Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
(Figs 26-28). I have based my approach on the discussions offered by Oliver Rack-
ham, ecologist and landscape historian, and these are summarised below.
Ancient countryside
(Fig. 26) consists of many hamlets, small towns, ancient
farms and hedges (of mixed varieties of shrubs and trees), along with roads that are not
straight, numerous footpaths and many antiquities.
Planned countryside
(Fig. 27) has distinct villages, much larger than the hamlets,
along with larger eighteenth- and nineteenth-century farms, hedges of hawthorn and
straight roads. Footpaths are less common and the few antiquities that are present are
generally prehistoric.
I have re-examined the same areas used by Oliver Rackham as examples of these
two countryside types, and compared the early Ordnance Survey maps with maps of
the same area generated by me using the data and methods used in this topic (see
Chapter 1). The shading and 'hachured' patterning used in the earlier maps represents
the hills and slopes rather clearly - better than the contour representation used in the
present-day Ordnance Survey
Landranger
maps, although these show man-made fea-
tures much more clearly. My map representation is a compromise in that it represents
elevations and slopes using colours and hill-shading, but also allows the patterns of
roads and settlements to be seen.
Oliver Rackham's conclusion is that many of the distinctive features of planned
countryside were created by the general parliamentary enclosure of land during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This involved the wholesale conversion of com-
monly held land with open fields into enclosed fields awarded to individuals and in-
stitutions. Many landscape historians have claimed earlier origins for the difference
between ancient and planned countryside, believing that historical and cultural differ-
ences in the people who settled and developed the two areas played an important role.
Variations in the bedrock geology also seem to be important here. For example, the an-
cient countryside shown in Figure 26 is underlain by strongly deformed Variscan bed-
rock that has been eroded into small hills and valleys (see Chapter 4).
