Yorkshire's Forgotten Fenlands

摘要

Nowadays it is difficult to imagine the former extent of wetlands in any country because open waters, swamps, marshes, fens and bogs have been drained and much reduced in area as a result of land use change over centuries. The extent to which this has happened in one region of England is described graphically by Ian Rotherham in this fascinating and informative book about the Northern Fens of Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire. He stresses the interrelationship between this vast low-lying area, with its flood plains and rivers draining into the North Sea and the moorlands and blanket bogs of the Pennine Hills to the west. The latter were the principal source of water that irrigated the former and whose waterlogged soils gave rise to an array of wetland habitats important for wildlife and people. In addition, the rivers that crossed this lowland landscape were important transportation routes that contributed to the prosperity of the region and towns such as Hull and York.