Charles Watkins

Species presence in fragmented landscapes: modelling of species requirements at the national level

Abstract The fragmentation of ancient woodland has been identified as a cause of decline in biodiversity in the UK. Current policy advocates the targeting of resources to mitigate its effects. In this study a number of patch and landscape scale measures of ancient woodland distribution were derived from national data sets. These measures were translated into independent variables representing patterns of woodland cover using principal component analysis (PCA). Key species were selected according to differing sensitivities to fragmentation of ancient woodland. Logistic regression models of species distributions were constructed. A range of bird and mammal distributions were found to be correlated to landscape scale measures of fragment distribution, in contrast to butterfly and plant species, which exhibited a stronger correlation to patch-scale measures. The national distribution of a range of woodland species is predicted. New information is presented on the landscape requirements of woodland species, particularly those that enable them to persist in fragmented woodland landscapes. The different scales at which species show a sensitivity to fragment distribution are discussed. The results confirm the association between species and different aspects of the structure of the wooded landscape, and provide information of value in targeting national conservation expenditure in England.

Pollarding Trees: Changing Attitudes to a Traditional Land Management Practice in Britain 1600–1900

The pollarding and shredding of trees were widespread and common practices in Britain until the eighteenth century. Trees were an important source of fodder and their branches were regularly lopped so that sheep and cattle could eat their twigs and leaves. The branches could be used for firewood and other purposes. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the practice of pollarding was becoming increasingly rare, and it had virtually died out by the mid-twentieth century. In Europe, by contrast, pollarding remains common in several Mediterranean, Balkan and Scandinavian countries. Pollarding is still practised in many tropical areas for the production of fuel and fodder. In this paper we trace the development of ideas about pollarding in British agricultural, estate management and forestry literature c1600–1900. We examine how pollarding, which was a traditional management practice of long standing at the start of our period, was increasingly vilified so that by the end of the eighteenth century, many foresters and agriculturists saw it as a symbol of the profligate use of resources.

People in the countryside : studies of social change in rural Britain

Introduction - T Champion and C Watkins Recent Developments in the Social Geography of Rural Britain People Moving to the Countryside - S Harper Case Studies of Decision Making Middle Class Housing Choice - P Cloke, M Phillips and D Rankin Channels of Entry into Gower, South Wales Still no Homes for Locals? - M Shucksmith Affordable Housing and Planning Controls in Rural Areas People Working in Farming - G Clark The Changing Nature of Farmwork New Forms of Employment in Rural Areas - A Townsend A National Perspective Women in the Rural Labour Market - J Little A Policy Evaluation The Elderly and Disabled in Rural Areas - R Gant and J Smith Travel Patterns in the North Cotswolds Public Transport in the Countryside - P Bell and P Cloke The Effects of Bus Deregulation in Rural Wales Population and Social Conditions in Remote Areas - A McCleery The Changing Character of the Scottish Highlands and Islands Community Involvement in Rural Development - I Bowler and G Lewis The Example of Rural Development Commission Sources for the Study of Social Change in the Countryside - N Walford and A Hockey The Need for Integration

The rural data infrastructure

ABSTRACT High quality data sources are a prerequisite of the successful application of GIS technology. This paper considers the range of rural data available in Britain and considers their suitability for GIS applications. Key national data sets reviewed include those derived from the Monitoring Landscape Change project, the Countryside Survey 1990, the Land Cover of Scotland 1988 and the Land Use Change Statistics, Agriculture and forestry statistics are also reviewed. The adequacy of these data are assessed within the changing rural policy context. Emphasis is placed on the need to ensure that the rural data infrastructure is expanded to include the documentation of processes of rural land use change. The availability of such data will help the development of models describing the interaction between people, landscape and policy.

Japanese gardens in Edwardian Britain: landscape and transculturation

Abstract This article examines ideas of gardening, landscape and transculturation in Edwardian Britain through the fashion for Japanese gardens. Emphasis is placed on the writing and practice of two influential figures: Josiah Conder (1855–1920) and Reginald Farrer (1880–1920). Conder was one of the leading proponents of Japanese gardens and his book Landscape Gardening in Japan (1893) was a crucial source of ideas about Japanese gardens in the English speaking world. Farrer, who wrote extensively on rock gardens and developed his own plant nursery, was strongly influenced by his travels in East Asia and Japan. We focus on the creation of three different gardens in Britain: Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire; Cowden Castle, Clackmannanshire and Ingleborough Hall, Yorkshire. We show how Ethel Webb, the owner of Newstead Abbey, was strongly influenced by Conders book and used it to produce a pattern book Japanese garden. At Cowden Castle, the employment of Japanese garden designers and gardeners helped in the creation and management of an ‘authentic’ Japanese garden. At Ingleborough Hall, Farrer created his own ‘natural’ rock gardens using exotic alpine plants. His gardening and estate management around Clapham village can be seen as an attempt to create a ‘hybrid’ landscape garden.

Nature Trails: The Production of Instructive Landscapes in Britain, 1960–72

This paper examines the introduction of a novel and modern form of natural history education in Britain in the 1960s, the nature trail. The rise in the number of nature reserves owned by county conservation trusts and the Nature Conservancy after the Second World War raised the issue of how they might best be used by members of the public. Reserves were initially seen by many as places from which the public should be excluded. The American concept of Nature Trails was introduced by a powerful group of nature conservationists to raise the profile of nature conservation and educate people. The role of the two National Nature Weeks of 1963 and 1966 is examined. The paper concludes with a detailed case study of the planning and management of the nature trail at East Wretham Heath, Norfolk.

The Nottingham Arboretum (1852): natural history, leisure and public culture in a Victorian regional centre

This article examines the development of the Nottingham Arboretum (1852), the centrepiece of one of the most ambitious schemes of urban enclosure and improvement in mid-Victorian Britain. It contends that the provision for parks and green spaces in the town was inspired by local naturalists and sanitary reformers as well as cultural emulation and civic rivalry with other urban centres such as Derby and Manchester. Analysis of the design and management of the Arboretum and green spaces and local controversies about funding and access reveal major local disagreements concerning uses of such spaces reflecting continued divisions in Victorian urban society beneath the public rhetorical and celebratory facade.

Topographical art and landscape history: Elizabeth Fanshawe (1779–1856) in early nineteenth-century Liguria

ABSTRACT This paper considers the value of amateur topographical art of the early nineteenth century as a source, combined with fieldwork, for the understanding of past landscapes and environments of the Ligurian Apennines. Political and social changes following the Congress of Vienna (1815) enabled the number of English travelling to Italy to increase dramatically. The enormous popularity of artists and poets such as J. M. W. Turner and Lord Byron further encouraged the growth of visitors. In this paper we consider the work of a recently re-discovered amateur artist Elizabeth Fanshawe (1779–1856) who travelled to Italy 1829–31 with her two sisters Catherine and Penelope. We examine their social and political milieu and examine their great interest in art which ranged from old masters to modern art and their own drawings. We focus on six of Elizabeth Fanshawes topographical drawings and identify problems around the identification of the views depicted and the potential value of the drawings as sources for understanding past landscapes. Other sources used include fieldwork, oral history, local archives and historical maps. The paper demonstrates that the drawings have considerable value in identifying and locating past management practices, including grazing, the cultivation of olives and chestnuts, and the rapid development network of new roads which helped to establish the Kingdom of Sardinia after 1815. The paper demonstrates that amateur topographical art is a valuable source for landscape history.

The Transformation of Sherwood Forest in the Twentieth Century: The Role of Private Estate Forestry

Despite the demise of many landed estates in the twentieth century, the creation of the Forestry Commission and consequent massive afforestation, over two-thirds of British woodland remained in the hands of private land owners at the end of the century. Little research has been carried out into the changing role of landed estates in forming and maintaining woodland landscapes in this period. This paper examines forestry on the Thoresby estate, Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire using a wide range of sources. It demonstrates the dynamic nature of this landscape during the twentieth century. Rather than being a slowly changing woodland landscape, it has been transformed through interventions by land agents and landowners in response to changing social, economic and government policy pressures.

‘Saved from the sordid axe’: representation and understanding of pine trees by English visitors to Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth century

ABSTRACT Pine trees were frequently depicted and celebrated by nineteenth-century English artists and travellers in Italy. This paper examines how British visitors gained knowledge of Italian trees through drawings, paintings and prints, before and during their visits to Italy. It considers knowledge of pines by late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century authorities such as William Gilpin and John Claudius Loudon and then focuses on the representation and understanding of pines in three contrasting sites: the pines of Rome, the coastal pines of Liguria and finally the famous pine wood of Ravenna. These trees were also an important element of local agriculture and the authors combine the analysis of local land management records, paintings and travellers’ accounts to reclaim differing understandings of the role of the pine in nineteenth-century Italy.