Land In England Research Articles

Common Land in Britain: A History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day

Common Land in Britain: A History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day

Land Reform, Henry Rider Haggard, and the Politics of Imperial Settlement, 1900–1920

AbstractThis article considers the links between land reform and emigration through the figure of Henry Rider Haggard and argues that these two issues were deeply intertwined within British politics. Land reform in Britain is often considered as a domestic issue, but imperial campaigners often presented this in terms of the British empire. Haggard campaigned for twenty years for a greater living link to the land in Britain and the empire and believed that this link had profound effects upon English patriotism, character, and health. The imperial frontier had a spirit that improved English character, an idea that Haggard developed in the 1870s and is evident in much of his fiction. Imperial emigration was presented as a patriotic act that aided imperial defence in Australia from Chinese expansion and in South Africa from indigenous opposition. Population was the only way to bolster and defend the empire. Considering his books, speeches, newspaper reviews, and his work for the Royal Colonial Institute, this article argues that British politics and the land between 1900 and 1920 should be considered in an imperial frame. Existing work has neglected the imperial aspect of land reform, and how it was presented by emigration societies, which many imperialists considered an obvious way of dealing with unemployment and increasing urbanization whilst bolstering Greater Britain.

Abrupt changes in Great Britain vegetation carbon projected under climate change

Past abrupt 'regime shifts' have been observed in a range of ecosystems due to various forcing factors. Large-scale abrupt shifts are projected for some terrestrial ecosystems under climate change, particularly in tropical and high-latitude regions. However, there is very little high-resolution modelling of smaller-scale future projected abrupt shifts in ecosystems, and relatively less focus on the potential for abrupt shifts in temperate terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we show that numerous climate-driven abrupt shifts in vegetation carbon are projected in a high-resolution model of Great Britain's land surface driven by two different climate change scenarios. In each scenario, the effects of climate and CO2 combined are isolated from the effects of climate change alone. We use a new algorithm to detect and classify abrupt shifts in model time series, assessing the sign and strength of the non-linear responses. The abrupt ecosystem changes projected are non-linear responses to climate change, not simply driven by abrupt shifts in climate. Depending on the scenario, 374-1,144 grid cells of 1.5km×1.5km each, comprising 0.5%-1.5% of Great Britain's land area show abrupt shifts in vegetation carbon. We find that abrupt ecosystem shifts associated with increases (rather than decreases) in vegetation carbon, show the greatest potential for early warning signals (rising autocorrelation and variance beforehand). In one scenario, 89% of abrupt increases in vegetation carbon show increasing autocorrelation and variance beforehand. Across the scenarios, 81% of abrupt increases in vegetation carbon have increasing autocorrelation and 74% increasing variance beforehand, whereas for decreases in vegetation carbon these figures are 56% and 47% respectively. Our results should not be taken as specific spatial or temporal predictions of abrupt ecosystem change. However, they serve to illustrate that numerous abrupt shifts in temperate terrestrial ecosystems could occur in a changing climate, with some early warning signals detectable beforehand.

Dangerous Liaisons. New light on the reasons for the expulsion of the violinist G.B. Viotti from Britain in 1798

In March 1798 the violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti was expelled from Britain, suspected of being a Jacobin sympathizer. He was allowed to return to England in the summer of 1799 under circumstances that have remained vague to this day. In 1811 he was granted British denizenship, but only after petitioning the Crown. To understand the British Government’s determined stance against Viotti it is necessary to examine his life in Paris in the period 1789–92 – his friendship with the Jacobin journalist-diplomat Hugues Bernard Maret, his entrepreneurial activities, and his attempted takeover of the Paris Opera. These activities were remembered by two eccentric characters of the age, both spies for the British government. The first was an unscrupulous French ultraroyalist, the Comte d’Antraigues. The second was the dogmatic and at times irrational Englishman W.A. Miles, who was especially suspicious of Viotti’s pupil Pierre Rode, who made an unexpected landing in Britain in early 1798. In this article I re-examine the question of Viotti’s expulsion from Britain in light of new evidence against the violinist, some of it apparently damning, and attempt to determine once and for all whether the order was justified.

A reply to panagos et al., 2016 (Environmental science & policy 59 (2016) 53–57

We respond to the article by Panagos et al. in Environmental Science & Policy 2016, 59, 53–57. We first outline the history of assessing water erosion of cultivated land in Britain, to place in context why a model approach has not been considered the best way to assess erosion in Britain. Since 1982 a field- based approach has been consistently chosen. We then consider three particular points of contention between ourselves and Panagos et al.—1) the importance of wash erosion, 2) the cost of carrying out a field-based assessment of erosion, and 3) that the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation should be the harmonized method to assess soil loss. Last, we respond to individual points made by Panagos et al. before drawing some conclusions. One conclusion is that a more harmonious way of assessing erosion was put forward in 2004 by Gobin et al. combining both field-based and model assessments, but unfortunately that route was not taken by researchers at the Joint Research Centre.

Extent, frequency and rate of water erosion of arable land in Britain – benefits and challenges for modelling

AbstractSoil erosion on arable land in lowland Britain has been the subject of field‐based surveys, which have assessed the volumes or masses of soil transported in channels across farmers’ fields. These surveys provide a unique database on the extent, frequency and rates of soil loss by water. This study synthesizes the key findings from those surveys and underscores the implications for soil erosion modelling. Rill erosion occurs in a small number of fields (consistently <10%). Over ~5 yr, a considerable proportion of the farmed landscape will suffer from rill erosion, but mostly in fields that erode only once. Mean erosion rates for lowland arable landscapes are much less than mean erosion rates for individual eroded fields within that landscape. These observations pose important challenges for modelling. Rainfall and cropping vary from year to year so that risk of wash or rill erosion in the same field also varies. Due to the infrequent occurrence of rill erosion, loss rates of eroding fields cannot be spatially extrapolated across the landscape, except in the case of wash erosion which takes place a number of times in almost all fields every year. A consistent pattern of increasing wash erosion, in terms of spatial extent, is emerging in lowland Britain. Resulting losses of fine silt and clay‐sized particles are small in amount and possibly insignificant in terms of loss of soil as a resource, but have significant implications for contaminant concentrations and pollution of water courses.

Exclusion and Desecration: Aphra Behn, Liberalism, and the Politics of the Pindaric Ode

Sometime after William of Orange’s landing in Britain, the Tory writer Aphra Behn seems to have been solicited by Gilbert Burnet—counselor and propagandist for William and Mary—to write a coronation ode on behalf of the new sovereign. In response, Behn crafted an ode of refusal, addressed not to the king or to the public but directly to Burnet himself. In this poem, “A Pindaric Poem to the Reverend Dr. Burnet” (1689), Behn strikes a tone quite different from that found in her earlier political verse: the characteristic amplification and hyperbole of the conventional panegyric is replaced with sarcasm and understated wit. Her refusal is consistent with her steadfast support for the House of Stuart and with her hostility to parliamentary and popular power. But in its emphasis on private political feeling, it is also surprisingly consistent with certain tenets of liberal thought. Rather than speaking in the odd mixture of the vatic and the abject called for by ceremonial verse, it bases its claims on an elegiac voice of dissidence, a right of refusal, and a rhetoric of isolation and individual exceptionality that is closely aligned with our understanding of liberalism as a practice based on the sacred natural rights of the individual, and with acts of conscience. The poem is thus not only an expression of a conscience-driven refusal of the revolution’s outcome: it is, more precisely, an assertion of a sacred individual right to that dissent, as well as an affective and elegiac embrace of the virtual exile and loneliness that results. The sacral qualities of divine-right kingship are in this poem transferred to the individual conscience. Though Aphra Behn was a devoted supporter of the Stuart monarchy, seeing her merely as a Tory writer obstructs us from seeing other implications of her thinking, particularly the way her proto-Jacobitism is genealogically linked to liberalism. In this essay, I call attention to a less-visible facet of her politics by reading her ode to Burnet not simply as a refusal of political modernity but also, more specifically, as a desecration of

Potential welfare impacts of kill-trapping European moles(Talpa europaea)using scissor traps and Duffus traps: a post mortem examination study

AbstractMoles are widely trapped as pests on farms and amenity land in Britain. Spring traps for killing mammals generally require welfare approval in the UK, but mole traps are exempt. Previous research demonstrated wide variation in the mechanical performance of mole traps. In this context, we aimed to produce new data on the welfare impact of kill-trapping moles in the field. We collected 50 moles trapped in southern England (November 2008-August 2009). Captures peaked during the peak in male breeding activity, when captures were almost exclusively male. Post mortem and x-ray (radiation) examinations were conducted to determine injuries and likely cause of death. No moles sustained damaged skulls or upper cervical vertebrae (which could cause unconsciousness immediately). The primary identifiable cause of death for all but one mole was acute haemorrhage; this contrasts with the findings of the only previous such study, in which only one mole showed clear evidence of haemorrhaging. Some moles may have asphyxiated although it was not possible to determine this. Moles most likely became unconscious before death, but times to unconsciousness, and death, can be determined only through killing trials and further investigation is urgently needed. This should be done through the spring traps approval process; this could improve the welfare standards of trapping for many thousands of moles each year. Mole trapping for long-term population control might be better targeted after the peak in male breeding activity, when females are more likely to be caught, but this would threaten the welfare of dependent young underground.

The Ants of Nantucket: Unexpectedly High Biodiversity in an Anthropogenic Landscape

This first comprehensive assessment of the ant fauna of Nantucket Island, MA revealed that 43% of New England ant species and 70% of New England ant genera occur on an island occupying only 0.07% of New England's land area. Ants collected by four different research groups between 2000 and 2009 included 32, 158 individual ants (2911 incidences) from 384 spatially and temporally distinct samples representing 14 different vegetation community types. The majority of the ant species were collected from anthropogenically derived and maintained sandplain grasslands, sandplain heathlands, and Scrub Oak shrublands. These three communities are state-ranked S1 community types; the lower state-ranked communities of beaches and sand dunes, bogs, salt marshes, and forest fragments had distinct ant assemblages with much lower species richness. The large number of samples described here, from a wide range of vegetation community types, expands the known list of Nantucket ant species more than three-fold and provides a baseline for future assessment of the effects of ongoing, long-term ecosystem management on Nantucket.

Survey of the bryophytes of arable land in Britain and Ireland 1: a classification of arable field assemblages

Knowledge of the distribution of arable bryophytes lags behind that of bryophytes of many other habitats, and we have almost no information on their occurrence in relation to crop type and agricultural management regime. A survey of arable fields in Britain and Ireland carried out by members of the British Bryological Society in 2001–05 was designed to provide such baseline data. We surveyed a stratified random sample of 200 fields in the main areas of arable agriculture and a further 620 fields in these areas and in areas where arable fields are less frequent. The species present in each field were listed and their frequency within the field assessed. Data on the crop, the cover of vascular plants, bryophytes, trash and bare soil, and the pH and texture of the soil were recorded for each field. Six species assemblages are described on the basis of a classification of the species recorded in each field and their frequency values. The Tortula truncata–Anthoceros and Dicranella staphylina–Riccia glauca assemblages are the most species-rich and are concentrated on acidic soils in northern and western Britain and in Ireland. By contrast, the Barbula unguiculata–Bryum klinggraeffii and Phascum cuspidatum–Microbryum davallianum assemblages are mainly found on calcareous soils in southern and eastern England. The Bryum dichotomum–Marchantia polymorpha assemblage is characterised by widespread, weedy generalist species and is concentrated in East Anglia. The final assemblage, Brachythecium rutabulum–Fissidens taxifolius, characteristically occurs in late-successional fields and was scattered throughout the area sampled. A comparison of the results from Kent with those of a survey of Kentish fields (using a different methodology) by A.G. Side in 1973–74 suggests that the Bryum dichotomum–Marchantia polymorpha assemblage may possibly have replaced the Dicranella staphylina–Riccia glauca assemblage on acidic soils in the last 30 years. The considerable geographical variation within the arable flora of Britain and Ireland revealed by the survey should be taken into account when assessing the meagre evidence for historic changes in the arable bryophyte flora.

Understanding the Helmand campaign: British military operations in Afghanistan

British forces are now engaged in a major operation in southern Afghanistan, the outcome of which is likely to be strategically decisive—especially for the configuration and status of Britain's land forces. Although progress seems to have been made, there has been much criticism of the campaign. Through an analysis of the three-year Helmand mission (Operation Herrick), this article explores whether, for all the improvements in the campaign in terms of resources and numbers of troops, the basic structure of the campaign established in 2006 has endured. Instead of focusing on an ‘ink-spot’ from which to expand, British forces have tended to operate from dispersed forward operating bases from which they have insufficient combat power to dominate terrain and secure the population. They are consequently engaged in a seemingly endless round of high-intensity tactical battles which are normally successful in themselves but do not contribute to the overarching security of the province. The analysis explores the way in which this distinctive campaign lay-down—the preference for dispersal and high-intensity fighting—may be a reflection of British military culture and its military doctrine. By highlighting potential unacknowledged aspects of the British military profession, the article aims to contribute to debates about the development of the armed forces.

ANDREW G. NEWBY. Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, c. 1870-1912. (Scottish Historical Review Monographs, number 15.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2007. Pp. vii, 224. $75.00

As the existence of a well-attended conference held at the University of Hertfordshire in 2005 suggests, the topic of the possession, distribution, and cultural meaning of land in Britain has taken on new life recently. Historians of land reform movements in Wales, Scotland, England, and Ireland have begun to envision their topics as interrelated, part of an impulse toward broader landownership and a natural right to the soil that did not discriminate on the basis of heritage or language. Andrew G. Newby firmly situates his study within this school, describing land reform in the Scottish Highlands in the late nineteenth century not as an enthusiasm of deprived rural people, but as just one part of a multifaceted, sophisticated, and international radical movement. Newby's book has two main goals. His first—at which he completely succeeds—is to evaluate the extent of Irish involvement in the agitation to reform landholding in Scotland between the 1870s and the early decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on newspapers and personal correspondence, he traces the interpenetration of the staff of the Irish nationalist movement into the Scottish highlands, and their involvement with Glasgow reformers.

Fictions of the Dismal Theorem

Any thoroughgoing assessment of the current mobilization on the Left must take note, among other features, of what Fredric Jameson has recently characterized as the “political revitalization of the theme of enclosure and the commons since globalization.” Indeed, we may well claim that this resurgence dates precisely from the inception of the current round of militarized neoliberalism in the Persian Gulf War of 1990–91, for it was in the immediate run-up to this conflict that the Midnight Notes Collective first published its text on what it termed “the new enclosures.” Enclosure would come to be understood, not as a unique historical episode (theft “on a colossal scale,” as Marx wrote, through which the great landlords and capitalist farmers of the modern era had emerged, while laborers were forced off the land and thereby “‘set free’ . . . as proletarians for manufacturing industry”), but as an analytic tool with which to comprehend the ongoing dynamic of capitalism, “a regular return on the path of accumulation and a structural component of class struggle.” Under the heading of the “new enclosures,” the Midnight Notes Collective has described the last quarter century as a period of perhaps the greatest division of the commons in world history, with an accompanying “proletarianization” on an almost unimaginable scale. This theme has been closely echoed in the writings of Retort, where it is directly related to the logic of primitive accumulation, and has been popularized by activists like Naomi Klein. However, despite the efforts of groups like Midnight Notes and Retort, for the vast majority of intellectuals the connotations of “the commons” are those outlined in the famous 1968 essay of Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons.” From an essentially Malthusian perspective, Hardin argued that freedom must necessarily be curtailed if human population growth was not to dwarf the ecological carrying capacities of our planet. He drew deeply on a little-known tract published in England in 1833 by William Forster Lloyd, a disciple of Malthus and an apologist for the Parliamentary enclosures that were at the time eradicating much of the remaining common land in Britain and Scotland. In it Lloyd had posed a number of polemical questions: “Why are the cattle on a common so puny and stunted? Why is the common itself so bare-worn, and cropped so different ly from the adjoining enclosures?” His answer was simple: because an individual owned his animals, the gain of adding to the herd accrued to him alone, while the loss incurred by overloading the common is distributed among all Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

Liberating the Land

Despite the growing belief in the efficacy of market forces, the ownership and use of land in Britain are now '. . . subject to a greater array of statutory controls than at any time since the introduction of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act'. 'Market failure' arguments are used in support of land use planning. However, in this radical attack on the present regime, Mark Pennington shows that such arguments are misguided. Planners, even if altruistic, could not gather and interpret the information which would be necessary to run an efficient land use planning system. In practice, planners have their own interests and are subject to pressure from special interest groups which benefit from the present regime. Fundamental change is required, according to Pennington. The system is over-centralised, there is too little experimentation, information is lacking and incentive structures are inappropriate. The costs of enforcing property rights could be reduced by entrepreneurial action in a market. Private covenants, deed restrictions and the establishment of proprietary communities are the way forward.

Napoleon in Egypt

Napoleon in Egypt. Edited by Irene A. Bierman. With an introduction by Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2003. In association with Gustav E. von Grunembaum Center for Near Eastern Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, 2003. Pp. v, 189. $49.50/£29.95. This collection of ten essays considers significance of General Napoleon Bonaparte's expedition to and occupation of Egypt. Napoleon arrived in Egypt in 1798 after evading British fleet commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson. He defeated Ottoman and Mamluk forces and established, with varying degrees of success, a new political and economic administration. Napoleon also campaigned in Levant before returning to Egypt. In 1799, he left for France to pursue political ambitions and stranded his dwindling army, by then ravaged by war and disease. Residual French forces capitulated to British and Ottoman forces in 1801. The contributors to this book agree French ephemeral had important, if not profound, implications for Egypt and Middle East. Nelly Hanna views expedition as part of a long-term process in changing relationship Egypt and Europe. Egypt was a transit entrepot for coffee trade Hijaz and Europe. By French arrived, however, coffee trade had collapsed due to Antiguan competition. Furthermore, native textiles faced burgeoning British and European cheap imports. Geoffrey Symcox agrees with Edward Said that expedition acted as the formative moment for discourse of Orientalism (p. 13). His essay places expedition-a strategic gamble (p. 26)-in broader context of France's conflict with Great Britain. The attack was daring and risky and meant to threaten Britain's land links with India. Although Directory's geopolitical objectives were not attained, French resulted in two particular cultural consequences: (1) founding of Institut d'Egypte, and (2) confrontation Enlightenment and Islam. Stuart Harten provides an exceptional synthesis of Said's thought toward expedition-the enabling project for all subsequent Orientalist enterprises (p. 35). He also injects Henry Laurens's interpretation of ideological foundations of expedition by tracing its roots to discourse of Oriental Despotism' (p. 36). Harten points out that primary contributors of seminal Description de l'Egypte were engineers rather than Orientalist scholars. To Harten, French expedition appropriated Egypt politically and culturally, dispossessing native inhabitants of their very presence (p. 44). Juan R. I. Cole views French as perhaps first in a long line of liberal colonial adventures, of which Vietnam War is most famous in our time (or arguably, American of Iraq). What he calls also serve as binary relationships between Self and Other, civilization and barbarism, liberty and dominance, public and private, male and female, Great Powers diplomacy and local politics (p. 48). Cole uses memoirs to explore these contradictions and constructions. Nairy Hampikian examines mapping of Cairo and describes the drastic changes that took place in Cairo both during and after Napoleonic invasion (p. 70). Hampikian convincingly demonstrates not only that Description represented an Orientalist paradigm, but that its illustrations' efforts to see unseen (p. 74) are valuable for architectural and urban historians. Shmuel Moreh provides an Egyptian view of French invasion. The chief observers were 'Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, Niqula Turk, and Hasan al-'Attar. …

Housing Development on Brownfield Sites

Official housing statistics project an increase in households by 3.8 million in England between 1996 and 2021.1 In its Strategy for Sustainable Development in the UK, the Government declared its aim to offer everyone the opportunity of a decent home.2 But where are all these new households to go? Housing accounts for about 70% of the consumption of greenfield land by urban development and while in 1991, 10.6% of England's land area had been built upon, this is likely to rise to 11.9% by 2016, if current trends continue.3 The pace at which land is being consumed by urban development is considered as one of the major threats to the achievement of sustainable development,4 which requires the ‘prudent use of natural resources’, a principle to which the Government has also committed itself.5 Consequently, sustainable development requires using as little previously undeveloped land for new development as possible. One way to reduce the land use of housing is to build as many new dwellings as possible on previously developed land.6 Therefore in 1995 the Government set a target of 50% for the proportion of additional homes in England to be built on previously developed land, or provided through conversions7 of existing buildings.8 In 1998 the target was increased to 60% by 2008.9 However, development on brownfield land will not always be the best solution considering the environmental impacts of the development as a whole. The location of housing, for example, is a crucial aspect in determining the creation of needs for energy (another very important sustainability issue). It can be assumed that housing development within existing urban areas is generally more sustainable in energy terms, as it reduces the need for transportation and higher densities of dwellings require less energy for space heating.10 Therefore, the aim should be to increase the amount of new housing development on brownfield land within urban areas. This article examines which obstacles need to be overcome and which instruments are available to achieve the governmental target.

Carabid beetle assemblages on urban derelict sites in Birmingham, UK

Brownfield sites are thought to support a minimum of 12–15% of Britain's nationally scarce and rare invertebrates. The amount of derelict land in Britain is set to decrease dramatically under current home-building and regeneration policies. There is therefore a pressing need for research into the potential importance of brownfield sites for invertebrates. In this study we sampled the carabid fauna of 26 sites, with ages varying between 2–20 years since their formation, to assess whether vegetation succession was an important determinant of invertebrate diversity the West Midlands of England. The work was carried out over the course of one growing season (in 1999), with concurrent surveys of the soil characteristics, vegetation type and land-use history. 63 carabid species were found including 2 nationally scarce species. The most species rich assemblages are found on early successional sites, which persist for 6 years on graded sites and up to 20 years on compacted substrates.

Opposition to environmental policies: Contaminated land in Britain

Opposition to environmental policies: Contaminated land in Britain

Alfred Russel Wallace's Campaign to Nationalize Land

Abstract. Alfred Russel Wallace rose to fame with Charles Darwin: They independently found the principle of natural selection. Wallace later focused on reforming Great Britain's land tenure system, under which a few owners had come to control most of the land, while most citizens had little or none of their own. In Land Nationalization (1882) Wallace proposed for the state to acquire all land, with limited compensation. The state would then lease it by auction, but to actual users only. Wallace saw his kinship with Henry George, and opened doors to help George tour Britain as a speaker. For years their ideas were linked by friend and foe, and together had great impact on British politics.

Impact of agricultural intensification of pastoral systems on bird distributions in Britain 1970–1990

The distribution of six species of birds known to depend on extensive pastoral systems, as published in atlases of breeding birds, was mapped in Britain for two time periods: 1968–1972 and 1990–1992. The species chosen (corncrake Crex crex, golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos, hen harrier Circus cyaneus, stone curlew Burhinus oedicnemus, chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax and red-backed shrike Lanius collurio) are known to be declining or vulnerable across large parts of their European range. Summed species distribution was compared with available data on the distribution of low intensity agricultural land in Britain. In 1990, bird and land-use distribution was similar. Thus it is concluded that it may be possible to use summed species distribution to predict areas where ecologically beneficial farming systems exist elsewhere in Europe. Most coincidence in species distribution now occurs in Scotland, northern England and Wales. However, large parts of mid-west Scotland have less selected pastoral species than in 1968–1972. The most obvious changes have occurred throughout East Anglia, the south-east and south-west of England. There has been significant fragmentation of coincidence along the north Norfolk coast and along the coasts of Suffolk and Essex. The extent of summed distribution of the indicator bird species chosen declined and fragmented dramatically between 1970 and 1990. There was a significant negative relationship between livestock units per hectare (both sheep and total), and mean species coincidence (average number of species occurring in each 10km 2) for six regions in Scotland and northern England in 1990. In each of these six regions, mean species coincidence declined as sheep livestock units per hectare increased between 1970 and 1990. The need for changes to agricultural policies at the level of the European Community in order to reverse this serious conservation problem, is discussed.