A stunning visual record of England's most spectacular and scenic country estates that were broken up for sale and lost for ever. A sweeping country estate, with grand house and spectacular gardens and park, would not be the first impression of a visitor to modern suburban Watford. But well into the twentieth century that was exactly what was there – the magnificence of the Cassiobury estate, of which only a modest municipal park survives. Underneath the expanse of Rutland Water lies the once splendid Normanton estate, while Deepdene in Surrey is now memorialised only by an ugly office block. Fortunately, at least photographs live on to remind us of how the landscape looked before death duties, mining subsidence and sometimes the plain impecuniousness of the black sheep in the family took their toll and forced the break-up of all too many historic landed estates. In this elegiac book, a successor to Aurum’s Lost Victorian Britain, John Robinson surveys 20 of the most egregious losses, from Costessy in East Anglia to Lathom in Lancashire, and shows how the deer park, the home farm, the parterre and the cottage garden gave way to the power station, the motorway and the caravan park.

A pictorial history of Watford’s greatest park, from estate to public space.

The latest findings about the environmental, social, and economic impact of sustainable forestry Forestry is one of the most important foundations of the Scandinavian economies. Sustainable Forestry in Southern Sweden: The SUFOR Research Project closely reviews the findings from the eight-year research program first launched in 1997 that searched for ways to maintain sustainable forestry in the region. Respected scholars and experts discuss ways to bridge the chasm separating the world of research with the world of trade and industry. Biodiversity, the impact of humans, environmental conditions, and other facets of sustainability are all presented and discussed in detail. Sustainable Forestry in Southern Sweden begins with an overview of Swedish forestry and the sustainability debate in Sweden. The full range of human impact is examined in detail with an eye on biodiversity issues. Other research includes the effect of deer browsing on forest development, the importance of root distribution, nutrient sustainability, fresh strategies for long-term forest sustainability, active risk management, and important policy issues. The book is extensively referenced and includes several tables to ensure clarity of data. Sustainable Forestry in Southern Sweden discusses in detail: the background of the SUFOR program the impact of lower fire-frequency on forest biodiversity transforming research results into useful knowledge for forest practitioners balancing costs and benefits related to deer and moose population density effects of adverse environmental conditions on sensitive trees nutrient availability in plant productivity applicability of mixed stands in sustainable forestry weathering rates of forest soils analysis of sustainability conditions from environmental, social, and economic standpoints multi-objective forest landscape projection models risk management in sustainable forestry moving from policy to implementation of sustainability and biodiversity policy implications resulting from the SUFOR program Sustainable Forestry in Southern Sweden is enlightening, informative reading for scholars, students, and practitioners in land management issues.

In this book, Richard Hayman traces the different values and virtues people have seen in trees and forests over the course of history, reflecting the changing use of woodland and the effects of deforestation and urbanization. Tacitus, followed by Romantics and historians of liberty, located freedom in the German forests. Medieval forests were both protected hunting parks and the refuge of Robin Hood. Shakespeare contrasted the simplicity of life in the Forest of Arden with the artificial manners of the court. Since the 18th century, poets such as Wordsworth, Clare, and Hardy have drawn inspiration from trees. How we see trees today will dictate how trees are treated in the future.

Lively and accessible account of the relationship between man and nature in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Describes the ways in which the Greeks and Romans intervened in the environment and thus traces the history of tension between the exploitation of resources and the protection of nature.

Fiona Stafford offers intimate, detailed explorations of seventeen common trees, from ash and apple to pine, oak, cypress, and willow. Stafford discusses practical uses of wood past and present, tree diseases and environmental threats, and trees' potential contributions toward slowing global climate change

Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.

The ideas and practices that comprise “conservation” are often assumed to have arisen within the last two centuries. However, while conservation today has been undeniably entwined with processes of modernity, its historical roots run much deeper. Considering a variety of preindustrial European settings, this book assembles case studies from the medieval and early modern eras to demonstrate that practices like those advocated by modern conservationists were far more widespread and intentional than is widely acknowledged. As the first book-length treatment of the subject, Conservation’s Roots provides broad social, historical, and environmental context for the emergence of the nineteenth-century conservation movement.

A highly illustrated, fascinating description of the lost country houses of North and East Yorkshire