(^38) an environmenTal hisTory of Wildlife in england
used to keep livestock alive through the winter when the grass does not
grow. Meadows had existed in England since at least the seventh century
but they increased in numbers and extent during the early Middle Ages,
presumably because the expansion of cultivation reduced the amount
of winter grazing and fodder available in wood-pastures.^1 Most were
located on damp alluvial soils, where a high water table ensured lush
grass growth in dry summer conditions.^2 They were often divided into
strips, either held as private property or, in some districts, reallocated
amongst villagers every year or so.^3 In late medieval and post-medieval
times, meadows became more widely distributed, with fields well away
from water courses sometimes being managed to produce a hay crop,
although they were still generally located on damper ground, such as that
afforded by clay soils.
Flood-plain meadows were managed continuously for centuries in a
manner that crucially shaped their ecology. They were closed to livestock
during the late spring and summer, allowing plants intolerant of grazing
and trampling to flourish, flower and set seed without disturbance, many
of them tall, bulky species like meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), globe-
flower (Trollius europaeus) or oxeye daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum).^4
Depending on soil conditions, they would provide striking displays of
cowslips and orchids; they also contained a wide range of grasses, such as
Timothy, tottering and sweet vernal.
In the seventeenth century many meadows were managed more intensively,
as water meadows in the strict sense. These were inundated during the winter
months with continually flowing water, so that the ground temperature was
raised above 5 degrees Centigrade, stimulating early growth of grass and
thus reducing the length of time during which livestock had to be fed on
hay and other fodder. Irrigation began before Christmas and stock were
put onto the fresh grass in early March. After they had been moved on to
summer pastures – in May – the meadows would again be irrigated and
substantial crops of hay taken in June or July.^5 Irrigation thus served to raise
the numbers of animals which could be kept on farms in two main ways,
and this in turn increased the amounts of manure produced, and thus cereal
yields: such meadows were especially important in ‘sheep-corn’ districts of
southern England, where the fortunes of arable farming depended so heavily
upon the manure supplied by the folding flocks. Forms of ‘floating’ had
existed since at least the late Middle Ages but in the seventeenth century
they became more common and more sophisticated.^6 ‘Catchwork’ floating
involved cutting channels along the contours of a valley side, the uppermost
being fed from a leat taken off the river at a higher level, or from nearby
springs or watercourses: the water simply flowed down the natural slope
from one ditch or ‘gutter’ to the next.^7 More sophisticated were ‘bedworks’,
which were employed wherever valley floors were wide and flat and water
could not otherwise be induced to flow continuously (which was essential:
stagnant water damaged the grass). A leet taken off the river some distance
elle
(Elle)
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