Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Mapping the land use of Britain: 80 years of innovation
by Dr Ruth Swetnam, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

Britain is one of the best mapped countries in the world and has a rich archive of historical maps to document its development as a nation. We live on a crowded island and the use of the land has to be planned and managed in order to balance the competing needs of 60 million people for food, housing, water, energy, work and recreation.
In order to do this we need to understand the basic geography of our surroundings – where things are, how much is there, what is changing? Since the early 1930s different geographical pioneers have attempted to answer these questions by mapping the land use of Britain.
The story starts with school children and ends with satellites and touches on many interesting characters along the way. As a nation, we have led the field in this endeavour for nearly 80 years and have produced many fascinating and beautiful maps along the way. How do you think Britain’s landscape has changed over the last century?
Come and find out whether your impressions match the facts.

Report
by Carole Smith
Britain is one of the best-mapped countries in the world; it breeds map enthusiasts. Many of them braved snow and ice to hear a vivid exposition of the mapping of UK land use since the 1930s.
Dudley Stamp’s pre-war concern about unplanned urban sprawl over agricultural land was quickly recognised by government in wartime. The development of land-use mapping since has become technically more sophisticated. But Stamp’s 200,000 volunteers walking the land and marking up maps are beginning to be matched by nearly 9500 internet volunteer photographers for the Geograph Project, which aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre in the British Isles.
Land-use surveys over 80 years have produced an awareness of change and loss – of woodland, hedgerows, lowland heath; of patterns of urbanisation and agricultural production; and an awareness of the speed of change and the importance of relevant planning.

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Dr Ruth Swetnam is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and is passionate about maps, both old and new. She specialises in the use of Geographic Information Systems to help solve spatial problems in ecology and environmental science and is currently based in the Zoology Department of the University of Cambridge. Recently, Ruth and some of the maps she will talk about were featured in the BBC2 programme ‘Britain from Above’ and further details can be viewed here:

Links to Websites mentioned in the lecture:

1st Land Utilisation Survey Maps
Field survey sheets are stored in the London School of Economics Archive, contact the archivist for access (Ms Anna Towlson) a.towlson@lse.ac.uk
Published maps available online at the Vision of Britain Website at http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/maps/

2nd Land Utilisation Survey Maps
Contact Professor Alice Coleman in writing:
The Land Use Research Unit, 19-20 Giles Coppice, Dulwich, London, SE18 1XF.
Published maps available in libraries / specialist map dealers

Countryside Survey
http://www.countrysidesurvey.org.uk/

Land Cover Maps
http://www.countrysidesurvey.org.uk/land_cover_map.html

The Geograph Project
http://www.geograph.org.uk/

The Dudley Stamp maps and their role in the 2nd World War on the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/buildingbritain/dudleystamp.shtml (2.30 min in)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/buildingbritain/agriculturalrevolution.shtml(2.25 min in)