The book takes the reader through a kaleidoscope of the geography of Yorkshire and The Humber from the austere and dramatic, with wide tracts of exposed treeless moors, to gentle stone-walled fields and clustered villages. It takes in the Jurassic rocks of the North York Moors, the chalk of the Yorkshire Wolds, looks at the various ice masses and they merged to create a vast south-moving sheet reaching beyond the Humber into the Vale of York and as far as Doncaster, and at the outstanding limestone of Ingleborough. The Humber, with its 'fringing tidal flats', is so vast it could merit consideration as a distinctive landscape in its own right, says the author, Professor Fred Aalen.
Sir Neil Cossons, Chairman of English Heritage, said: "The landscape of England has inspired generations of writers, poets and artists. It evokes intense passion and profound emotion, but only in the last half-century or so have we started to recognise the extreme fragility of all that we value. These books set out to reveal the values that underwrite our sense of place and offer a new insight into how the landscape of England evolved."
The series, written by leading regional experts with assistance from English Heritage specialists, aims to integrate our understandings of geology, topography, history, archaeology and architecture and explores humanity's impact on its immediate environment, examining differences between and within each English region. The volumes also include photographs specially-commissioned by English Heritage including new aerial photography which has revealed complex landscapes across the country.
The "England's Landscape" series takes a new approach to the definition of the English Regions, grouping localities together into areas where comparable settlements have used the land in similar ways, revealing new connections between apparently diverse communities. This approach also exposes the fundamental role that 'region' has played in English creative and intellectual life throughout the centuries. 'England' itself emerges more clearly from this investigation and English identity is reinforced through our new understanding of the diversity of the regional experience.
Copies of "England's Landscape" are priced at £35 and are available at bookshops across the country from 9 August 2006. Or you can order copies from English Heritage Sales at Gillards on tel. 01761 452966 or email ehsales@gillards.com.
