University of Sussex
Browse
Weir-Wilson,_Margaret_Mary.pdf (26.76 MB)

St. Leonard's Forest: social and economic change from 1750 to 1914 and its impact on a forest landscape

Download (26.76 MB)
thesis
posted on 2023-06-08, 17:29 authored by Margaret Mary Weir-Wilson
This thesis is concerned with the changes to a forest landscape, that of St. Leonard’s Forest, Horsham, West Sussex, changes that were wrought by human activity over two and half centuries. In order to uncover and understand these changes the author has focused on five private estates within the Forest core, Holmbush, Buchan Hill, St. Leonard’s, Coolhurst and Leonardslee, and two villages in the Forest, Colgate and Lower Beeding. The five estates are considered with regard to ownership and control, land use and workers on the estates. The two villages are examined for their growth, the profile of the population, poverty and wealth. The establishment and endowments of the parish churches are outlined along with the development of the parish of Lower Beeding and its ties to Magdalen College, Oxford. Paternalism was a theme in the Victorian and Edwardian period, and the 1900 Footpath Dispute demonstrated a move away from these attitudes towards a more individualistic concern with private property rights. For the first time this study pulls together the numerous and complex strands which make up the landscape history of St. Leonard’s Forest. It explores the factors both social and economic which impacted on the Forest. The juxtaposition of the nearby expanding market town of Horsham with its large common, improving communications, sales of land, and the attitudes of individual Forest landowners all combined to transform the Forest from a wild barren heathland in 1750 to a place of desirable picturesque estates and expanding villages by 1914, before the impact of the Great War was to change the Forest landscape yet again.

History

File Version

  • Published version

Pages

344.0

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Theses

Qualification level

  • doctoral

Qualification name

  • phd

Language

  • eng

Institution

University of Sussex

Full text available

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2014-06-06

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Theses)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC