Ancient Trees in the Landscape: Norfolk's arboreal heritage [Paperback]

Ancient Trees in the Landscape is an in-depth look at the history of the trees in Norfolk. It is largely - although not exclusively - about the larger, older specimens, and about those which have been managed in the past in "traditional" ways. Yet although it deals in detail with only one, relatively restricted, area of the country, the work presented here has a wider relevance. While each region of Britain has its own, distinctive arboricultural history, the approaches and methodology adopted in this book can be applied elsewhere and some of the general conclusions may well hold true for other areas, especially in the south and east of England. This is not, therefore, simply a book about old trees in Norfolk. It is about some of the ways in which we can study old trees.

Based mainly on a systematic survey of old trees in Norfolk, partly carried out by the authors themselves, Ancient Trees in the Landscape is concerned above all with the landscape context of trees, with the questions of how and why particular kinds of old tree are found in particular places, what this has contributed to the character of the landscape and what it can tell us about the way that trees were managed and regarded in the past. What emerges is a fascinating picture of the survival and changing of species as the landscape evolves over time and of what trees meant to people in earlier periods.

1. Ancient Trees in the Landscape
2. Dating Trees
3. Trees of Farmland and Hedgerow
4. Woods and Wood-Pastures
5. Meaning, Beauty and Commemoration
6. Orchards, Pine Rows and Willow Lines
7. Conclusion
Index

"The authors present an interesting study of the ancient trees in an English county.'"
Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago Botanic Garden (2012)