seTTing T he sCene: The naTure of naTure^9the beaver survived into Anglo-Saxon times it had also probably gone by
the time of the Norman Conquest.^36 The wolf hung on into the fourteenth
century, but mainly in the counties bordering Wales and Scotland and perhaps
in North Yorkshire. Increasing pressure on land probably caused significant
declines in other species, especially those associated with woodland. Roe
and red deer, in particular, appear to have become fairly scarce, at least in
the lowlands. Yalden has noted how the bones of the yellow-necked mouse
and of bats like the lesser horseshoe and Bechstein’s, species which are now
found only in well-wooded parts of south-eastern and western England,
have been found on Roman sites in the Midlands and the north.^37 There
were likewise changes in the frequency of certain plant species. Small leafed
lime, once so common across lowland England, had declined markedly by
later Saxon times, probably because it does not withstand grazing pressure
very well. The Scots pine, for less obvious reasons, had died out in England
by the end of the Roman period.
On the whole, however, the development of farming landscapes in England
from the Neolithic times to the Middle Ages was good for biodiversity. Many
species, previously confined to liminal niches, flourished as never before. Even
if Vera is correct in seeing the natural environment as a largely open one –
which, as we have noted, remains improbable – it is unlikely that much of it
comprised the kind of close-grazed sward which is created by domesticated
sheep and cattle. The kinds of plants which flourish today in such habitats
must have been rare before the arrival of farming. Moreover, many species
of invertebrate, mammal and bird favour wood-edge habitats, and the steady
fragmentation of the forests ensured that these increased, for numerous small
pockets of woodland have a higher edge length to area ratio than large,
continuous blocks. The proliferation of hedges provided additional ‘edge’
habitats and also a degree of connectivity between surviving woodlands.
Indeed, the patchwork of arable fields, meadows, woods and pastures which
emerged as farming developed contained numerous other forms of ‘edge’
environment which afforded both places in which animals could nest or
find cover, and diverse areas over which to forage, in close proximity. More
important is the fact that the particular forms of land use adopted by successive
human societies – the cutting of meadows at particular times of the year, the
intensive cropping of woodland, the grazing of stock on heaths and pastures –
tended over time to create particular suites of flora or fauna, more varied than
anything which had existed before the advent of farming.
The effects of the fragmentation of the woods, and of the diversification
of habitats through the spread of farming, are clearly reflected in the diverse
yet often overlapping environmental requirements of our native birds.^38
Around 80 per cent of common farmland birds are woodland or wood-
edge species in origin: birds like the blackbird, chaffinch, dunnock, rook,
house sparrow, robin, wren, blue and great tit, song thrush, starling, willow
warbler and whitethroat. Most of these, the last two being exceptions, are
resident all the year round. Some, like the house sparrow and the blackbird,