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The South West Peak is a lesser-known part of the Peak District
stretching from Lyme Park in Cheshire in the north to Onecote in
Staffordshire in the south, and from Macclesfield in the west to
Buxton in the east. This landscape area includes tracts of high
moorland, fertile valleys, wooded cloughs, picturesque villages and
tiny hamlets. The farmers of the South West Peak are the people who
have made the landscape what it is today, and it is their personal
accounts of working in this often challenging land that form the
basis of The Land That Made Us. Edited by local author Christine
Gregory and dairy farmer Sheila Hine, and published in partnership
with the Farming Life Centre and the Peak District National Park
Authority with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund,
this book includes the testimony of over twenty farmers, and it is
illustrated with photographs of them and their farming landscapes.
We hear stories from across the generations of heroic endeavour in
difficult terrain, as well as accounts of day-to-day work and
family life spanning eighty years of farming history. The land had
been farmed in traditional ways for centuries, but the Second World
War changed that, and in succeeding years politics and increasing
mechanisation have constantly rewritten the rule book for farmers.
There is pride in achievement as well as frustration at the often
conflicting demands of food production and wildlife conservation.
The Land That Made Us asks what makes for sustainability in the
short and the long term. The future of this landscape and of the
farming communities that sustain it hangs in the balance, and it is
the farmers' turn to reflect on their past and speculate about the
future.
Brown Hares in the Derbyshire Dales is a written and photographic
celebration of one of the Peak District's most secretive and
enigmatic animals. Meticulously researched and beautifully
illustrated with over 100 colour photographs, this book gives a
unique insight into the life, habitat and history of a much loved,
yet threatened, species. First published in 2010 to coincide with
the International Year of Biodiversity, this new edition - with
more than 60 new photos - is intended to raise awareness of the
brown hare (Lepus europaeus), which is now extinct in parts of
Britain and listed as a priority species in the UK Biodiversity
Action Plan. The book is split into two sections; the first
describes the brown hare, what differentiates them from rabbits and
other hares, their breeding patterns, courtship, boxing, their
remarkable speed and agility, their habitat, what they eat, and
their history in the UK and the Derbyshire Dales. There are also
tips on where and how to see hares in the wild. The second section,
biodiversity, sets the hare in the context of the rapid and
extensive loss of their preferred natural habitat, primarily
wildflower meadows and traditional grasslands, now almost
eradicated by intensive farming systems in some areas. Balanced yet
thought-provoking reflections on these modern farming methods are
supplemented by accounts from local farmers, including Lord Edward
Manners of Haddon Hall, interviewed especially for the book by the
author. From local author and photographer Christine Gregory, Brown
Hares in the Derbyshire Dales is an enlightening and captivating
portrait of a beautiful British mammal.
The water vole is one of Britain's most endangered mammals. A
native of the British Isles, and popularised in modern culture as
'Ratty' in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, the water
vole is a cherished resident of our rivers, canals, streams and
ponds. But this once ever-present mammal, like so many others, is
now in danger - during the 1990s Britain's water vole population
declined by over 80 per cent, and it is now fully protected by law
in England and Wales. In The Water Vole, Christine Gregory, author
of Brown Hares in the Derbyshire Dales and A River in Time, tells
the story of the water vole, past, present and future, principally
through its history in the waterways of Derbyshire. Having spent
several years studying Derbyshire's water vole population and
habitats, and capturing their behaviour intimately through her
photography, Christine has developed a relationship with many of
the custodians of the county's waterways, who are vital to the
survival of the water vole. Decades of painstaking research into
the decline of the water vole and the visionary work of
conservationists give much cause for hope. Respecting our
countryside and wild places and rebuilding the health of our rivers
is key: we all have a role to play in the water vole's future.
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