Time for Positive Change in the British Countryside

Time for Positive Change in the British Countryside

Posted on Nov 12, 2024 by jsw  | Tags: British Countryside

I was watching this old-ish (well, 2001) time-travelling film called ‘Kate and Leopold’ and something struck me. The attire the Duke wore for a dinner party is exactly like what we equestrians wear for our shows – black jacket, white shirt, cravat, breeches and riding boots! So nothing has changed in that respect.

Except the cravat morphed into the tie, as it did for businessmen (but I still proudly wear a golden or pink cravat whenever appropriate). And the cotton shirt turned into more of a sporty t-shirt with delicate patterns on the top half. And riding boots now tend to have sophisticated lacing or delicate little details like a gem stud at the top of the boot. And the breeches turned into jodhpurs, which have recently been largely replaced by riding tights. On the whole though, not much else has changed!

Of course, things adapted as fashions changed, new materials materialised, and health and safety was taken more seriously. The body protector meant more slim-line jackets, and proper riding hats have recently been made compulsory in dressage (top hats used to be worn!). But not everyone needs to wear body protectors, so the older-fashion smart black jackets, like the Duke’s, can still be worn.

Horses, my favourite animal, have been affected profoundly by the many changes in the countryside over centuries. The Tudors created the Shire horse as their prime war horse to carry men in armour, and killed off many feral ponies under 14hh (although the more inaccessible Welsh ponies escaped this fate). Ultimately, the Shire horse adapted to becoming farm horses once horse-based warfare diminished as cannons and guns were invented. Then, the previously unwanted wild ponies thrived in pockets of countryside, and woodlands returned. Once there were substantial numbers of hedgerows and other boundaries to property, sports such as fox hunting required horses capable of jumping, so these were bred and trained into the magnificent showjumpers we know today.

 This made me think of the changes our countryside has seen. Britain’s population was predominately rural for centuries, living by subsistence farming and cottage industries until the Industrial Revolution (1750-1900) after which most people lived in towns and cities in order to work in new manufacturing industries. In 2022, the urban population of the UK was about 56.52 mn, while the rural population was about 10.45 mn (a total of 66.97 mn): just over 15% of the population.

Of course, change - often radical - has always taken place in the countryside. The Anglo-Saxon King Alfred (c. 847-899) started a gradual urbanisation by creating the first towns. Policies of enclosure or inclosure, which saw "common land" acquired by the wealthy, deprived commoners of their rights of access to land. In desperation, they resorted to riots as a form of social protest between the 1530s to 1640s, but many were driven into the towns and cities.

The Tudors (1485-1603) enjoyed a different countryside to us, with more open landscapes and woodlands, before hedges were put in. The Tudors cut vast swathes out of ancient woodlands to build warships and houses, but they also created the concept of greenbelt to protect food supply and its delivery into the towns and cities, particularly London. Despite the greenbelt around London, the City population exploded - from about 50,000 at the end of the 15th century to an estimated 200,000 by 1603. Harsh as the enclosures were, by the 1700s landowners were making great strides in improving land quality and management, and introducing new crops, animals and machinery to generate higher profits. 

The 1700s and 1800s saw massive changes in transport which also opened up the countryside for development. Roads changed from muddy tracks to more hard-wearing surfaces paid for with tolls on travellers; canals were dug; and railways criss-crossed the country – all stimulating the growth of industry.

Following the second world war, the 1947 Agriculture Act stressed the need for self‐sufficiency and volume growth in food production. Horse-drawn ploughing gave way to industrialised agriculture reliant on diesel vehicles, inorganic fertilisers and chemical pesticides. Productivity increased dramatically, but at a staggering environmental cost. Now it seems as if the countryside faces more threats than ever before.

The last century has seen collapsing ecosystems and biodiversity, poor land and water management practices, population pressures, water stress, floods, the decline in farming, the growth in leisure, construction… the list of challenges goes on and on. Most of us want the countryside to thrive. We want to use it for food production, living and working space, leisure, healing, and because it is part of all of us and our ancestors, whether they ploughed it by hand, with horses, or with new-fangled vehicles. Change has to happen in the countryside, but hopefully not in ways that damage it even more. History has seen people going to extreme lengths to exploit the countryside, but at long last there does seem to be more widespread understanding that protection is the priority and that the “old ways” in the “old days” may be better than we thought.

In 2021, a Parliament Office for Science and Technology report proposed a new approach to countryside management in England (https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pb-0042/). It makes plain that solving the crises we face will mean massive and radical shifts with different interest parties (national and local governments, farmers, land agents, financiers, industry and the general public) working together for change - for once. This means we need to accept each other’s views and work together: vegetarians and vegans and meat eaters; horse riders and cricketers and footballers; farmers and nature conservationists and bird watchers. Let change for the better begin!

Images:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Shire_horses_ploughing.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hans_Liefrinck_001.jpg Henry VIII

https://branchcollective.org/?attachment_id=1833 Chat Moss railway, Lancashire, 1831

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4025/4309024725_aa21916284_b.jpg Possibly Llangollen Canal, late 1800s/early 1900s

https://www.pexels.com/photo/clearing-desolation-destruction-fallen-tree-4451/

https://flickr.com/photos/lapseoftheshutter/5886837597 Cambridgeshire Fens