Yorkshire Forgotten Fens is a history of the cultural landscape of the wetlands of the Humber basin and the entire county of Yorkshire stretching from the Humber and north Lincolnshire through the Vale of York, through South Yorkshire and Holderness, to Pickering and beyond. The book draws together the story of a changing landscape, the lost cultures and ways of life, and the wildlife that has gone too.With the final chapter closing on the new wet fenland landscapes which are now emerging and presenting current visions and challenges for these truly evocative of landscapes, this is a book based on our past but with a vision for the future. The book is profusely illustrated with maps, photographs, paintings, and extracts from historic documents.

The loss of the great fenlands of eastern England is the greatest single removal of ecology in our history. So thorough was the process that most visitors to the regions, or even people living there, have little idea of what has gone. For many, the Fenlands are the vast expansive flatlands of intensive farming, the ‘breadbaskets’ of Britain. Lost are the vast flocks of wetland birds that filled the evening skies in winter, the frozen wetlands and the fen skaters of the winter, and the abundant black terns or breeding wading birds of the summer months. However, pause a while off main roads and consider place names and road names: Fenny Lane, The Withies, Commonside, Reed Holme, Fen Common, Turbary Lane, Wildmore, Adventurers’ Fen, Wicken Fen, and more; they tell a story of a landscape now gone but once hugely important.The Fens bred revolution and civil war and paid the penalty. They nurtured religious non-conformism with global impact. After 1066, the Saxons withheld the Normans’ onslaught, and in the 1970s, unting’s Beavers took action against twentieth-century invaders. The fenscapes, neither water nor land but something in-between, breed independence and, if necessary, dissention. This story is of politically and economically driven ecological catastrophe and loss. So much has gone, but we do not even know fully what was there before. With global environmental change, and especially climate change, fenlands once again have major roles in our sustainable futures.

Beautiful full-colour images capture old York in all its glory.

Once there was a Roman settlement on what is now Filey Brig. In Holderness, a prosperous town called Ravenser saw kings and princes on its soil, and its progress threatened the good people of Grimsby. But the Romans and the Ravenser folk are long gone, as are their streets and buildings sunk beneath the hungry waves of what was once the German Ocean.Lost to the Sea: The Yorkshire Coast & Holderness tells the story of the small towns and villages that were swallowed up by the North Sea. Old maps show an alarming number of such places that no longer exist. Over the centuries, since prehistoric times, people who settled along this stretch have faced the constant and unstoppable hunger of the waves, as the Yorkshire coastline has gradually been eaten away. County directories of a century ago lament the loss of communities once included in their listings; cliffs once seeming so strong have steadily crumbled into the water. In the midst of this, people have tried to live and prosper through work and play, always aware that their great enemy, the relentless sea, is facing them. As the East Coast has lost land, the mud flats around parts of Spurn, at the mouth of the Humber, have grown. Stephen Wades book tells the history of that vast land of Holderness as well, which the poet Philip Larkin called the end of land.

This book provides an introduction to peatlands for the non-specialist student reader and for all those concerned about environmental protection, and is an essential guide to peatland history and heritage for scientists and enthusiasts. Peat is formed when vegetation partially decays in a waterlogged environment and occurs extensively throughout both temperate and tropical regions. Interest in peatlands is currently high due to the degradation of global peatlands which is disrupting hydrology and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. This book opens by explaining how peat is formed, its properties and worldwide distribution, and defines related terms such as mires, wetlands, bogs and marshes. There is discussion of the ecology and wildlife of peatlands as well as their ability to preserve pollen and organic remains as environmental archives. It also addresses the history, heritage and cultural exploitation of peat, extending back to pre-Roman times, and the degradation of peatlands over the centuries, particularly as a source of fuel but more recently for commercial horticulture. Other chapters discuss the ecosystem services delivered by peatlands, and how their destruction is contributing to biodiversity loss, flooding or drought, and climate change. Finally, the many current peatland restoration projects around the world are highlighted. Overall the book provides a wide-ranging but concise overview of peatlands from both a natural and social science perspective, and will be invaluable for students of ecology, geography, environmental studies and history.

"The themes of this book were addressed at a major international conference in 2013, and the expanded papers are presented here as chapters with an introduction by Ian D. Rotherham. The papers are grouped around several themes: Military Landscapes; Battles and Battlefields; The Impacts of Conflict and War; War & Peat in the Peak District; and Non-military Campaigns. As we approach the centenary of the Great War (WW1), matters of landscape, terrain, resources and strategies become increasingly topical and relevant. The relationships of people and landscapes, of economies and conflicts, and ecology and history, are complex and multi-faceted. For peatlands, including bogs, fens, moors, and heaths, the interactions of people and nature in relation to history and conflicts, are both significant and surprising."--

"The themes of this book were addressed at a major international conference in 2013, and the expanded papers are presented here as chapters with an introduction by Ian D. Rotherham. The papers are grouped around several themes: Military Landscapes; Battles and Battlefields; The Impacts of Conflict and War; War & Peat in the Peak District; and Non-military Campaigns. As we approach the centenary of the Great War (WW1), matters of landscape, terrain, resources and strategies become increasingly topical and relevant. The relationships of people and landscapes, of economies and conflicts, and ecology and history, are complex and multi-faceted. For peatlands, including bogs, fens, moors, and heaths, the interactions of people and nature in relation to history and conflicts, are both significant and surprising."--

One of the oldest settlements in Western Europe, York grew up on dry land with protective rivers and associated wetlands giving security and mobility. Early, prehistoric settlement was on nearby drier, raised areas along the flood plain. Here the Romans built a great, northern, fortified city and military settlement from which they could foray overland into northern England or by ship and the coastal route to Scotland and the Picts. Yorks significance was emphasized when Constantine was made Emperor whilst residing there.Lean times followed after Roman abandonment and Saxon neglect before the Vikings swept into northern England, with Jorvic, reborn as their capital, York, much to their liking. Once subsumed into Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, York continued its huge strategic and military significance through late Saxon times, during the Norman Conquest, and into medieval England. Indeed, two of the most far-reaching battles in English history were fought at nearby Fulford and Stamford Bridge. Yorks military significance grew again during the Wars of the Roses, with the Battle of Towton in 1461 described as the most barbaric ever fought on British soil.Following oscillating and vicious disputes over religion during the reigns of the later Tudors, divisive and punitive civil war played out again under the Stuart kings and Parliamentary Commonwealth. Through all this, York was a major strategic location in northern England; an important base for those commanding it, a significant prize for those who did not. This military importance declined into modern times but the city retains garrison and regimental ties. The last direct conflict occurred when York was targeted for retaliatory Baedeker raids by German bombers during April 1942. Yorks remarkable history and longevity, and its significance in English and sometimes international politics and economics, have left a unique, unparalleled military history.

The landscape and people are the two most distinctive qualities of the Yorkshire Dales, and this book employs new sources and methods to help the reader see both in a different light. In earlier centuries, religious and social factors influenced the first names that were given to children. Distinctive surnames were inherited, and their expansion or decline can throw light on local communities, on migration and population growth. Place-names emerged from regional and customary practices that illuminate topography, husbandry, mining, communications and much more. Thebook also uses material from Quarter Sessions, title deeds, wills and other documents to investigate a wide range of topics that touch on the lives of individuals and families, from religious dissent to sheep-stealing and vagrancy. There is emphasis too on the poor, showing the impact on families and communities of bastardy, fire, flood, violence and other disasters. A book written for anyone interested in the local and family history of the Yorkshire Dales.

We show here how, through the efforts of a range of governmental and non-governmental organisations, habitats and species are now being managed to preserve our biodiversity for the future. In this period of rapid environmental change and ever increasing human impact, the success of such conservation initiatives has never been more vital. Over the past half-century there have been many changes in the Yorkshire countryside. Deciduous woodlands have been felled and replaced by conifer plantations; wetlands and ponds have been drained; grasslands have been reseeded, and arable fields have been intensively farmed. Our river systems and coastline have also been subjected to increasing pressure and pollution. All these changes have had dramatic effects on YorkshireÕs semi-natural habitats and their associated wildlife. Added to these effects, our climate is altering more rapidly than at any time in the last 10,000 years, leading to further challenges for plants and animals.