The Orchards of Eastern England History, Ecology and Place

by Williamson, Tom; Barnes, Gerry

• ISBN13: 9781912260423
• ISBN10: 1912260425
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2021-08-16
• Publisher: University Of Hertfordshire Press

Summary

Although the history of orchards and fruit varieties is of great popular interest, there have been few academic treatments of the subject. This book presents results from a three-year project, 'Orchards East,' investigating the history and ecology of orchards in the east of England. Together, the eastern counties of Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk have a tradition of fruit cultivation comparable in scale to that of the better-known west of England. Drawing on far-reaching archival research, an extensive survey of surviving orchards, and biodiversity surveys, the authors tell the fascinating story of orchards in the east since the late Middle Ages. Orchards were ubiquitous features of the medieval and early modern landscape. For well over a century now, orchards have been romanticised as nostalgic elements of a timeless yet disappearing rural world. Even before that, they were embedded in myths of lost Edens, or golden ages of effortless plenty. A key aim of this book is to challenge some of these myths by grounding orchards within a wider range of historical and environmental contexts.

Author Biography

Tom Williamson is Professor of landscape history at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He is the lead on 'Orchards East', a major project supported by the Heritage Fund, of which this book forms part and the author of several books published by University of Hertfordshire Press, including Trees in England and Rethinking Ancient Woodland (both co-authored with Gerry Barnes). Gerry Barnes was formerly Head of Environment at Norfolk County Council and is now an Honorary Fellow of the School of History at UEA. A former Chair of the Forestry Commission Regional Advisory Committee for East England, he has an MBE for services to Forestry and Communities.