Areas Of Eastern England Research Articles

Why Was Infant Mortality So High in Eastern England in the Mid Nineteenth Century?

This paper re-examines the high rates of infant mortality observed in rural areas of eastern England in the early years of civil registration. Infant mortality rates in some rural registration districts in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk were higher than those in the mill towns of Lancashire. After describing the areas affected, this paper considers three potential explanations: environmental factors, poor-quality child care associated with the employment of women in agriculture, and the possibility that the high rates were the artefactual consequence of migrant women workers bringing their children to these areas. These explanations are then assessed using a range of evidence. In the absence of reliable cause of death data, recourse is had to three alternative approaches. The first involves the use of the exceptionally detailed tabulations of ages at death within the first year of life provided in the Registrar General's Annual Reports for the 1840s to assess whether the 'excess' infant deaths in rural areas of eastern England happened in the immediate post-natal period or later in the first year of life. Second, data on the seasonality of mortality in the 1840s are examined to see whether the zone of 'excess' infant mortality manifested a distinctive seasonal pattern. Finally, a regression approach is employed involving the addition of covariates to regression models. The conclusion is that no single factor was responsible for the 'excess' infant mortality, but a plausible account can be constructed which blends elements of all three of the potential explanations mentioned above with the specific historical context of these areas of eastern England.

Improvements in survival of gynaecological cancer in the Anglia region of England: are these an effect of centralisation of care and use of multidisciplinary management?

Our hypothesis is that the adoption of Department of Health (DH) guidance has led to an improvement in outcome in gynaecological cancer survival. In 1999 the DH in England introduced the Improving Outcomes in Gynaecological Cancer guidance, advising case management by multidisciplinary teams with surgical concentration in specialist hospitals. This guidance was rapidly adopted in the East of England, with a population of 2.5 million. The population of the Anglia Cancer Network was approximately 2.3 million. From 1996 to 2003, details of 3406 cases of gynaecological cancer were identified in the Anglia region of England. Survival analysis was performed by Cox proportional hazards regression, relative to cases diagnosed in 1996. Primary endpoint was survival. The survival rates for cases diagnosed between 1996 and 1999 were broadly the same across the time period, with a marked improvement taking place in 2000, and continuing to 2003 (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.64-0.79, comparing 2000-03 with 1996-99 diagnoses), for all gynaecological sites combined. Adjustment for treatments or method of case follow-up did not attenuate these improvements. There was a concurrent change towards major surgery being performed in specialist centres from 2000. The adoption of the 1999 guidance on gynaecological cancer, which included multidisciplinary case management and centralisation of surgery, resulted in a marked step-change improvement in survival of gynaecological cancer in an area of eastern England in 2000.

Modelling the Effects of Dispersal and Landscape Configuration on Population Distribution and Viability in Fragmented Habitat

Landscape configuration and dispersal characteristics are major determinants of population distribution and persistence in fragmented habitat. An individual-based spatially explicit population model was developed to investigate these factors using the distribution of nuthatches in an area of eastern England as an example. The effects of immigration and increasing the area of breeding quality habitat were explored. Predictions were compared with observed population sizes in the study area. Our model combined a nuthatch population simulator based on individual behaviour with a grid-based representation of the landscape; nuthatch life cycle and immigration parameters were user selectable. A novel aspect of the model is user-selection of habitat perceptual range. Using a realistic set of parameters, the number of breeding pairs predicted by the model matched observed numbers. According to model simulations, the main cause of nuthatch scarcity in the study area was the inability of patches to support viable populations without immigration from elsewhere. Modelled habitat management, which increased breeding quality habitat in existing woods, lowered the threshold above which the study area population became self-sustaining. The existence of a large core habitat area was critical in producing a self-sustaining population in this landscape, the same area in dispersed small woods failed to sustain populations.

The influences of habitat, landscape structure and climate on local distribution patterns of the nuthatch (Sitta europaea L.).

The nuthatch, Sitta europaea L., is a small (23 g), cavity-nesting woodland bird which, since the 1970s, has been expanding its range in Britain. However, within this range, the species is notably scarce in an area of eastern England. This gap in the species distribution could arise for several reasons including habitat quality, local landscape structure, regional landscape structure and climate. Field surveys and logistic models of breeding nuthatch presence/absence were used to investigate the relative influences of habitat quality, landscape structure and climate on the prevalence of nuthatches in eastern England. Field surveys of woods in the study area indicated that habitat quality was sufficient to support a nuthatch population. A model of habitat occupancy in relation to local landscape structure, developed in the Netherlands, was applied to the study area. The number of breeding pairs predicted for the study area by the model was lower than expected from habitat area alone, suggesting an additional effect of isolation. However, observed numbers were even lower than those predicted by the model. To evaluate the possible roles of climate and large-scale landscape structure on distribution, presence/absence data of breeding nuthatches at the 10-km grid square scale were related to variables describing climate and the amount and dispersion of broadleaved woodland. While climate in the study area appeared suitable, models including landscape variables suggested that the study area as a whole was unlikely to support nuthatches. Although suitable habitat was available, woodland in the study area appeared to be too isolated from surrounding nuthatch populations for colonisation to be successful. This situation may change if current increases in both national and regional populations continue, thus increasing the number of potential colonists reaching the study area.

The ‘Scole-Dickleburgh field system’ examined

ABSTRACT In some areas of eastern England, ‘semi-regular grid systems’ of field boundaries have been claimed as Roman or earlier. This paper examines in detail an example in south Norfolk, and questions the hypothesis that the Venta to Londinium Roman road is an intrusion into a co-axial pattern of fields and lanes. It is suggested instead that the earliest routes followed the local topography, and that they and other features such as the edges of greens and commons were only in occasional and coincidental conformity with the postulated early Roman or pre-Roman grid system, nor are non-conforming road-lines clearly explicable as diversions around subsequent medieval settlements. Parish boundaries do not relate consistently to any single dominant landscape pattern. Encroachments on the commons show late creation of several new field boundaries, with many others resulting from enclosure of medieval open fields. Consequently it is suggested that most of the field shapes shown on early nineteenth-century maps were post-medieval, not relics of a pre-medieval farmscape.

Nitrogen cycling on the livestock farm

The environmental or polluting aspects of nitrogen in relation to livestock farms are gaseous losses to the atmosphere, nitrate leaching into water supplies and the eutrophication of surface waters. Gaseous losses of ammonia by volatilisation from organic materials and denitrification losses from soil as nitrogen and nitrous oxide have been at various times implicated in acid rain, photochemical smogs and effects on the ozone layer although the latter is now largely discounted. Nitrate leached from soil may pass rapidly into surface waters where it can affect quality for drinking or encourage algal blooms. Over porous strata nitrate may take many years to percolate downwards so as to pollute groundwater supplies. Restrictions may face livestock farmers in the arable areas of eastern England to restrict nitrate leaching from their land.

Rapid Digital Mapping of Coastal Areas from LANDSAT

AbstractThe value of repeated imagery from satellite platforms can only be realised if coupled to rapid mapping systems. Techniques for producing rapid, user oriented maps from LANDSAT data are discussed, and examples derived from the mapping of the coastal and off-shore areas of eastern England.

Notes on the Biology of Carrot Fly in Eastern England

SUMMARYObservations on the biology of carrot fly (Psila rosae (F.)) were made in the important carrot‐growing areas of eastern England in the period 1948–72.Adults of the spring generation usually emerged in May and peak numbers were usually swept during the third and fourth weeks of May. Eggs were found from the end of May and larval damage was evident from late June. Calculations of accumulated day‐degrees of air temperature above 42°F (5.6°C) showed that peak emergence could generally be associated with a total of 422 day‐degrees commencing on 1 April. Both separate and combined totals of accumulated day‐degrees for February and March were markedly different in years of early and late fly emergence. Adults of the second generation appeared from late July onwards and oviposition occurred mainly during August and September, although in some years eggs were found much later. Resulting larval damage was present by October and increased in severity until the crop was harvested.

Air Reconnaissance in Britain, 1958–1960

During the last three years systematic application of air reconnaissance to Romano-British studies has continued: this paper provides a summary of the discoveries, bringing up to date accounts of earlier surveys already published in this Journal. The period included the remarkably dry summer of 1959, when a prolonged drought, comparable in recent years only with that of 1949, caused extreme parching of vegetation throughout July, particularly in the main river valleys of the Midlands, in the Welsh Marches and over wide areas of eastern England. This favoured archaeological air reconnaissance. Though 1960 was an exceptionally wet season, the broken weather beginning in July was in fact preceded by a dry spell in June, at least in central England, when for a few weeks the ‘crop-marks’ were very clear indeed.