Overview

From the Scots pine windbreaks of the Brecklands to the ancient earth and stone banks of the West Country, the hedgerow is an essential component of regional landscape character. In a rural landscape dominated by enclosure, a working knowledge of hedges is an essential part of every landscape historian's toolkit; yet we understand them less well than we do other features in the landscape. This important book addresses this problem. The authors ask why hedgerows vary across different parts of Britain, and investigate the ecological, economic and historical reasons for these variations. Drawing upon a unique computerised analysis of hedges in Norfolk, they explore how hedges came into existence, and how they have changed over time. They move beyond the myth that a hedge can be dated simply by counting species, and develop instead a much more sophisticated account of hedgerow history. They point out marked geographic variations in species content and diversity, and explore the reasons for these differences. By exploring the nature of hedges at the regional level - and by employing an innovative mix of ecological, archaeological and historical investigative techniques - this book's analysis has important implications for landscape history across the whole of Britain.

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9781905119042

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Reviews

...it shows the story they can offer us is a far more complex one than that arrived at by a superficial counting of the species.' -- Jack Watkins The Countryman November 2008

...it shows the story they can offer us is a far more complex one than that arrived at by a superficial counting of the species.' -- The Countryman The Countryman

...it shows the story they can offer us is a far more complex one than that arrived at by a superficial counting of the species.' -- Jack Watkins The Countryman

Author Information

Gerry Barnes MBE is an honorary research fellow at the University of East Anglia and co-author with Tom Williamson of numerous books, including Ancient Trees in the Landscape, Trees in England: Management and Disease Since 1600 and Rethinking Ancient Woodland. Tom Williamson is Professor of Landscape History at the University of East Anglia. He has written widely on landscape archaeology, environmental history and the history of landscape design.

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