Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T00:09:37.331Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nature, the past and the English town: a counter-cultural history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2016

PETER BORSAY
PETER BORSAY*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Welsh History, Hugh Owen Building, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DY, Wales, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In investigating urban culture, historians have understandably tended to focus on the man-made and the modern, and have paid less attention to the role of nature and the past, which seem the opposite of what the town stands for. This survey, which takes as its case-study England, argues that nature and the past have always been part of urban life, but as urbanization gathered pace, particularly from the eighteenth century, they became if anything an even more important element in city and town culture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 27 - 43
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Mumford, L., The City in History (Harmondsworth, 1961), 45–6Google Scholar.

2 Braudel, F., Capitalism and Material Life 1400–1800 (London, 1974), 373 Google Scholar; Williams, R., Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (n.p., 1976), 71. For a discussion of the city/country relationship, see Burnett, A. and Scruton, R. (eds.), Town and Country (London, 1998)Google Scholar.

3 Jervis, J., Exploring the Modern (Oxford, 1998), 65 Google Scholar; A.L. and Lees, L.H., Cities and the Making of Modern Europe, 1750–1914 (Cambridge, 2007), 2 Google Scholar.

4 Dennis, R., Cities in Modernity: Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Spaces, 1840–1930 (Cambridge, 2008)Google Scholar; Parsons, D.L., Streetwalking the Metropolis: Women, the City and Modernity (Oxford, 2000)Google Scholar.

5 Gregory, D. et al., The Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th edn (Chichester, 2009), 472 Google Scholar.

6 Ogborn, M., Spaces of Modernity: London's Geographies 1680–1780 (New York, 1998), 1 Google Scholar.

7 Hohenberg, P.M. and Lees, L.H., The Making of Urban Europe 1000–1950 (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1985), 178 Google Scholar.

8 Smailes, A.E., The Geography of Towns (London, 1961), 8 Google Scholar; Sjoberg, G., ‘The origin and evolution of cities’, in Cities: A ‘Scientific American’ Book (Harmondsworth, 1965)Google Scholar, 40; Hall, P., Cities in Civilization: Culture, Innovation and the Urban Order (London, 1998), 3 Google Scholar.

9 LeGates, R.T. and Stout, F. (eds.), The City Reader (London, 1996), 15 Google Scholar.

10 Short, J.R., Globalization, Modernity and the City (Abingdon, 2012)Google Scholar.

11 Corfield, P., ‘Conclusion: cities in time’, in Clark, P. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History (Oxford, 2013), 828 Google Scholar.

12 Lampard, E.E., ‘The nature of urbanization’, in Fraser, D. and Sutcliffe, A. (eds.), The Pursuit of Urban History (London, 1983)Google Scholar, 13; L. Lucassen, ‘Population and migration’, in Clark (ed.), Cities in World History, 675.

13 In their Introduction to The Pursuit of Urban History, p. xxix, Derek Fraser and Anthony Sutcliffe ask the question ‘how far should the urban historian go into the rural hinterland and how relevant to his purposes are urban–rural relationships?’, but admit that it is a topic ‘not fully aired in our volume’. However, one work that does address the cultural impact of urbanization on the city–country relationship, and argues interestingly that for various reasons, including ‘negative feedback’, there was a good ‘degree of continuity in the Victorian land and landscape’, is Winter, James, Secure from Rash Assault: Sustaining the Victorian Environment (Berkeley and London, 1999), 3 Google Scholar, 259.

14 Inwood, S., A History of London (London, 1998), 157 Google Scholar, 269–70; Lampard, ‘Nature of urbanization’, 26.

15 The Counties of Britain: A Tudor Atlas by John Speed (London, 1995), Norfolk, Yorkshire: the West Riding; Barringer, C., ‘The changing face of Norwich’, in Rawcliffe, C. and Wilson, R. (eds.), Norwich since 1500 (London, 2004), 7–22 Google Scholar; Palliser, D., Tudor York (Oxford, 1979), 26–30 Google ScholarPubMed.

16 Victoria History of the Counties of England: Warwickshire, vol. VIII, ed. R. Pugh (London, 1969), 418, 436–7; M. Farr (ed.), The Great Fire of Warwick 1694, publications of the Dugdale Society, 36 (1992), 270–83.

17 Williams, R., The City and the Country (Oxford, 1973)Google Scholar.

18 Borsay, P., The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town, 1660–1770 (Oxford, 1989), 162–72Google Scholar, 350–4; idem, ‘Walks and promenades in London and provincial England in the long eighteenth century’, in C. Loir and L. Turcot (eds.), La promenade au tournant des XVIIIe et XIXe siécles (Belgiques – France – Angleterre) (Brussels, 2011), 79–95; idem, ‘Pleasure gardens and urban culture in the long eighteenth century’, in J. Conlin (ed.), The Pleasure Garden from Vauxhall to Coney Island (Philadelphia, 2013), 49–77; Williams, L., ‘“To recreate and refresh their dulled spirites in the sweet and wholesome ayre”: green space and the growth of the city’, in Merrit, J.F. (ed.), Imagining Early Modern London: Perceptions and Portrayals of the City from Stowe to Strype, 1598–1720 (Cambridge, 2001), 185–213 Google Scholar.

19 Williamson, T., Polite Landscapes: Gardens and Society in Eighteenth-Century England (Stroud, 1995)Google Scholar.

20 Arnold, D., Rural Urbanism: London Landscapes in the Early Nineteenth Century (Manchester, 2005)Google Scholar, 3, 8–9.

21 Conway, H., People's Parks: The Design and Development of Public Parks in Britain (Cambridge, 1991), 76–107 Google Scholar; Layton-Jones, K., Places of Health and Amusement: Liverpool's Historic Parks and Gardens (Swindon, 2008), 29–30 Google Scholar; Elliott, P., Watkins, C. and Daniels, S., ‘The Nottingham Arboretum: natural history, education and leisure in a Victorian regional centre’, Urban History, 35 (2008), 48–71 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, The British Arboretum: Trees, Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century (London, 2011).

22 Garden History, 12, 2 (1994), special issue on the picturesque; Daniels, S. and Watkins, C. (eds.), The Picturesque Landscape: Visions of Georgian Herefordshire (Nottingham, 1994)Google Scholar; Macve, J., The Hafod Landscape: An Illustrated History and Guide (Pontrhydygroes, 2004)Google Scholar.

23 Mitchell, J., The Wye Tour and its Artists (Woonton Almeley, 2010)Google Scholar; Waycott, R., Overlooking the Wye: A Guide to the Heritage of the Wye Valley (Witney, 2013), 14 Google Scholar.

24 Aris's Gazette, 13 July 1767 (I am grateful to the late David Lloyd for this reference); Lewis, W.J., Born on a Perilous Rock: Aberystwyth Past and Present (Aberystwyth, 1980), 194–212 Google Scholar.

25 Lloyd, T. et al., The Buildings of Wales: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion (New Haven and London, 2006), 412 Google Scholar.

26 Walton, J.K., The English Seaside Resort: A Social History, 1750–1914 (Leicester, 1983)Google Scholar; Borsay, P., ‘Le développement des villes balnéaires dans l'Angleterre géorgienne’, in Perret-Gentil, Y. et al. (eds.), Les villes balnéaires d'Europe occidentale du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours (Paris, 2008), 13–34 Google Scholar.

27 Gray, F., Designing the Seaside: Architecture, Society and Nature (London, 2006), 23–5Google Scholar; Borsay, P., ‘A room with a view: visualising the seaside, c. 1750–1914’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 23 (2013), pp. 175–201 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Corbin, A., The Lure of the Sea: The Discovery of the Seaside in the Western World, 1750–1840, trans. Phelps, J. (Cambridge, 1994), 1–18 Google Scholar.

29 Girouard, M., The English Town (New Haven and London, 1990), 155–70Google Scholar, 181–3; Brodie, A. and Winter, G., England's Seaside Resorts (Swindon, 2007), 62–75 Google Scholar.

30 Borsay, P., ‘Town or country? British spas and the urban–rural interface’, Journal of Tourism History, 4 (2012), 155–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 B.S. Smith, A History of Malvern (n.p., 1978), pp. 188, 230, 232.

32 Malvern Hills Act 1884, clause 13.

33 For the day-to-day operations of the Malvern Hills Conservators, see the Committee Minute Books and Rangers’ Report Books at the MHC offices in Malvern. I am grateful to the Director of the Conservators, Ian Rowat, for permission to consult these records.

34 Hurle, P., The Malvern Hills: A Hundred Years of Conservation (Chichester, 1984), 14–31 Google Scholar; Grindrod, C.F., Malvern: What to See and Where to Go (Malvern, 1904)Google Scholar.

35 Milton, P., The Discovery of Dartmoor: A Wild and Wondrous Region (Chichester, 2006)Google Scholar; The Discovery of the Lake District, exhibition catalogue Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1984); Walton, J.K. and Wood, J. (eds.), The Making of a Cultural Landscape: The English Lake District as Tourist Destination, 1750–2010 (Farnham, 2013 Google Scholar); Yoshikawa, S., William Wordsworth and the Invention of Tourism, 1820–1900 (Farnham, 2014)Google Scholar; Trezise, S., The West Country as a Literary Invention: Putting Fiction in its Place (Exeter, 2000)Google Scholar; Williamson, T., The Norfolk Broads: A Landscape History (Manchester, 1997), 154–65Google Scholar; Short, J.R., Imagined Country: Environment, Culture and Society (Syracuse, 1991)Google Scholar; Matless, D., Landscape and Englishness (London, 1998)Google Scholar.

36 Estabrook, C.B., Urbane and Rustic England: Cultural Ties and Social Spheres in the Provinces, 1660–1780 (Manchester, 1998), 253–75Google Scholar; Thompson, F.M.L., The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830–1900 (London, 1988), 164–7Google Scholar; Trainor, R., ‘The middle class’, in Daunton, M. (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, vol. III: 1840–1950 (Cambridge, 2000), 692–4Google Scholar; Skipp, V., The Making of Victorian Birmingham (Birmingham, 1983), 74–87 Google Scholar.

37 Reaching Back: Aspects of Local History from the Villages of Wootton and Dry Sandford Oxfordshire (Wootton, 2000), 33–5, 40–2; M.B. Rix, Boars Hill Oxford (Abingdon, [c. 1970]; orig. edn 1941); Aldiss, M. and Simms, P. (eds.), A Boars Hill Anthology: Containing a Little History and Many Memories (Faringdon, 1998)Google Scholar; Evans, A., Jarn Mound with its Panorama and Wild Garden of British Plants (Oxford, 1933)Google Scholar.

38 Oxford Preservation Trust, 3rd Annual Report, 1928–9 (Oxford, 1929), 5. The early activities of the Trust on Boars Hill can be followed in the manuscript Minute Books of the Trustees and General Meeting (1927–35, 1935–40), and the printed annual reports, located at the Trust's office in Oxford. I am grateful to the Trust for permission to consult these.

39 William-Ellis, C., England and the Octopus (London, 1928), 62 Google Scholar.

40 Howard, E., Garden Cities of To-Morrow (London, 1902)Google Scholar, 15; Meller, H., Towns, Plans and Society in Modern Britain (Cambridge, 1997), 35–9Google Scholar; Meacham, S., Regaining Paradise: Englishness and the Early Garden City Movement (New Haven and London, 1999)Google Scholar.

41 Brassley, P. et al. (eds.), The English Countryside between the Wars: Regeneration or Decline? (Woodbridge, 2006)Google Scholar.

42 Bradley, A.G., The Avon and Shakespeare's Country, 2nd edn (London, 1910), 226 Google Scholar.

43 Watkin, J., Tourists in South Warwickshire 1800–1939. . .and Visiting Today (Warwick and Leamington, 2005)Google Scholar; Pringle, R., ‘The rise of Stratford as Shakespeare's town’, in Bearman, R. (ed.), The History of an English Borough: Stratford-upon-Avon, 1196–1996 (Stroud, 1997), 160–74Google Scholar; Thomas, J., Shakespeare's Shrine: The Bard's Birthplace and the Invention of Stratford-upon-Avon (Philadelphia, 2012)Google Scholar.

44 Turner, C.J.R., Shakespeare Land (Leamington, 1893)Google Scholar; G. Morley, Rambles in Shakespeare's Land (London, n.d.); Macpherson, J., The Land of Shakespeare: A Series of Thirty-One Etchings (London, [1889]Google Scholar).

45 Jerrold, W., Shakespeare Land (London, 1910)Google Scholar; Harper, C.G., Summer Days in Shakespeare Land (London, 1912)Google Scholar; Harris, F.J., A Tour in Shakespeare Land (Pontypridd, [1913])Google Scholar; Bloom, J.H., Folklore, Old Customs and Superstitions in Shakespeare Land (London, [1930])Google Scholar; Field, P., Leamington Spa to Cheltenham Spa via Shakespeare Land (Stratford-on-Avon, [1931])Google Scholar.

46 Watson, N.J., The Literary Tourist: Readers and Places in Romantic and Victorian Britain (Basingstoke, 2006), 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Quoted in Windle, B.C.A., The Wessex of Thomas Hardy (London, 1906)Google Scholar, 7.

48 Rosser, G., ‘Myth, image and social process in the English medieval town’, Urban History, 23 (1996), 5–25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; P. Clark, ‘Visions of the urban community: antiquarians and the English city before 1800’, in Fraser and Sutcliffe (eds.), Pursuit of Urban History, 105–24.

49 Hutton, W., An History of Birmingham to the Year 1780 (Birmingham, 1781), 63 Google Scholar.

50 Sweet, R., The Writing of Urban Histories in Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford, 1997), 11 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 286–7; Sweet, R., The English Town 1680–1840: Government, Society and Culture (Harlow, 1999), 252 Google Scholar.

51 Hunt, T., Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City (London, 2004), 169–92Google Scholar.

52 Brooks, C., The Gothic Revival (London, 1999), 233–8Google Scholar, 303–5; Stanton, P., Pugin (London 1971), 85–92 Google Scholar; Hill, R., God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (London 2008), 153–9Google Scholar; Lang, M.H., Designing Utopia: John Ruskin's Urban Vision for Britain and America (Montreal, 1990)Google Scholar.

53 Defoe, D., A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain, ed. Cole, G.D.H. and Browning, D.C. (London, 1962)Google Scholar, vol. I, 69.

54 Yoshino, A., The Edwardian Historical Pageant: Local History and Consumerism (Tokyo 2010)Google Scholar; Readman, P., ‘The place of the past in English culture, c. 1890–1914’, Past and Present, 186 (2005), 147–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Commemorating the past in Edwardian Hampshire: King Alfred, pageantry and empire’, in M. Taylor (ed.), Southampton: Gateway to Europe (London, 2007), 97–113; Edwards, H.T., The National Pageant of Wales (Landysul, 2009)Google Scholar.

55 Borsay, P., The Image of Georgian Bath: Towns, Heritage and History (Oxford, 2000), 238–41, 271–2, 291–2Google Scholar; Swift, A. and Elliott, K., The Year of the Pageant (Bath, 2009)Google Scholar.

56 Taylor, J., A Dream of England: Landscape, Photography and the Tourist's Imagination (Manchester, 1994), 34–89 Google Scholar.

57 See, for example, Jones, M.M., The Lookers-Out of Worcestershire (Worcester, 1980)Google Scholar; Herefordshire Record Office, BH70, Minutes of the Woolhope Naturalist's Field Club.