The History of the Countryside

by Oliver Rackham

Overview

From its earliest origins to the present day, this award-winning, beautifully written book describes the endlessly changing character of Britain's countryside.

'A classic' Richard Mabey

Exploring the natural and man-made features of the land - fields, highways, hedgerows, fens, marshes, rivers, heaths, coasts, woods and wood pastures - he shows conclusively and unforgettably how they have developed over the centuries. In doing so, he covers a wealth of related subjects to provide a fascinating account of the sometimes subtle and sometimes radical ways in which people, fauna, flora, climate, soils and other physical conditions have played their part in the shaping of the countryside.

'One thing is certain: no one would be wise to write further on our natural history, or to make films about it, without thinking very hard about what is contained in these authoritative pages' COUNTRY LIFE

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474614030
Publisher:	Orion
Publication date:	03/19/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	789,217
File size:	120 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dr Oliver Rackham was a botanist and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. An acknowledged authority on the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and pasture. THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTRYSIDE won the 1986 Angel Literary Award, the Sir Peter Kent Conservation Prize and the Natural World Book of the Year Award.

Table of Contents

List of plates vi

Acknowledgements vii

Maps: Places mentioned in the text x-xi

Preface xiii

1 Regions 1

2 Historical methods and the use of evidence 6

3 Conservation 25

4 Animals and plants: Extinctions and new arrivals 31

5 Woodland 62

6 Wood-pasture - Wooded commons, parks and wooded Forests 119

7 Plantations 153

8 Fields 155

9 Hedges and field-walls 181

10 Trees of hedgerow and framland 205

11 Elms 232

12 Highways 248

13 Heathland 282

14 Moorland 305

15 Grassland 328

16 Ponds, dells and pits 345

17 Marshes, fens, rivers and the sea 374

Abbreviations 396

Bibliography 396

References 398

Index and Glossary 415

Editorial Reviews

A classic of scholarship and imagination...A monumental work, but it is written with humanity, dignity, concern and a great deal of humour—TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT


A classic, written with humanity, dignity, concern and a great deal of humour—Richard Mabey, TES


As quirky and rewarding as the English countryside itself ... it is full of answers to questions that others have not had the wit to ask—THE ECONOMIST


He opened readers' eyes to regional differences in patterns of land settlement, the original meaning of the term forest (countryside beyond the common law), the timing of key changes in human management of the landscape, new ways of looking at hedges, ponds and marshes, and, through it all, the balance between the natural world and human activities—GUARDIAN


One thing is certain: no one would be wise to write further on our natural history, or to make films about it, without thinking very hard about what is contained in these authoritative pages—COUNTRY LIFE

From the Publisher