A richly detailed history of Ashdown Forest -- home of Winnie-the-Pooh.
The seeming tranquility of many rural landscapes can hide a combative
history. This biography of one such landscape, Ashdown Forest in the
Weald of Sussex, exemplifies the evolving conflicts that have taken
place over many centuries. Wealth and poverty, power and exclusion, have
all characterised this landscape through the ages. When a
thirteenth-century boundary was erected to form a hunting park it was
imposed upon a landscape which for centuries had provided sustenance for
peasant families, for swine herds, for itinerant groups, all of whom had
developed grazing and collecting rights and customary ties with the
area. Conflict between manorial lords and commoners, "turbulent
foresters", was born, and the evolution of this conflict over succeeding
centuries is the recurring motif of this book. We move through the
exploitation of iron ore and timber during the Tudor period, learn of
the real threats of enclosure, of military occupation, to be followed by
a landscape aesthetic bringing wealthy incomers, attracted by scenery
easily reachable from London by train. All sides felt that the Forest
was theirs by right. Victorian law-suits, twentieth-century protective
legislation and a growing environmental consciousness have all left
their mark. And the struggle for Ashdown continues amid ongoing
development pressures. This book demonstrates that multi-layered
conflict has been a characteristic feature of what still miraculously
remains the largest area of internationally recognised heath in the
South-East of England.
