UK Countryside history - 4,000 BC
About 6500 years ago the first farmers started clearing the native
wildwood and converting the land to agriculture. Trees
were killed by "ringing" (either with an axe or by animals browsing)
and eventually the stumps rotted away allowing farming to begin. We cannot be certain how agriculture arrived in the UK but it is likely that it was a result of both "idea transfer" and the arrival of new settlers from continental Europe.
- Population
About 80,000 in small farming families and groups organised into farmsteads
and hamlets along similar lines to that we see today - namely that the
lowland south east of the country was best suited to the production of
crops while the more upland areas elsewhere were suited to pastoral farming.
- Crops
Wheat and barley were most important (grown for flour, stock feed and
straw) but some other minor crops were also grown. Soil preparation was
by scratching the ground with an ard (a primitive plough that is still
in use throughout parts of the world today). Harvested crops were stored
in pits which allowed surplus produce to be used at times of need. Storage,
more than anything else allowed the development of farming and ultimately
civilisation.
- Livestock
Sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. Dogs were kept in farmsteads and used to
hunt deer and other animals.
- Farming Systems
Systems were based upon a "slash and burn" style of agriculture. New land
was cleared and farmed until fertility was exhausted (about 20 years)
at which point the farmers moved to clear new land and start afresh. Land
that was abandoned then reverted to scrub and woodland before it was cleared
again.
- Woodland & Hedges
Dense woodland still covering most of the country.
- Social Economy
The period of the early farmers was characterised by small settlements,
plain pottery, improved stone tools and woodmanship (coppicing produced
regularly sized timber). Neolithic society was also developing with the
earliest long barrows and causewayed enclosures dating from this period.
Trade in flints, pottery and farmed produce was common.
- Climate
At the beginning of the period the climate was at an optimum for the generation
of deciduous woodland but over the following 1500 years it gradually cooled.
User comments - post
a comment
