Ian D Rotherham redresses the balance with the story of peat usage since the Iron Age, taking a regional tour of the history, rich cultural attachments and traditions of peat from the English lowland Levels and Fens, to the Scottish HIghlands and Islands, and the vast peat bogs of Ireland. He also explores the highly localised techniques and tools used in the extraction and processing of peat, and its diversity as a fuel and in many other applications. Ian D Rotherham, ecologist and landscape historian, is Reader in Tourism and Environmental Change at Sheffield Hallam University. An international authority on cultural and historical aspects of landscapes, especially peat bogs and peatlands, he also writes and broadcasts on environmental issues.
This is an account of the unique history and culture of peat, peat bogs and how they have been used by man over thousands of years. A natural fuel that has sustained communities for generations, peat is today close to extinction as a resource, and the abandonement of ancient traditions and the destruction of most sites means this rich source of history and ecology has been largely overlooked./p>
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