ORCID
- Fyfe, Ralph: 0000-0002-5676-008X
Abstract
The upland moorlands of Britain are environmentally and culturally important ecosystems. Yet, our understanding of historical attempts to ‘reclaim’ these landscapes is often based upon incomplete accounts of agricultural ‘improvement’. Studies of historical landscape change have frequently focused on singular ‘revolutionary’ moments due to the limitation and biases of surviving historical sources, which has created a contemporary fixation on ‘reversing’ singular interventions. By combining palaeoecological data (pollen, coprophilous fungal spores and microcharcoal) from a recent study of five upland sites with newly rediscovered archival documents, this paper details the differences between how nineteenth-century actors described ecological interventions and some of their actual characteristics and consequences. Through interdisciplinary synthesis, we reveal how perceptions of ecological change were filtered and shaped by the sensibilities and motivations of ‘improvers’. This enables us to position ‘reclamation’ within a sequence of long-term management practices that shaped these complex ecosystems.
DOI
10.1080/01426397.2023.2244904
Publication Date
2023-07-27
Publication Title
Landscape Research
ISSN
0142-6397
Embargo Period
2023-09-27
Organisational Unit
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Recommended Citation
Baker, L., Rowney, F., French, H., & Fyfe, R. (2023) 'Revolution and Continuity? Reassessing Nineteenth-Century Moorland Reclamation Through Palaeoecological and Archival Research', Landscape Research, . Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2023.2244904
