

In its obituary notice, The Times said of him: "It is no exaggeration to say – and it is much to say of anyone – that England would be a much duller and less healthy and happy country if he had not lived and worked."

Bristol's Lord Mayor, Colin Smith was joined by members of the local community and representatives from the National Trust to unveil the plaque which commemorate Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley's life and work.

The plaque can be seen at the Community of the Sisters of the Church, 82 Ashley Road.