Taming the Flood: Rivers, Wetlands and the Centuries-Old Battle Against Flooding

Taming the Flood: Rivers, Wetlands and the Centuries-Old Battle Against Flooding
Jeremy Purseglove

In recent years the Somerset Levels suffered from the worst flooding in over twenty years. Inevitably the residents asked for more drainage, more dredging and more money. Flooding in the area has been an issue since it was a marshland, but is more drainage and more dredging the answer?Exploring the old arguments and new solutions raised over the last 400 years, this completely updated edition of the classic Taming the Flood reveals how harnessing nature, rather than attempting to repress it, is the only answer.As a practical landscape architect and ecologist working in the water industry, Jeremy Purseglove has been actively involved in land drainage engineering to try to enhance, rather than destroy, the heritage of our rivers and wetlands. Taming the Flood draws extensively on this experience, analysing many of the conflicting demands made on rivers and wetlands. Purseglove charts the conservation, agriculture and development, and outlines practical proposals for the protection and use of these sensitive ecological habitats.From the Lancashire mosses and the Derwent Ings, Otmoor and the Fens, to Romney Marsh and the Somerset Levels, he traces the history and natural history of our rivers and wetlands, describing in vivid detail both the beauty of these strange and ancient landscapes, and the often disastrous results of attempts to tame them.

Copyright (#ulink_9037941f-089d-58e6-a960-a2d79bc6390e)

William Collins

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First published in the United Kingdom by Oxford University Press, 1988

This revised and updated second edition first published by William Collins in 2015

This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2017

Text © Jeremy Purseglove 1988, 2015, 2017

Cover photograph showing sunset over the flooded Somerset Levels, February 2014 © Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Jeremy Purseglove asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008132217

Ebook Edition © 2017 ISBN: 9780008132224

Version: 2017-03-08

Praise for Jeremy Purseglove: (#ulink_049ef8ed-f4a4-5d4c-a3dc-777cba5ab938)

‘Taming the Flood most deserves its status as a classic […] for its evocation of place […] the descriptions of wetlands are exquisitely written. This fine book calls for, and takes, a longer view.’

The Sunday Times

‘His original determination remains the driving force of this compelling book. Mr Purseglove’s mission was to show why rivers really matter to England and how our wetlands are a vital part of the natural scene. His descriptions are wonderfully accurate, his writing captivating and his enthusiasm catching. On any level, it’s a good read, but, as a call to action, it’s outstanding […] It is his love of the subject, his deep knowledge and poetic insight that wins us from the very first page.’

John Selwyn Gummer, Country Life magazine

‘Jeremy Purseglove has a gift that is increasingly rare in these days of scientific specialisation – of joining practical wisdom about working with nature and the land to an imaginative appreciation of their place in our history and culture.’

Richard Mabey

‘An authoritative history of British wetlands and the centuries-old battle to control them. It is a celebration – beautifully illustrated – of life in and around the water and it is an eloquent plea to water authorities, to farmers and to Government to respect that life.’

BBC Wildlife

‘Delightfully written and beautifully illustrated.’

Observer

‘A pioneering and counter-cultural work.’

Oliver Rackham

Dedication (#ulink_33d1ce0e-ee71-56e9-b061-f396a04da1c0)

To all those engineers, digger-drivers and farmers who are taking nature conservation seriously.

*

HOTSPUR. See how this river comes me cranking in,

And cuts me from the best of all my land

A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.

I’ll have the current in this place damm’d up,

And here the smug and silver Trent shall run

In a new channel, fair and evenly;

It shall not wind with such a deep indent

To rob me of so rich a bottom here.

GLENDOWER. Not wind! It shall, it must; you see it doth.

SHAKESPEARE, I Henry IV, III. i.

CONTENTS

COVER (#u9d6e95cb-cf8f-5f16-9679-438b0a46cf9a)

TITLE PAGE (#u0bd85bce-496c-5a2c-9b93-25c416561351)

COPYRIGHT (#u5e673e27-b690-5156-9861-4ef4d922b658)

PRAISE (#uac02d4e9-09d2-5b72-b0a0-9c0f04bf4548)