Does William the Conqueror has a lot to answer for? Well he quite possibly does – as author Guy Shrubsole points out early in this rich and complex book, the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 was followed by newly crowned King William distributing vast land grants to his 200 or so supporting barons. Many of these land subdivisions have survived to this day through multiple descendants and land sales. The landowning and moneyed aristocracy further tightened their grip down the ages through the Scottish Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries and the enclosure or ‘inclosure’ of common land in England – each taking away the rights of ordinary folk to access and use it.
But what has this got to do with Australia? Well the colonial occupation of this continent could also be viewed as a Norman invasion wherein their gene-compromised descendants invaded and took over land with little regard for the native inhabitants. This was enhanced down the track by many measures and events such as the Robertson Land Acts of the 1860s that overturned the squattocracy in NSW: the squatters having already overridden rightful First Nations ownership.
However it’s the British land ownership situation that sets the book's scene, dealing with the environmental consequences of land ownership and mismanagement in Britain by both big and smaller landowners, who are morally responsible for its stewardship. Shrubsole describes abundant and varied cases, ranging from long term damage to highland blanket bog cover, to East Anglian Fenland peat depletion, and then the deliberate destruction or logging of Atlantic Oakwood rainforest and the deliberate or accidental introduction of American grey squirrels, feral deer from various corners, and Asian pheasants. Many of the examples he features are familiar to me, my family and friends, from past experience growing up, travelling and hiking there and through many subsequent visits.
Take blanket bog terrains – which are Britain's most extensive and important long-term carbon sinks. They lie in highland moorland areas also favoured by grouse (a plump, ground-dwelling native bird and a magnet to moneyed grouse shooters). Grouse moor landowners – lairds, pseudo-lairds and the otherwise incredibly wealthy – are highlighted by this author as managing their land to protect the grouse to the detriment of most other species, illegally shooting and poisoning threatened raptor species and upsetting plant biodiversity with control burns and drainage trenches. Walking in the High Pennines you encounter many examples of this terrain: take Kinder Scout as an example.
An old friend from uni went to live in Little Hayfield, and the Kinder Scout plateau was virtually in his back yard. Kinder Scout is just over 600 metres above sea level and preserves a thick slab of Kinderscout Grit, a Carboniferous sandstone similar to local sandstones here. There are a number of good local NSW lookalikes in geology, terrain, elevation and annual rainfall, such as Maddens Plains, Barren Grounds, Budderoo and Little Forest Plateau. Kinder Scout is accessible and popular but has been almost loved to death. It falls within the Peak District National Park and is managed by National Trust. But the park authority owns only slightly over 4% of the extensive overall national park area in which Kinder Scout falls and apart from reliable owners and managers like National Trust it has NO legal control over land use in the park area's predominantly private land.
But let's jump to a visit – with friend and my son we climbed onto the Kinder plateau and walked along its west-facing rim. Trying to cross ‘inland’ so to speak however we came up against soil erosion gullies up to more than 2 metres deep. These make up the dendritic pattern you can see in the Google Earth image (which is around 1.5 km across). The gully walls were solid black peat, the vegetation above – thick heather. Looking down on the Kinder Reservoir we could see brown deltas of peat dumped from its erosion.
So what’s going on? Well, lots of bad things: acid rain from the Manchester industrial area, multiple hiker’s boots, historical control burning and grouse shoot management. Kinder Scout plateau it turns out is the most degraded blanket bog area in Britain. So what are the national parks authority doing about it? Well if they didn’t have a benevolent owner like National Trust they would be powerless and toothless! But wait – University of Manchester and environmental organisation volunteers are repairing the damage by replanting of sphagnum and blocking of gullies, but it’s a huge task. Let’s wish them good luck!
So let’s take another example: Blencathra, 868 metres, is the northernmost high peak of the English Lake District lying just north-east of Keswick. My wife Isolde was chasing up some history research for a novel and we ended up at the village of Threlkeld. Talking to locals we heard that the ‘landowner’ of Blencathra had put it on the market and Friends of Blencathra were raising money to buy – would we like to donate?
I think we gave them ten quid, I can’t remember? But this is Lake District National Park isn’t it? You surely can’t buy and sell land here? Well, the answer is, like the Peak District, the park authority owns only 4% of it. National Trust does own a substantial portion, which is great, but a big percentage is still privately owned.
National parks in Australia are all on crown land, ie public land, and managed by national park authorities in their native states. But Dartmoor National Park in Devon is surely also crown land at least in part? 57% of it is actually owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The right to roam and camp throughout is legally established but a proposal to reintroduce beavers was rejected by King Charles, and who can argue with him? What does William, the current duke say? Who knows?
So let’s round this off by saying this is one of the most thoroughly researched books I’ve ever reviewed and I can recommend it wholeheartedly to anybody who has British connections and environmental love. But it’s also an insider’s look into a complex historical web where many competent and environmentally and legally qualified people are up against a solid wall of history-bound land tenure and vested interests: a country where 1% of the population owns more than half of the land area. Could it evolve to that here? Well in some ways and in part, it probably already has but at least we have free national parks (entry fees or no).
Reviewed by John Martyn
Author: Guy Shrubsole
Publisher: William Collins, 2024
Hardback, 309 pp