To Natural England's database of landscape character assessments, it is known simply as Area 36.

To the partnership trying to raise its profile, it is the forgotten “Cinderella landscape”.

The South Pennines straddle the border where Yorkshire and Lancashire collide, and seven million people live within an hour’s drive.

With vast tracts of open moorland intersected by wooded valleys and a patchwork of hamlets and fields, it is the countryside of the Brontes and Last Of The Summer Wine. It inspired the likes of poets Ted Hughes, Barbara Hepworth and Simon Armitage, whose Stanza Stones poems are carved on stones from Marsden to Ilkley.

While larger settlements include Ilkley, Haworth, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden, the South Pennines has one of England’s highest proportions of nature designations, two Special Areas of Conservation, rights of way spanning 4,190km and two national trails – the Pennine Way and Pennine Bridleway.

Yet it is the only significant upland area of England without National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty status.

The area was considered for recommendation as a National Park by the Hobhouse Review, which set up the network in the 1940s, but the report concluded that, with its mills, it was too industrial.

Today, the dark Satanic mills no longer fill the valleys with smoke, but, surrounded by the visitor honeypots of the Yorkshire Dales, Peak District and the Lakes, the South Pennines remain largely undiscovered. Now Bradfordians are being urged to change that – by helping the area win a top European award.

Pennine Prospects is a rural regeneration partnership of local authorities, public, private and voluntary sector bodies which has attracted more than £5 million of national and European funding to promote, protect and enhance the natural and cultural heritage of the South Pennines.

Recognised for its Watershed Landscape Project, which has played a key role in championing the landscape and encouraging people to get involved with it, the partnership was the only UK winner in the Education, Training and Awareness-raising category of the Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Awards.

Of 30 winning projects, six will be named ‘Grand Prix’ winners at a ceremony in Athens next month, and one will receive the Public Choice Award based on an online poll.

“This European bid is a springboard to make our call a lot bolder. By voting for the South Pennines, people can put their mark on this landscape,” says Pennine Prospects chairman Pam Warhurst.

“This is countryside with rich stories from the past; of the Co-operative Movement, mills, chapels and non-conformists. It has brass band competitions, scarecrow festivals and market towns linked by a canal network through some of the country’s most dramatic landscapes.

“Many areas of England look the same, but this is a quirky, distinctive landscape with ‘higgledy-piggledy’ mill and market towns full of character. Each building has its own story.”

With the 2014 Tour de France weaving through Yorkshire, Pam says now is the time to shout about the South Pennines.

“The eyes of the world will be on this landscape. Bradford will benefit from the Tour de France, with visitors looking to stay at places like Skipton and Ilkley,” she says.

“We want to spread visitors out from the honeypot areas. So much of Bradford is in the heart of the South Pennines, we want people to get out there and enjoy it.

“It has a rich heritage, creativity, festivals, walks, cycling trails, horse-riding, watersports, shopping. It’s a great day out for families or a weekend break.”

Pennine Prospects wants the South Pennines to be a park of regional significance. “We don’t need a new National Park – this is the ‘people’s park’,” says Pam. “It’s time we remembered this ‘Cinderella landscape’ again.”

As well as boosting tourism, and creating potential for jobs, raising the South Pennines profile could protect it from future development. Pam says that without park status, any development will be “squeezed out of the Dales and into the South Pennines”.

“Bradford is the gateway to the South Pennines. We want the people of Bradford to recognise what’s on their doorstep, jump on a train and get out there, and value it as their landscape,” she adds.

To vote for the South Pennines, visit vote.europanostra.org. Voting closes on Sunday.