My old stamping grounds - I went to school at Seaford College - very near where you were walking and not too far from Duncton Hill in Hilaire Belloc country - who wrote 'The passer-by shall hear me still, a boy that sings on Duncton Hill'.
It's amazing how we take for granted that the countryside never changes. We take for granted the food that is grown and how it can destroy the environment as well as our health. Our mental health depends on the countryside also, just a short walk or even seeing it on U-tube or T.V. can help to calm the spirit. This a very deep and interesting subject. If we don't pay heed we lose it at our peril.
Thank you Richard - I agree with you. I hope that the re-wilding movement gains strength and, insofar as is possible, we can regain what has been lost.
Well this was pretty - and pretty steep - walk! Loved all the green of the different trees & the different fauna below. Though your point was the loss of the natural grasses & wildflowers at the top, I did enjoy the climb & the view below you showed us. I know I have said it before, but it is really confusing to me how The South Downs are a National Park but they don't seem to do anything to protect or preserve nature. Whereas here in America that is the whole purpose of our National Parks Services.
@@RichardVobes mmmm...so very sad. However, I think many of us are feeling that way right now about our history, but I'm not going to get all political!!!😬
We don't have much landscape that hasn't been raked over by man for a few thousand years in the UK. Layer upon layer of generation after generation. The English landscape has been constantly changing, it has given birth to the English character, the English language. In the 'new' world you have a very different relationship with the landscape, it is 'other' non civilised. To the English the landscape is the book of our culture writ large before us. Social injustices, milestones of progress, invasions, wars, changes in politics, waxing and waning of empire, the passing of the industrial revolution. The hedgerow Richard mentions was an invention of the 1830s, before then the landscape was very different. It's a marvelous thing.
The South Downs have only been a national park for 10 years - the work the national park have done in the last 10 years has been excellent in the main. Remember that the park authority own very little land indeed and most is owned by private landowners so change is glacial!
There is a push in the UK to plant more trees as part of the push to zero carbon, but it is and will be commercially driven, which means more fast growing pines for felling. The relative sterility of pine forests is one issue you raise. Another issue is those big fields which accelerate soil erosion. We only have so much of it. Farmers are feeding twice the global number of people they did 50 years ago, but is it sustainable? Keep up the good work Richard.
Bit of a hike up that hill! The fact that this happened all over the country and continued for years until some farmers started replanting hedges(but not enough). When I lived in Tangmere there were enormous intervention stores on the old RAF airfield full of grain, butter etc that was surplus. Apparently now there is virtually nothing in intervention nationally. Its a face off between farming to feed the rapidly increasing population, the desire not to import a lot of our food , farmland being used for housing to accommodate this population. Something has to give and 'nature' is what suffers. What is the answer???
Linda Kane Perhaps not letting in 500,000 immigrants a year? Or should i say,economic migrants,not refugees but well versed in the British benefit system.
I remember reading the book you mention by Marion Shoard at the time it came out all those years ago. I well remember her description of what happened at Graffham Down. But you should see what is happening to the countryside in the Chilterns near Amersham because of HS2- utter desecration.
Just an update. Had an horrific encounter with HS2 when I did a walk out of Great Missenden on 10 July 2020. They have closed all the footpaths to the north-east of the town and there are huge gouges in the landscape.
Lovely video as ever Richard, bet you were knackered going up that hill, I would be too looked quite steep. What was it growing in that plot of land ? 11 mins 22 seconds into the video. Thanks Richard and thankyou for always replying to my comments I am very appreciative you take your time to read and reply.
Excellent video Richard. I moved from Eastbourne to Devon after 30 years in Eastbourne on 1st June this year and I cannot believe how much wildlife and bio-diversity there is here. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there was twice as much forty years ago. It does feel like I have returned to my youth as regards what I can see though. I have subscribed. Thank you.
In the First World War the demand for materials, not least wood forced us to abandon the hitherto management of our woodlands where woodmen operated a long-term cycle that pollarded and felled trees in a sustainable way. Tree-Fellers arrived from Canada and the long term sustainability was undone as woods were stripped. With the Depression we instigated the Forestry Commission and planted huge Pine Forests all over the place, but we'd broken the chain and much never recovered as a result. The old forestry skills largely died out, and as you point out the diversity is gone. We have a film set now in much of our countryside. Looks good, but sadly often not what it seems. However we can improve as well as destroy, there is hope.
And we won a living wage for the working man, so invalids didn't have to live in cotton tents making charcoal and chair legs. We do tend to forget, not all the past was terrific. A lot has been lost because we have higher expectations from life and our ability to exploit the working man's labour has been greatly curtailed.
@@AndyJarman The Working Man got a Vote, later Women got it too, later still the age limit was dropped. Whether you are a millionaire or penniless that single equal vote is probably your most valuable asset, and yet many waste them. The Past was not always terrific by any means, Agreed, but as we see, the present isn't always perfect either. A better present is largely up to us, we get to choose direction, sadly we don't always get to choose the best to deliver it because the best don't seem to stand for office.
It depends on the species of the birds. I live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States where we have huge coniferous forest w/ a huge biodiversity of all kinds of animals...and yes, nesting birds! In fact, I live in the Willamette Valley which has a lot more range of trees. I used to have a ton of backyard birds that would come to my feeders, especially three diff species of hummingbirds. A few years ago one of my neighbors cut down a row of Cedar Trees that these hummers returned to nest in every year (except one species that did stay year around). I almost immediately lost all of my hummers, as I was down to only about 8 pairs. Then last Fall the neighbor on the other side of us cut his Cedar down & now I have only seen one pair this year. I am also not seeing the huge flock of titmouse that would come in every evening, along w/ our orioles, towhees goldfinches, nuthatches & several others. Didn't get my pair of woodpeckers or flickers this past Winter either!☹ There are plenty of Birch, Oak, Maple (our very huge & old ornamental cherry), & othet "leafy" trees in our neighborhood too, but it was the conifers that all of these birds nested in.
Yes a shame to see vast acres of monoculture but with the drive to feed many people efficiency became the thing. Hedgerows (many quite ancient) were grubbed up and with modern farm machinery becoming bigger and bigger the small field systems of yesteryear were no longer convenient nor easy to manage. Some modern tractors and combines are now quite monstrous in size and steered by satnav/gps with computers dictating the path for highest efficiency. In some cases whole small farms were amalgamated to form vast acres of monoculture, thats happened in parts of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and lots of history and ecology lost. The farmers, those few who remain become more wealthy, the crops now sprayed with fungicide,herbicide, insecticide and genetically modified produce tons and tons more grain to be consumed by a public that now present with higher cases of allergy, gluten intolerance and the need for a wheat free diet. Cancer rates vastly on the up. History destroyed, biodiversity destroyed, Bees on the decline, the sense of continuity gone, illness on the rise both physical and mental, obesity from eating rubbish on the up.....It's gone wrong! The irony is that vast amounts of this rubbish food is also wasted! Must end on a happy note otherwise my day will not get off to a good start! I do know a few farmers who have re sown seed from those few wild flowers remaining thus creating a new meadow, so there maybe hope..Lets hope that those who are in charge will see the error of ways and somehow find a way to turn the clock back.
If only we could encourage, give opportunity, and financially assist a new breed of farmers on smaller farms to provide food and food related products (straw, animal feeds, etc) locally. Globalisation have proved, in my mind, to be a disaster.
Sandy, it must look terrible to you, but honestly, returning to England after being away for ten years I was blown away by the changes for the better. I had never seen red kites, storks, Ospreys, or herds of deer in broad daylight before. Meadow after meadow sown with wild flower mixes from EU set aside grants. Perhaps I have forgotten what it was like in the past. But as a kid living in Hertfordshire in the 70s I would have been astonished to see so much wildlife. I could be wrong, but I get the feeling things were a lot less rich and bountiful during my childhood in the the 1960s. I did see Downland that had reverted to hawthorn, but I also saw fantastic new initiatives. Gone are the rickety old styles, in their place fantastic hardwood gates with latches, numbered footpaths, and the National Trust has taken over management of huge areas of the coast that were in the past left to lassaiz fare management by disinterested under funded quangoes. I don't think the changes are all bad.
@@AndyJarman Hi Andy, Yes there are positives and I think, I hope we may have turned a corner and those incharge are steering a new course. Round where I live though most of the downland is agriculture mainly wheat and barley with only odd patches here and there given over to nature. Lets hope a positive direction will be maintained
This is a tragedy and should never have happened. We do now live in a hopefully more enlightened time and that there would be more chance for meadows and hedges for survive. I think the creation of the National Park in the last 10 years will stop this happening. We do have a dichotomy coming up - do we become self sufficient in food or do we try and maintain our natural environment; I fear we can’t do both.
Many experts now agree that the soil now has only 60 harvests remaining before it is permanently damaged and depleted. This has been caused by over production and excessive use of artificial chemicals including pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and nitrates. It’s appalling that we now see so few insects, butterfly’s, moths, birds and other wild creatures whilst walking in the countryside. Too much food is wasted, thrown away, or grain is grown to feed cattle, and other animals, to meet our increasing appetite for meat. It is predicted that global human population will increase to 15.3 billion. How will we, future generations, wildlife and the planet cope? 🤭
Sadly with bent councilors and greedy property developers our greenbelt is being over-run with housing developments.This is due to successive governments (especially the Tories)totally ignoring why the greenbelt was there ,and simply allowing building to take place just about anywhere.In their gated communities and big houses ,they're not bothered about evicting a squirrel or felling ancient woodland,Just look at the HS2 and the greed that is going with that.A totally pointless railway that will make millions for construction companies.(much like the M1 did for a Tory Minister,while he was closing down the railways).
So what's the answer? Where do people live? Tesco's disagree with official figures of 65million population. They reckon the population is more like 80million. When I left England in 91 it was 55million, and had been for 20 years. That's a 50% increase in 30years. Where do they all live? I will admit I have a very poor grasp of the situation, but as an outsider Brexit seemed very understandable. But what now? Depopulate? Inner city high rises? Look where that leads. It's a thorny issue, but with a birth rate of 1.2 and a replacement birth rate of 2.1 I suspect the England of our childhoods will be populated with very different people in another 30years. Their imported attitudes will engenda a very different opinion about a landscape they have very little connection with. Richard admits he was raised in a 1960s cul de sac. I was raised in a public housing scheme built in the 50s in the Hertfordshire greenbelt to house east Ender's whose homes had been blitzed. Neither Richard or I have much justification to criticise the building of houses in greenbelt land. It gave us a contact with our heritage and landscape few industrialised nations provide their people with these days.
Thanks again for this Richard. Having walked the South Downs Way I consider this to be one of the least interesting sections, probably because it has been stripped of its natural diversity. The Devil's Jumps on the next section west are however wonderful - have you been there?
England is a tiny country, chopped up into very small fields, every square inch shows man has changed the "original" face of the land. It's a bit late to eulogize the England which has gone! I would also ask what happened to the bears, wolves and other big predators which were quite common in England a thousand years ago? Eradicated as a threat to mankind, that's what happened. The England you report on bears no relation to England as it was originally when the Romans were roaming around there.
I agree. The landscape has always been a symptom of the affairs of man in Europe, since the bronze age, and earlier. Today's people are concerned about biodiversity, sustainability and social cohesion/continuity in a world of rapid economic expansion, technological and sociological change. In some ways it fits the contemporary spirit if the English landscape becomes less focussed on food production with more emphasis on it as an ecological reserve and an item of national heritage. Richards concerns reflect the current concerns created by the current situation. I think that's why we cherish the landscape so much. It's as though it's a type of family bible which expresses and reflects our hopes and fears as a nation.
Ramblers and “walkers” are welcome in Graffham (as if there’s a choice!! A public footpath = public right of way.). But, I wish more respect was shown for private land. People need to learn that straying from the footpaths is NOT acceptable or even excusable. (Trust me, I’ve heard every excuse and explanation there is for why the footpaths are to blame for people’s decision to deviate from the public path.) My horses are frequently disturbed (and distressed) by walkers trespassing on to my equestrian facilities. On hot summer days it’s not unusual to find entire families enjoying my private swimming pool having “mistaken” it for a public facility. Please, come to Graffham and enjoy our beautiful countryside. BUT, stay on the paths, off my land and OUT of my pool.
@@RichardVobes Thank you Richard. You may know me from some of the books -fiction and non fiction- I have written for publication. Annoying as the trespassers are, they have actually been a Segway in to new ideas for my next Graffham based novel. A murder mystery of course...
I watched this whilst waiting for my Dad at the hospital - most enjoyable and relaxing. Thanks, snack.
My old stamping grounds - I went to school at Seaford College - very near where you were walking and not too far from Duncton Hill in Hilaire Belloc country - who wrote 'The passer-by shall hear me still, a boy that sings on Duncton Hill'.
It's amazing how we take for granted that the countryside never changes. We take for granted the food that is grown and how it can destroy the environment as well as our health. Our mental health depends on the countryside also, just a short walk or even seeing it on U-tube or T.V. can help to calm the spirit. This a very deep and interesting subject. If we don't pay heed we lose it at our peril.
Thank you Richard - I agree with you. I hope that the re-wilding movement gains strength and, insofar as is possible, we can regain what has been lost.
Like it in graffan, I used to camp there @ the caravan park. I proberly have walked them paths when I was young. Nice one
Very interested about place growing top downs must be good walk
Well this was pretty - and pretty steep - walk! Loved all the green of the different trees & the different fauna below. Though your point was the loss of the natural grasses & wildflowers at the top, I did enjoy the climb & the view below you showed us. I know I have said it before, but it is really confusing to me how The South Downs are a National Park but they don't seem to do anything to protect or preserve nature. Whereas here in America that is the whole purpose of our National Parks Services.
This is what annoys us in the UK - nothing it seems is protected.
@@RichardVobes mmmm...so very sad. However, I think many of us are feeling that way right now about our history, but I'm not going to get all political!!!😬
We don't have much landscape that hasn't been raked over by man for a few thousand years in the UK.
Layer upon layer of generation after generation.
The English landscape has been constantly changing, it has given birth to the English character, the English language.
In the 'new' world you have a very different relationship with the landscape, it is 'other' non civilised.
To the English the landscape is the book of our culture writ large before us.
Social injustices, milestones of progress, invasions, wars, changes in politics, waxing and waning of empire, the passing of the industrial revolution.
The hedgerow Richard mentions was an invention of the 1830s, before then the landscape was very different.
It's a marvelous thing.
The South Downs have only been a national park for 10 years - the work the national park have done in the last 10 years has been excellent in the main. Remember that the park authority own very little land indeed and most is owned by private landowners so change is glacial!
There is a push in the UK to plant more trees as part of the push to zero carbon, but it is and will be commercially driven, which means more fast growing pines for felling. The relative sterility of pine forests is one issue you raise.
Another issue is those big fields which accelerate soil erosion. We only have so much of it.
Farmers are feeding twice the global number of people they did 50 years ago, but is it sustainable?
Keep up the good work Richard.
It is all so short-sighted. Thanks, Alan.
Thanks for yet another lovely and informative video. :)
You are so welcome!
Very interesting, thank you for alerting us to these sort of things going on without us realising!
Bit of a hike up that hill! The fact that this happened all over the country and continued for years until some farmers started replanting hedges(but not enough). When I lived in Tangmere there were enormous intervention stores on the old RAF airfield full of grain, butter etc that was surplus. Apparently now there is virtually nothing in intervention nationally. Its a face off between farming to feed the rapidly increasing population, the desire not to import a lot of our food , farmland being used for housing to accommodate this population. Something has to give and 'nature' is what suffers. What is the answer???
Linda Kane Perhaps not letting in 500,000 immigrants a year? Or should i say,economic migrants,not refugees but well versed in the British benefit system.
A bland world is what we have to look forward to.
that's a lovely part of the world there
I remember reading the book you mention by Marion Shoard at the time it came out all those years ago. I well remember her description of what happened at Graffham Down. But you should see what is happening to the countryside in the Chilterns near Amersham because of HS2- utter desecration.
Oh golly - that sounds awful. This great country is being wrecked. I must go there and look at the destruction.
Just an update. Had an horrific encounter with HS2 when I did a walk out of Great Missenden on 10 July 2020. They have closed all the footpaths to the north-east of the town and there are huge gouges in the landscape.
Lovely video as ever Richard, bet you were knackered going up that hill, I would be too looked quite steep. What was it growing in that plot of land ? 11 mins 22 seconds into the video. Thanks Richard and thankyou for always replying to my comments I am very appreciative you take your time to read and reply.
Barley is the main crop. Not sure what the smaller crops was - clearly another mono crop - a shame not to have put a wild flower mix in there.
@@RichardVobes yes would have been nice to see some wild flower in there.
Excellent video Richard. I moved from Eastbourne to Devon after 30 years in Eastbourne on 1st June this year and I cannot believe how much wildlife and bio-diversity there is here. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there was twice as much forty years ago. It does feel like I have returned to my youth as regards what I can see though. I have subscribed. Thank you.
That is encouraging.
In the First World War the demand for materials, not least wood forced us to abandon the hitherto management of our woodlands where woodmen operated a long-term cycle that pollarded and felled trees in a sustainable way. Tree-Fellers arrived from Canada and the long term sustainability was undone as woods were stripped. With the Depression we instigated the Forestry Commission and planted huge Pine Forests all over the place, but we'd broken the chain and much never recovered as a result. The old forestry skills largely died out, and as you point out the diversity is gone. We have a film set now in much of our countryside. Looks good, but sadly often not what it seems. However we can improve as well as destroy, there is hope.
And we won a living wage for the working man, so invalids didn't have to live in cotton tents making charcoal and chair legs.
We do tend to forget, not all the past was terrific. A lot has been lost because we have higher expectations from life and our ability to exploit the working man's labour has been greatly curtailed.
@@AndyJarman The Working Man got a Vote, later Women got it too, later still the age limit was dropped. Whether you are a millionaire or penniless that single equal vote is probably your most valuable asset, and yet many waste them.
The Past was not always terrific by any means, Agreed, but as we see, the present isn't always perfect either. A better present is largely up to us, we get to choose direction, sadly we don't always get to choose the best to deliver it because the best don't seem to stand for office.
You've got to be in marvelous shape walking all those miles. Do you take vitamins? 👍🇺🇸 From Texas. Eaglegards...
No, I just keep walking and eat sensibly.
Can we organise some gorilla action and covertly spread wildflower seeds on the grassed edges which are not cultivated
Very interesting and brilliant the United Kingdom.
Well said that man! Another thing about conifers,they’re not good for bird to nest in!
Exactly!
It depends on the species of the birds. I live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States where we have huge coniferous forest w/ a huge biodiversity of all kinds of animals...and yes, nesting birds!
In fact, I live in the Willamette Valley which has a lot more range of trees. I used to have a ton of backyard birds that would come to my feeders, especially three diff species of hummingbirds. A few years ago one of my neighbors cut down a row of Cedar Trees that these hummers returned to nest in every year (except one species that did stay year around). I almost immediately lost all of my hummers, as I was down to only about 8 pairs. Then last Fall the neighbor on the other side of us cut his Cedar down & now I have only seen one pair this year. I am also not seeing the huge flock of titmouse that would come in every evening, along w/ our orioles, towhees goldfinches, nuthatches & several others. Didn't get my pair of woodpeckers or flickers this past Winter either!☹ There are plenty of Birch, Oak, Maple (our very huge & old ornamental cherry), & othet "leafy" trees in our neighborhood too, but it was the conifers that all of these birds nested in.
Yes a shame to see vast acres of monoculture but with the drive to feed many people efficiency became the thing. Hedgerows (many quite ancient) were grubbed up and with modern farm machinery becoming bigger and bigger the small field systems of yesteryear were no longer convenient nor easy to manage. Some modern tractors and combines are now quite monstrous in size and steered by satnav/gps with computers dictating the path for highest efficiency.
In some cases whole small farms were amalgamated to form vast acres of monoculture, thats happened in parts of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and lots of history and ecology lost.
The farmers, those few who remain become more wealthy, the crops now sprayed with fungicide,herbicide, insecticide and genetically modified produce tons and tons more grain to be consumed by a public that now present with higher cases of allergy, gluten intolerance and the need for a wheat free diet. Cancer rates vastly on the up.
History destroyed, biodiversity destroyed, Bees on the decline, the sense of continuity gone, illness on the rise both physical and mental, obesity from eating rubbish on the up.....It's gone wrong!
The irony is that vast amounts of this rubbish food is also wasted!
Must end on a happy note otherwise my day will not get off to a good start!
I do know a few farmers who have re sown seed from those few wild flowers remaining thus creating a new meadow, so there maybe hope..Lets hope that those who are in charge will see the error of ways and somehow find a way to turn the clock back.
If only we could encourage, give opportunity, and financially assist a new breed of farmers on smaller farms to provide food and food related products (straw, animal feeds, etc) locally. Globalisation have proved, in my mind, to be a disaster.
Sandy, it must look terrible to you, but honestly, returning to England after being away for ten years I was blown away by the changes for the better.
I had never seen red kites, storks, Ospreys, or herds of deer in broad daylight before.
Meadow after meadow sown with wild flower mixes from EU set aside grants.
Perhaps I have forgotten what it was like in the past.
But as a kid living in Hertfordshire in the 70s I would have been astonished to see so much wildlife.
I could be wrong, but I get the feeling things were a lot less rich and bountiful during my childhood in the the 1960s.
I did see Downland that had reverted to hawthorn, but I also saw fantastic new initiatives.
Gone are the rickety old styles, in their place fantastic hardwood gates with latches, numbered footpaths, and the National Trust has taken over management of huge areas of the coast that were in the past left to lassaiz fare management by disinterested under funded quangoes.
I don't think the changes are all bad.
@@AndyJarman Hi Andy, Yes there are positives and I think, I hope we may have turned a corner and those incharge are steering a new course. Round where I live though most of the downland is agriculture mainly wheat and barley with only odd patches here and there given over to nature.
Lets hope a positive direction will be maintained
This is a tragedy and should never have happened. We do now live in a hopefully more enlightened time and that there would be more chance for meadows and hedges for survive. I think the creation of the National Park in the last 10 years will stop this happening.
We do have a dichotomy coming up - do we become self sufficient in food or do we try and maintain our natural environment; I fear we can’t do both.
Many experts now agree that the soil now has only 60 harvests remaining before it is permanently damaged and depleted. This has been caused by over production and excessive use of artificial chemicals including pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and nitrates. It’s appalling that we now see so few insects, butterfly’s, moths, birds and other wild creatures whilst walking in the countryside. Too much food is wasted, thrown away, or grain is grown to feed cattle, and other animals, to meet our increasing appetite for meat. It is predicted that global human population will increase to 15.3 billion. How will we, future generations, wildlife and the planet cope? 🤭
Mike Dixon Don't worry about over-population Bill Gates is onto it with his vaccines.
You are so right, Mike.
Sadly with bent councilors and greedy property developers our greenbelt is being over-run with housing developments.This is due to successive governments (especially the Tories)totally ignoring why the greenbelt was there ,and simply allowing building to take place just about anywhere.In their gated communities and big houses ,they're not bothered about evicting a squirrel or felling ancient woodland,Just look at the HS2 and the greed that is going with that.A totally pointless railway that will make millions for construction companies.(much like the M1 did for a Tory Minister,while he was closing down the railways).
I know - it is a tragedy
So what's the answer?
Where do people live?
Tesco's disagree with official figures of 65million population. They reckon the population is more like 80million.
When I left England in 91 it was 55million, and had been for 20 years.
That's a 50% increase in 30years.
Where do they all live?
I will admit I have a very poor grasp of the situation, but as an outsider Brexit seemed very understandable.
But what now? Depopulate? Inner city high rises? Look where that leads.
It's a thorny issue, but with a birth rate of 1.2 and a replacement birth rate of 2.1 I suspect the England of our childhoods will be populated with very different people in another 30years.
Their imported attitudes will engenda a very different opinion about a landscape they have very little connection with.
Richard admits he was raised in a 1960s cul de sac.
I was raised in a public housing scheme built in the 50s in the Hertfordshire greenbelt to house east Ender's whose homes had been blitzed.
Neither Richard or I have much justification to criticise the building of houses in greenbelt land. It gave us a contact with our heritage and landscape few industrialised nations provide their people with these days.
Thanks again for this Richard. Having walked the South Downs Way I consider this to be one of the least interesting sections, probably because it has been stripped of its natural diversity. The Devil's Jumps on the next section west are however wonderful - have you been there?
I have indeed. There is a video too.
A lot of this pressure is bought about by gross overpopulation. and still, they come in there thousands
England is a tiny country, chopped up into very small fields, every square inch shows man has changed the "original" face of the land. It's a bit late to eulogize the England which has gone! I would also ask what happened to the bears, wolves and other big predators which were quite common in England a thousand years ago? Eradicated as a threat to mankind, that's what happened. The England you report on bears no relation to England as it was originally when the Romans were roaming around there.
There was no such place as 'England' when the Romans were here.
I agree.
The landscape has always been a symptom of the affairs of man in Europe, since the bronze age, and earlier.
Today's people are concerned about biodiversity, sustainability and social cohesion/continuity in a world of rapid economic expansion, technological and sociological change.
In some ways it fits the contemporary spirit if the English landscape becomes less focussed on food production with more emphasis on it as an ecological reserve and an item of national heritage.
Richards concerns reflect the current concerns created by the current situation.
I think that's why we cherish the landscape so much.
It's as though it's a type of family bible which expresses and reflects our hopes and fears as a nation.
@@mikesaunders4775 oh but there was, it just had a different name.
"It's a bit late to eulogise an England that has passed" - isn't that what eulogies are? Commemorations of things that have passed?
I reckon the big predators and anything else worth eating was eaten. Self defence being just a pretext!
Ramblers and “walkers” are welcome in Graffham (as if there’s a choice!! A public footpath = public right of way.). But, I wish more respect was shown for private land. People need to learn that straying from the footpaths is NOT acceptable or even excusable. (Trust me, I’ve heard every excuse and explanation there is for why the footpaths are to blame for people’s decision to deviate from the public path.) My horses are frequently disturbed (and distressed) by walkers trespassing on to my equestrian facilities. On hot summer days it’s not unusual to find entire families enjoying my private swimming pool having “mistaken” it for a public facility. Please, come to Graffham and enjoy our beautiful countryside. BUT, stay on the paths, off my land and OUT of my pool.
I am sorry to hear that people stray on to your land.
@@RichardVobes Thank you Richard. You may know me from some of the books -fiction and non fiction- I have written for publication. Annoying as the trespassers are, they have actually been a Segway in to new ideas for my next Graffham based novel. A murder mystery of course...