This talk will be based upon Oliver Rackham’s new book ‘Collins New Naturalist: Woodlands’. In this lecture, by one of Britain’s best-known naturalists, the significance and history of woodlands on the British landscape will be explored.

As well as discussing woodland through the ages the lecture will also investigate what woods are and how they function, how woods evolved and how they are managed, the basic botany (understanding roots, partnerships, longevity, tree-rings), pollen analysis and wildwood, archives of woodland and how to study them, different types of woodland and the the rise and fall of modern forestry.

Oliver Rackham is a botanist and Fellow and Praelector Rhetoricus of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. An acknowledged authority on the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and pasture; he has written a number of well-known books, including The History of the Countryside (1986) and one on Hatfield Forest. He has also studied and published extensively on the ecology of Crete.

Registration required:

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Free:

No