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.