Sylvia Sayer

[7] Sayer was described in The Times newspaper in 1971 as "a militant conservationist, who is a full-time thorn in the sides of those authorities and others who want to flood, fence, dig up, knock down and otherwise damage the Dartmoor national park.

"[9] Crispin Gill wrote about her in his introduction to Dartmoor – A New Study published in 1970 as having "roused the conscience of a [vast] number of people" and he described her as an indefatigable worker with an enormous knowledge; he also referred to Henry Slesser's description of her as "the shield of the moor".

In her first published letter to The Times, in 1948, she expressed concerns about local authorities (specifically Devon County Council) seeking to subvert the implementation of Arthur Hobhouse's recommendations for the creation of national parks by demanding that they retain their own planning powers.

Sir Patrick Duff, the National Parks Commission chairman, was well briefed by Sayer and at the enquiry his case was mainly based on the damage the mast would do to the scenery of the moor.

Although congratulatory letters were passed between all the main objectors after the enquiry, the ministry granted the planning application in January 1954, though with some minor provisos to minimise the impact.

[16] Although Duff had failed to stop the installation of the mast, Sayer rewarded him for his efforts with a painting of North Hessary Tor saying it was "almost the last representation of that landscape that can be made while it is still unshadowed and unspoiled".

[18] In 1966 she and her husband deliberately interrupted live-firing exercises on Dartmoor's Royal Marines firing range to inspect and photograph any damage done to a prehistoric stone row.

The proposal was eventually rejected in December 1970 at the Bill's committee stage,[22] and a reservoir known as Roadford Lake was built west of the moor near the village of Broadwoodwidger instead.

However, the Meldon Reservoir on the north-west edge of the moor was passed, despite claims that the water would be poisoned by arsenic and lead because of the presence of three disused metalliferous mines and their spoil heaps in the area to be flooded.

[24] After expounding at length all the arguments made against building a dam at Meldon and in favour of an alternative site at Gorhuish, and the responses from the establishment, it ended with this statement:[25] The effect on the younger generation of the methods of present-day misgovernment is alarming but inevitable.

Shaugh Moor is an adjacent area that is rich in ancient monuments and it was there that the companies planned to tip the vast quantities of spoil that is generated from clay extraction.

The activism culminated in an adjournment debate in the House of Commons in which Janet Fookes, a Plymouth MP, argued against irreparably damaging the ancient landscape.

[27] After the decision had been made, Sayer wrote a letter to Peter Bottomley, the then Minister of Transport that included the following extract:[28]The end of the Lords debate, when the vote was about to be taken and the half-empty Chamber suddenly filled up with well-wined and dined Lordships totally ignorant of the facts but jovially resolved to vote as directed, was only too typical of the whole disastrous charade...She opposed proposals to build a new Dartmoor Prison at Princetown in the centre of the moor in 1959.

[31] In 1983 she refused an invitation from the Prince of Wales to attend the launch of the Duchy of Cornwall's management plan for Dartmoor, since it allowed for a continuance of military usage.