Revolution and continuity? Reassessing nineteenth-century moorland reclamation through palaeoecological and archival research

Abstract

The upland moorlands of Britain are environmentally and culturally important ecosystems. Yet, our understanding of historical attempts to ‘reclaim’ these landscapes is often based upon incomplete accounts of agricultural ‘improvement’. Studies of historical landscape change have frequently focused on singular ‘revolutionary’ moments due to the limitation and biases of surviving historical sources, which has created a contemporary fixation on ‘reversing’ singular interventions. By combining palaeoecological data (pollen, coprophilous fungal spores and microcharcoal) from a recent study of five upland sites with newly rediscovered archival documents, this paper details the differences between how nineteenth-century actors described ecological interventions and some of their actual characteristics and consequences. Through interdisciplinary synthesis, we reveal how perceptions of ecological change were filtered and shaped by the sensibilities and motivations of ‘improvers’. This enables us to position ‘reclamation’ within a sequence of long-term management practices that shaped these complex ecosystems.

Keywords:

• Interdisciplinary
• moorlands
• peatlands
• palaeoecology
• reclamation
• restoration
• perceptions
• motivations
• nineteenth century

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions; Rob Wilson-North, Shirley Blaylock and Martin Gillard (Exmoor National Park Authority) for their discussions regarding the historical and archaeological evidence and for providing access to the Historical Environment Record; Morag Angus and colleagues in the Southwest Peatland Partnership for comments on the utility of the results for peatland restoration; U3A Minehead volunteers for transcribing the Knight Family Papers; Bette Baldwin and The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage for digitising and transcribing the diaries and stocking records of Robert Tait Little.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an award from the Leverhulme Trust under Grant RPG-2020-045.

Notes on contributors

Leonard Baker

Leonard Baker received a PhD in History from the University of Bristol in 2020 and was a post-doctoral research fellow on the ‘A Landscape Transformed: The Reclaiming of Exmoor’ project at the University of Exeter, 2020–2022.

Francis M. Rowney

Francis Rowney received a PhD in Physical Geography from the University of Plymouth in 2018 and was a post-doctoral research fellow on the ‘Landscape Transformed’ project at the University of Plymouth, 2020–2022.

Henry French

Henry French is Professor of Social History in the Department of Archaeology & History at the University of Exeter and was co-investigator on the ‘Landscape Transformed’ project, 2020–2022.

Ralph M. Fyfe

Ralph Fyfe is Associate Dean and Professor of Geospatial Information in the Department of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Plymouth and was co-investigator on the ‘Landscape Transformed’ project, 2020–2022.