History and its relevance to bushcraft

[boatman]

Recent discussion on Magna Carta etc reminded me that knowing, even in outline, some history can add to the pleasure of a trip.Of course one can just go out into the woods and fields and do camping and crafty things but some sense of history and an awareness of how where you are came to be can add to the pleasure.

For example, our bit of woodland used to be part of a mining area, fortunately without shafts etc, and the discovery of a very decayed mineral cart from that era was very interesting and helped to imagine what it was like previously.

These relate to England but most other countries are covered by their own works.

A good read is by the ecologist Oliver Rackham, Ancient Woodland, its History, Vegetation and Uses in England. W G Hoskins claimed that a lot of us are blind to the history of our countryside but you can correct this by reading his The Making of the English Landscape.

To put the economy and society of the past in context an easy start is G M Trevelyan's English Social History: A Survey of Six Centuries.

All older books but I find that their literate writing style makes for easier reading than more modern texts infested by references that interrupt the flow.

 

[Wayland]

I cannot look at the land without being interested in it's history.

In this country it sits like layers of old paint over everything we see.

 

[Tony]

Yeah, I often wonder at what's gone on before us, how the land was used, how the woodland was managed, what it was used for etc. every now and then you see an indication deep in the middle of no where and wonder what on earth there was there to attract people.

History is cool

 

[oldtimer]

I had the great privilege of attending a lecture by Oliver Rackham some years ago. It was life changing. His explanation how the historical use of land such as strip field, common land and enclosure, for example, affects the appearance of the landscape today. He changed forever the way I look at landscapes today, not only in England but across France.

I was also stuck by his assertion that there are probably more trees in England today than there were in the medieval period.

 

[Klenchblaize]

I cannot look at the land without thinking of poor old John Clare:

"Enclosure came and trampled on the grave
Of labour’s rights and left the poor a slave."

K

 

[Hoodoo]

The Journals of Lewis and Clark always amaze me with their descriptions and how they contrast with the present, They describe a time when the Great Plains resembled something akin to what you might see on the African plains (themselves vanishing).

The party that went with this load, mentioned of having seen a Vast number of Buffalo feeding in the plains in every direction, the plains appearing to be fairly black with them. they saw Antelopes, 〈and〉 deer, & Wolves in the greatest abundance, As I was one of the party that was sent with the 2 Canoes, that was carried on the truck waggons loaded with Provisions baggage &ca. I had an opportunity of seeing the quantity of Buffalo as related; and I can without exaggeration say, that I saw more Buffalo feeding—at one time, than all the Animals I had ever seen before in my life time put together.—

 

[John Fenna]

One of my joys of being out is the History of the land
In the various books I have written about walking and cycling in West Wales my waffle the history of what the routes I describe pass through often exceeds the route finding directions... The title of my first book was "Heritage Walks in Pembrokeshire "
Pembrokeshire is littered with remains from the Stone Ages through to the Age of Steam while little things (like the shed in the Pub forecourt 2 doors up from me having been the meeting place for the local Home Guard - it could hold maybe 6 people tops.... the bottles that turn up in the Badger Sett in one of the woods I play in giving the history of the wood as once having been a refuse dump) speak volumes if you let them tell their tale

 

[Macaroon]

If you don't know where and what you came from, how could you even begin to think of where you're going?

If you have no interest in the history of the land you may as well be on a walking machine in the garden.

 

[wicca]

On the way to the wood I pass a place that is definitely one of the 'Layers of old paint' as Wayland eloquently suggests. Here Simon DeMontfort's Men at Arms and mounted Knights caught up with the fleeing remains of King Henry 111's army. The place name adequately describes the result..There were no prisoners..

It wasn't until the Ferns and summer growth died back that I realised that the well from which I get my water when in the wood was not just a natural hole fed by a Spring, but a man made well lined with pieces of the local Sandstone. The wood is primarily Hornbeam and has been used since Tudor times to feed charcoal to the furnaces of the Sussex Iron Masters, and the well was probably constructed and used as the water source for the Charcoal makers of long ago.

On a clear Moonlit night in the wood, in the far distance, I can see another 'layer of paint'... from another time..he looks down on me...

 

[Zingmo]

I learned from reading Thomas Hardy's The Woodlanders that oaks were often planted by the roadside to make transporting the felled timber easier. Now when I was in a patch of scruffy wood and noticed that the oaks were growing in two straight lines, I thought "Ah. An old road". When I checked the old map of the area it proved right and if I extended the line a mile or so, then it passed right by the old Roman camp.

Z

 

[Tengu]

Yes, we live in a very ancient land. I have always wanted to know the story, hence my interest in Archaeology.

I live in a DMV now.

 

[boatman]

Sleeping on the ramparts of Oldbury Castle hillfort, Cherhill, Wiltshire was a formative experience in my teens. The sheep cropped turf is comfort itself and the herbs in the grass have a scent that is smelt nowhere else. Have been asked whether it was spooky but where our ancestors kept watch and ward, how could it be?

To learn something of the Iron Age enhanced that experience and to find that the hillfort might have been refortified in the early Dark Ages was the stimulant to look closer into that period. It is nearly pseudo history but I read Black Horsemen: English Inns and King Arthur by SG Wildman and the idea of cavalry patrols coming out from Bath, along the Roman road and garrisoning Oldbury Castle with their way station and supplies at where the Inn called The Black Horse is located at the foot of the downs was compelling.

Of course if you want real history then there is the notorious Black Horse Gang from round there in the eighteenth century who would strip naked and attack and rob passersby. Naked so nothing to catch hold of (?) or leave clues in pre-DNA days.

Everywhere has its stories.
[h=1][/h]

 

[greencloud]

I love learning of the local history in my area, and there are some quite famous bits.
I'm quite lucky that where I live is sandwiched between some remnants of Hadrians wall and the colliery waggonways which prompted the birth of Puffing billy (and Wylam dilly).
There isn't much 'bushcrafty' about it, except I do enjoy gathering the annual glut of plums which I presume were sown by someones habitual discarding of stones while travelling one of the 'dilly lines'.

 

[jinnipen]

Hoskins' Making of the English Landscape' was required reading for first year historical geography when I started University in 1964. We also had to read H C Darby's book 'The Clearing of the English Woodland'. Gave me a fascinating insight into the evolution of landscape, and the inter-relations between a whole set of factors, and awhole new way of looking at my surroundings. Coinicdentally, today I picked up a copy of Oliver Rackham's book 'The History of the Countryside' in a charity shop for 20p, a few nights of interesting reading to look forward to.

 

[jinnipen]

Please excuse typos in my earlier post -- it is 42C degrees outside -- nearly 32C inside!

 

[boatman]

Fascinating how views on the clearance of British forests have changed over the years. massive clearance has been pushed further and further back in time. About 1900 one could still read in a book about Robin Hood that a squirrel could hop from branch to branch the length of the country, perhaps in 10,000 BC.
Wood seems to have been regarded as a valuable resource and careful management was applied as far back as we can discover.

Leads to an interesting idea that has been promulgated about settlements in the country. The conventional idea was that wood was the pre-eminent building material for houses in pre-conquest England and settlements using it have been excavated. However, with wood a limited and valuable resource it is suggested that the bulk of villages were more or less where they are now and built of local stone, or other materials such as cob. Their antiquity is masked by subsequent rebuilding on the same site from the same materials.