© Ian D. Rotherham 2011 Historic Development and Evolution of Landscapes An example - Woodland...

© Ian D. Rotherham 2011

Historic Development Historic Development and and

Evolution of LandscapesEvolution of Landscapes

An example -

Woodland History Summarised

Ian D. Rotherham


Landscape Development and CharacterLandscape Development and Character

Natural conditions and history – topography, geology, climate, exposure, aspect, water and wetness, soils, vegetation, fauna

Landscape type and character

SHAPING LANDSCAPESSHAPING LANDSCAPES

PotentialTIME

Influence

Human influences – land management – clearance; farming, forestry, houses, industry, factories, roads, railways, canals, air transport etc

Sight, [texture, colour, reflectivity, movement etc], Sound, Smell



Continuous matrix of ‘wildwood’ + areas of non-woodland due to edaphic (soil) factors and grazing impacts of large herbivores; landscape much wetter.

Probably less woodland than previously thought and more grassland and wetland – upland and lowland.


More or less isolated woodland blocks

Modification of original structure and composition

Non-woodland

Non-woodland phase

Recent plantation

Recent semi-natural woodland

Ancient plantation

Ancient semi-natural

Clearance

Further Clearance

PlantingNatural succession to woodland

Re-planting often with non-natives

Traditional management or neglect allows some ‘wildwood’ features to survive


Recent plantation:

• Upland conifer woods; urban planting schemes;

• New community woodlands etc; highways plantings

• c.1,250,000 ha


Recent semi-natural woods:

• woods on old heaths, moors, and downs; spontaneous urban commons; post-industrial sites.

• c.100,000 ha

• New native woods??


Ancient plantation:

• Old coppice re-planted with conifers or broad-leaves;

• [Note: PAWS]

• c.350,000 ha


Ancient semi-natural woodland:

• Old coppice;

• Old pasture woodland;

• Upland Caledonian pine forest;

• Wooded commons.

• c. 300,000 ha


Landscape Development and Characterisation

• Landscape development is influenced by a complex matrix of factors – environmental, human, and historical.

• These are interwoven though time and space to create ‘landscape’.


SHAPING LANDSCAPES

Natural conditions and history – topography, geology, climate, exposure, aspect, water and wetness, soils, vegetation, fauna


Landscape type Landscape type and characterand character

Human influences – land management – clearance; farming, forestry, houses, industry, factories, roads, railways, canals, air transport etc


TIME

Influence

Potential


• Our perceptionsperceptions of landscape are hugely individual and affect and influence what each of us sees or experiences as landscape.

• {See reading from: Richard Muir (1998) – Figures in the Landscape}.

• Each person sees, or experiences a unique and individual landscape around them. This is influenced by the past as well as the present.


• There are numerous ways that attempt to characterise landscape and its development.

• From an environmental perspective is the UK is the concept of ‘Natural AreasNatural Areas’ and from and anthropogenic view are ‘Countryside Countryside Character AreasCharacter Areas’.

• Combined these were used to generate the Character of England MapCharacter of England Map. [See Cooke and Hewston, 1998; and Brooke, 1998; for more details].


[See the relevant publications of the former Countryside Agency and English Nature for more information on these concepts and their applications]. Try the web sites of both Natural England and particularly the Woodland Trust.


Cultural LandscapesCultural Landscapes

Especially in a country such as Britain, the landscape is a human-shaped creation – from the high moors, to the urban centre.

Natural factors control and limit the options, but the landscape itself is shaped by but the landscape itself is shaped by

people and their activities over thousands people and their activities over thousands of yearsof years.


Some Key References

• Hoskins – The Making of the English Landscape

• Rackham – The History of the Countryside

• Melvyn Jones – various – esp. Jones and Rotherham (1998)


[Visit the

South Yorkshire ForestSouth Yorkshire Forest

web site to see how they characterised and assessed their region and the sub-regional areas or zones]

The character maps and zones are all in the Level 4 Resources Room


A Case Study – South Yorkshire’s Woodlands and

Wooded Landscapes

• Introduction


Changing woodland management systems during the last millennium and their ecological impacts

Wood Pasture:

1000 - c.1450 A.D.


Coppice Management: c.1450-1850 A.D.


The decline of coppicing and conversion of coppice woods to high forest: since c.1850 A.D.


Summary and ConclusionsSummary and Conclusions

• Woodland cover in South Yorkshire has never been extensive in the last 1000 years.

• In 1086, at the time of the Domesday Survey, woodlands covered only 13 per cent of the county.

• Since then, population growth with the extension of cultivated and grazed land and, after c.1840 rapid industrialisation, continued to reduce woodland cover.

• Today, ancient woodlands cover less than three per cent of the area.


• Despite their small extent, woodlands, particularly in the western half of the area, have played a vital part in the initial development of industry in the early middle ages and its subsequent expansion into the modern period.


A number of economic, political and social factors have had a profound impact on the ecology of the ancient woodlands in South Yorkshire:

1. Changing patterns of ownership, from a concentration in the hands of a few large estate owners to a mixed pattern of ownership including a range of smaller private owners, public bodies such as the Forestry Commission, and city, town and parish councils.


2. There has been a change of function since c.1850 from the role of suppliers of timber, wood and bark to the role of suppliers of timber only and then, in a substantial number of cases, to the role of recreational woods/nature reserves.


3. Change of function has been accompanied by a change of structure from coppice-with-standards to high forest and by changes in composition with the introduction of many trees not native to South Yorkshire.


4. The onset of large-scale industrialisation from c.1840, with the proliferation of ‘smoke-stack’ industries, had a negative impact on ancient woods in South Yorkshire, causing the loss of a number of woods, the reduction in size of many others, together with widespread disturbance and pollution.

Only since c.1980 has there been a rapid decline of coal mining and heavy industry and a shift to a post-industrial, service economy.


5. Since c.1970 public pressure, organised conservation campaigns and increased research activity have resulted in the widespread recognition of the heritage value of the county’s ancient woods and the resumption of active management.


6. The future of South Yorkshire’s ancient woods looks much better than it did three decades ago.

Awareness of their cultural and ecological importance has been raised to a much higher level than at any other time this century and interest in their economic as well as recreational potential has been re-awakened.

However, the renewed interest in the sustainable management of these ancient woodlands is just the beginning; the challenge is to sustain it in the medium and long term.


Summary Table1Summary Table1


Summary Table 2Summary Table 2


But …………!!!!!?????But …………!!!!!?????

• Problems of cultural severancecultural severance

© Ian D. Rotherham 2011 Historic Development and Evolution of Landscapes An example - Woodland...

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