Farming in the English landscape can be traced back for at least the last seven thousand years.  Every part of the country has its own unique landscape character, much of it due to the land management practices that have evolved with the local envir...
Countryside Agency Archive

Breadcrumbs

England’s Farmed Landscape

A farm in the Shropshire Hills
Farming in the English landscape can be traced back for at least the last seven thousand years. Every part of the country has its own unique landscape character, much of it due to the land management practices that have evolved with the local environment. Most of the habitats and landscapes today are the products of this past land management.


However, since World War II, changes in land management have contributed to the erosion of many features of the countryside and its diversity of character. Post-war agricultural policies, technological developments and structural changes have led to intensification, with fewer, larger and more specialised farms resulting in a more uniform landscape. Over the past fifty years the improved availability of high protein animal feed has produced an unprecedented increase in the numbers of livestock on the land. Additionally, modern farming methods have increased crop yields with the use of inorganic fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. This intensification has contributed to the loss of downland, heathland, flower rich meadows, hedgerows and hedgerow trees, ponds and ancient monuments, and a decline in the populations of farmland birds and butterflies. 

Intensification has gone hand in hand with structural changes in the farming industry. This has created a pattern of pastoral livestock farms in the north and west and larger arable farms in the east. As farming practices have become more uniform, many of the local crop varieties and livestock breeds which contribute to the unique and diverse appearance of the countryside have disappeared.