Читать книгу A Book of Britain: The Lore, Landscape and Heritage of a Treasured Countryside - Johnny Scott - Страница 7

Virtually every corner of the British Isles, from the tip of Cornwall to remotest Hebridean Island, has been owned and tilled, cropped and grazed for at least 7,000 years. For all its wonderful areas of remote, rugged and natural beauty – the Cumbrian Fells, the Cheviot Hills, the savage grandeur of the Highlands or the moorland of the West Country – Britain is the least wild of any country on the planet. It has been estimated the there is not a metre of land that has not been utilised by someone since the arrival of Neolithic man, and the landscape we love and admire is entirely man-made. The rolling heather-clad hills of Scotland are most certainly man-made – even the Broads, the stunning network of lakes and rivers covering 300 square kilometres of Norfolk and Suffolk. Until the 1960s, when the botanist and stratigrapher Dr Joyce Lambert proved otherwise, this vast wetland area was believed to be a natural formation. In fact they are the flooded excavations created by centuries of peat extraction. The Romans first exploited the rich peat beds of this flat, treeless region for fuel, and in the Middle Ages the local monasteries began to excavate the peat as a lucrative business, selling fuel to Norwich, Great Yarmouth and the surrounding area. Norwich Cathedral, one of the most stunning ecclesiastical buildings in Britain, was built with money from 320,000 tons of peat dug out of the Benedictine lands every year, until the sea levels began to rise and the pits flooded. Despite the construction of mills and dykes, the flooding continued, resulting in the unique Broads landscape of today, with its reed beds, grazing marshes and isolated clumps of wet woodland.

VIRTUALLY EVERY CORNER OF THE BRITISH ISLES, FROM THE TIP OF CORNWALL TO REMOTEST HEBRIDEAN ISLAND, HAS BEEN OWNED AND TILLED, CROPPED AND GRAZED FOR AT LEAST 7,000 YEARS. FOR ALL ITS WONDERFUL AREAS OF REMOTE, RUGGED AND NATURAL BEAUTY … BRITAIN IS THE LEAST WILD OF ANY COUNTRY ON THE PLANET.

During this incredible longevity of occupancy we have developed a passion for our countryside, a bond and an affinity with the land that is uniquely British. This love affair has been expressed throughout history by an almost obsessive desire to draw attention to the landscape by affectionately adding what was considered, at the time, to be an improvement to Nature’s already superlative offering. Britain is covered in decorated summits, follies, woodland plantings, individual trees, artificial lakes and monuments, all carefully sited to improve the vista and all constructed as a statement of gratitude.