John Sheail
Biographic Data
| ID | 1114007 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Sheail |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Sheail |
| SIGNATURE | SHEAIL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Natural Environment Research Council |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 60 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 134 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 60 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The British Government, Ernest Shackleton, and the rescue of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
The remarkable rescue of Shackleton's men from Elephant Island, after the sinking of Endurance , and from Ross Island, has been recounted many times by both participants and historians. There has been little critical examination of the part played by governments, nor assessment of some of Shackleton's own actions. In this paper we explore more fully from official British archival sources the extent to which the British Government was prepared to …
Pesticides and the British Environment
Pesticides formed an essential part of the post-war 'chemical revolution' in British farming. Advantage is taken of surviving files of the Ministry of Agriculture to extend what might otherwise be learned from the archives of the nature-conservation bodies in reconstructing historically the course and significance of moves to protect the environment from the side-effects of such pesticides. The files reveal how, from the very first reports of the…
The Access to Mountains Act 1939
The Access to Mountains Act of 1939 has been ridiculed for the most part as a capitulation to landed interests. Closer reconstruction of the circumstances in which such a legislative attempt was made to extend the public recreational-use of uncultivated countryside emphasises the severe limitations of a Private Members’ Bill. Even greater skills were called for in securing sufficient consensus among the various parliamentary lobbies to convince m…
Torrey Canyon
It is forty years since the Torrey Canyon oil-tanker disaster of March/April 1967. The unprecedented scale of the pollution and its impact on the Cornish coast is commonly perceived as an important trigger to the environmental movement of the 1970s. The article focuses on the political response to the immediate stranding and destruction of the tanker, the pollution of the beaches, the legal and scientific advice tendered, and the longer-term repe…
One and the SameHistoricLandscape
The paper reviews, from a British perspective, the ecological contribution to landscape conservation. It focuses upon the development of an institutional framework for the study and stewardship of the ‘living’ heritage, the enquiries required of ecologists as to how plant and animal communities functioned, and the increasing support given to what came to be known as ‘creative conservation’. Such endeavours, as were often pursued under the self‐co…
Clifford H. Mortimer, Lake Michigan in Motion
Alice Garner, A Shifting Shore. Locals, Outsiders, and the Transformation of a French Fishing Town 1823-2000
Experts, publics and the environment in the UK
Burning bings’
The Mink Menace
The paper relates the impact of the North American mink ( Mustela vison ), during the first half-century of its introduction, to the wider governance of the British countryside and, more particularly the agriculture departments, the Nature Conservancy, and their respective interest-groups. Even when evidence emerged of the mink's ability to breed in the wild, the departments strove both to avoid any impairment of the fur-breeding industry and to …
Government and the Management of an Alien Pest Species
Whilst pest control was deemed the responsibility of individual occupiers of land and buildings, Agriculture Ministers acknowledged an obligation to help secure the co-operative action required to meet that goal. The manner in which such support might be given is illustrated. By way of introduction, the attempts made to regulate rabbit and grey squirrel numbers, and the success of scientists and policy makers in exterminating a further non-native…
Bonnie B. Burgess, Fate of the Wild. The Endangered Species Act and the Future of Biodiversity
Yorkshire's 'Sloughs of Despond
Not only do questions of environmental management have an intrinsic importance, but the manner in which they were addressed may offer insight into the relevance and robustness of the mechanisms by which they might be resolved. The paper provides a case study of the range of preoccupations which the statutory planner, agricultural interests and mineral developer brought to bear on the conflict arising from the early twentieth-century development o…
Secure from Rash Assault
Water Management in the English Landscape
Never Again’
The purpose of diplomacy has traditionally been to avoid military action. Diplomacy is vitally important in preventing war and maintaining peace because skilful negotiation can deter violence from being used in an effort to settle an argument. Should war break out regardless, negotiation is still crucial if peace can eventually be achieved. Diplomacy also seeks to persuade or compel through the conveyance of threats, promises, codes and symbols
Business and the environment
Prompted by the prominence given to environmental issues by present‐day business, the article assesses the part played by the UK ‘peak’ body, the Federation of British Industries in the inter‐war years. The response of the Federation to demands for further curbs on air and water pollution reveals not only the anxieties of members as to the impact of closer regulation on industrial competitiveness, but the strength and character of the relationshi…
The Sustainable Management of Industrial Watercourses
Scott revisited
The national forest of the English midlands ‐ a local government perspective
Town wastes, agricultural sustainability and Victorian sewage
In analysing the practicability of Victorian proposals to dispose of urban wastes, valuable insights may be gained from the commentaries of agriculturalists and their scientific advisers.
Sustaining the Countryside
In October 1994, the Environment Secretary and Agriculture Minister announced their intention to publish, for the first time, a joint White Paper, setting out Government policy for the economic, social and environmental well-being of the English countryside. It stimulated a further flurry of interest in how such policy agenda are drawn up and implemented. Although ostensibly, ministers sought fresh policies under the banner of sustainable develop…
From aspiration to implementation — the establishment of the first national nature reserves in Britain
Much has been written on the initiatives leading up to the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, but relatively little on the ways in which the National Parks Commission and Nature Conservancy subsequently established themselves amongst other user‐interests in the countryside. This paper disputes the general assumption that the Nature Conservancy operated in a largely apolitical climate, acquiring and managing nature reserves on …
Nature protection, ecologists and the farming context
An environmental history of Britain since the industrial revolution
Rural Conservation in Inter-War Britain
This book looks at the way in which those living in the 1920s and 1930s perceived and responded to the changes taking place in the countryside. Many of the more fundamental problems affecting land use and management were recognised and tackled for the first time. Remedies were sought both on a piecemeal basis and through a more comprehensive system of town and country planning. Readership: town and country planners; central and local government o…
Nature in Trust
The Concept of National Parks in Great Britain 1900-1950
National Parks were promoted in Great Britain as a means of preserving scenery and wildlife, and of satisfying demands for more outdoor recreation. Steps were taken to avert any conflict between these objectives, and attempts were made to reconcile the designation of parks with contemporary town and country planning legislation. The advocates of parks stressed the positive benefits of a series of parks forming an essential component of a national…
The Distribution of Taxable Population and Wealth in England during the Early Sixteenth Century
Lists oftaxpayers were compiled during the lay subsidy surveys of 524-25 and 1543-45. It is possible to map the distribution of taxpayers and the amounts of tax paid over the greater part of England, and these maps may be taken as a guide to some of the major elements in the distribution of population and wealth at that period. This paper examines the nature of the lay subsidy surveys, and discusses their limitations as source material. It is con…
Town wastes, agricultural sustainability and Victorian sewage
In analysing the practicability of Victorian proposals to dispose of urban wastes, valuable insights may be gained from the commentaries of agriculturalists and their scientific advisers.
An environmental history of Britain since the industrial revolution
The Land Use, Ecology and Conservation of Broadland
Torrey Canyon
It is forty years since the Torrey Canyon oil-tanker disaster of March/April 1967. The unprecedented scale of the pollution and its impact on the Cornish coast is commonly perceived as an important trigger to the environmental movement of the 1970s. The article focuses on the political response to the immediate stranding and destruction of the tanker, the pollution of the beaches, the legal and scientific advice tendered, and the longer-term repe…
Experts, publics and the environment in the UK
Nature protection, ecologists and the farming context
Sewering the English suburbs
The 'Amenity' Clause
John Sheail, The 'Amenity' Clause: An Insight into Half a Century of Environmental Protection in the United Kingdom, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1992), pp. 152-165
The great divide
The paper assesses the degree to which there was ever unity of purpose and action among those striving to protect amenity, wildlife and the opportunities for outdoor recreation
The changing geographical distribution of wealth in England
Rabbits and agriculture in post-medieval England
Coasts and Planning in Great Britain before 1950
The early attempts to reconcile the growing demands for holidays and homes by the sea with the need to preserve the amenity of the coast resulted in the formulation of private Acts of Parliament, town planning schemes and national plans and surveys. The paper is based largely on contemporary documents and takes the form of a case study of the complexity of decision-making in the field of environmental management, helping to place in perspective t…
The Access to Mountains Act 1939
The Access to Mountains Act of 1939 has been ridiculed for the most part as a capitulation to landed interests. Closer reconstruction of the circumstances in which such a legislative attempt was made to extend the public recreational-use of uncultivated countryside emphasises the severe limitations of a Private Members’ Bill. Even greater skills were called for in securing sufficient consensus among the various parliamentary lobbies to convince m…
Scott revisited
From aspiration to implementation — the establishment of the first national nature reserves in Britain
Much has been written on the initiatives leading up to the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, but relatively little on the ways in which the National Parks Commission and Nature Conservancy subsequently established themselves amongst other user‐interests in the countryside. This paper disputes the general assumption that the Nature Conservancy operated in a largely apolitical climate, acquiring and managing nature reserves on …
The Land of Britain, 1930-1990
Over fifty years after the Land Utilization Survey, directed by the geographer Dudley Stamp, the first Land Cover Map of Great Britain, derived in digital form from satellite sensor imagery, has been launched. This paper discusses in turn the procedures, logistics and results of the two surveys, and their wider relevance to the recording of landscape changes
Burning bings’
The Mink Menace
The paper relates the impact of the North American mink ( Mustela vison ), during the first half-century of its introduction, to the wider governance of the British countryside and, more particularly the agriculture departments, the Nature Conservancy, and their respective interest-groups. Even when evidence emerged of the mink's ability to breed in the wild, the departments strove both to avoid any impairment of the fur-breeding industry and to …
Sustaining the Countryside
In October 1994, the Environment Secretary and Agriculture Minister announced their intention to publish, for the first time, a joint White Paper, setting out Government policy for the economic, social and environmental well-being of the English countryside. It stimulated a further flurry of interest in how such policy agenda are drawn up and implemented. Although ostensibly, ministers sought fresh policies under the banner of sustainable develop…
Green History — The Evolving Agenda
In a recent issue of Rural History , Malcolm Chase wrote a somewhat frustrated commentary, ‘Can history be green?’ Against a general intellectual background that was increasingly preoccupied with environmental issues, historical scholarship remained largely impervious to ‘green’ issues. His timely commentary set out the consequences of this neglect for both the environmental movement and the historian
Public Interest and Self-interest
Journal Article Public Interest and Self-interest: The Disposal of Trade Effluent in Interwar England Get access JOHN SHEAIL JOHN SHEAIL NERC Institute of Terrestrial Ecology Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Twentieth Century British History, Volume 4, Issue 2, 1993, Pages 149–170, https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/4.2.149 Published: 01 January 1993
The Distribution of Taxable Population and Wealth in England during the Early Sixteenth Century
Lists oftaxpayers were compiled during the lay subsidy surveys of 524-25 and 1543-45. It is possible to map the distribution of taxpayers and the amounts of tax paid over the greater part of England, and these maps may be taken as a guide to some of the major elements in the distribution of population and wealth at that period. This paper examines the nature of the lay subsidy surveys, and discusses their limitations as source material. It is con…
Changes in the Use and Management of Farmland in England and Wales, 1915-19
The objectives of British farming changed during 1915-18 as the government and public became convinced of the need to produce more home-grown food in order to offset a decline in imports. For the first time, the government sought to intervene in the use and management of individual farms and fields, and it used both persuasion and compulsory powers to secure improvements in land husbandry and the ploughing up of grasslands for cultivation. Sixty-…
The Concept of National Parks in Great Britain 1900-1950
National Parks were promoted in Great Britain as a means of preserving scenery and wildlife, and of satisfying demands for more outdoor recreation. Steps were taken to avert any conflict between these objectives, and attempts were made to reconcile the designation of parks with contemporary town and country planning legislation. The advocates of parks stressed the positive benefits of a series of parks forming an essential component of a national…
The lay subsidy of 1334
Coasts and Planning in Great Britain before 1950
The early attempts to reconcile the growing demands for holidays and homes by the sea with the need to preserve the amenity of the coast resulted in the formulation of private Acts of Parliament, town planning schemes and national plans and surveys. The paper is based largely on contemporary documents and takes the form of a case study of the complexity of decision-making in the field of environmental management, helping to place in perspective t…
The living landscape
Nature in Trust
The naturalist in Britain
Rabbits and agriculture in post-medieval England
Late Victorian agriculture in the Vale of Evesham
The changing geographical distribution of wealth in England
The Restriction of Ribbon Development Act
Sheail J. (1979) The Restriction of Ribbon Development Act: the character and perception of land-use control in inter-war Britain, Reg. Studies 13, 501–512. Never before had there been both the capacity and demand for land-use changes on the scale experienced in Britain between 1919 and 1939. The inception, formulation and enactment of the Restriction of Ribbon Development Bill of 1935 may provide an important insight into the way in which local …
Protecting historic landscapes
Fenland
A guide to the prehistoric remains in Britain, volume one, south and east
Houses in the landscape
Ancient woodland; its history, vegetation and uses in England
Underground water abstraction
Rural Conservation in Inter-War Britain
This book looks at the way in which those living in the 1920s and 1930s perceived and responded to the changes taking place in the countryside. Many of the more fundamental problems affecting land use and management were recognised and tackled for the first time. Remedies were sought both on a piecemeal basis and through a more comprehensive system of town and country planning. Readership: town and country planners; central and local government o…
Planning, Water Supplies and Ministerial Power in Inter‐war Britain
Despite several attempts to reform the structure of the water industry, little was achieved in the inter‐war period. Three phases in the perception of water‐use planning can be discerned, namely the period of post‐First World War reconstruction, the years 1929–34, and those of 1935–39. The allocation of water resources affected property rights so closely that Parliament was particularly reluctant to delegate its regulatory powers over the industr…
Interwar Planning in Britain
South riding
Grassland Management and the Early Development of British Ecology
Worster depicted ecology as ‘a stranger who has just blown into town’ — it had ‘a presence without a past’. In seeking to remedy this deficiency, historians have drawn attention to the fact that an interest in the relationship of wild species to their environment, and to one another, can be discerned well before the theory of evolution by natural selection was enunciated by Charles Darwin in the Origin of Species
The great divide
The paper assesses the degree to which there was ever unity of purpose and action among those striving to protect amenity, wildlife and the opportunities for outdoor recreation
The design and location of development
The paper focuses on the debate that took place between the Royal Fine Art Commission and the electricity supply industry of England and Wales during the post‐war years in respect of the design, layout and location of power stations
Geography (41 works) · Political science (35 works) · Law (25 works) · History (23 works) · Economics (21 works) · Law (21 works) · History (20 works) · Archaeology (19 works) · American Environmental and Regional History (16 works) · Sociology (15 works)