Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday, 31 January 2026

Restoring the historic environment in Wiltshire


Two linked articles on the BBC News website cover stories about restoring the historic natural environment. 

The first is about an initiative in Swindon by a local councillor to plant saplings of the Black Poplar in his ward. The tree is now a rarity in England as the conditions for its successful propagation and growth have declined yet it was once a frequently recurring feature in wet lowland areas. Thanks to books such as the late Oliver Rackham’s splendid and stimulating Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape and his History of the Countryside we are more aware of our ancient woodlands. There have also been moves to restore, regenerate and recreate these historic locations and foster them for their wider environmental impact. 

The article about the Swindon initiative can be seen at Joining the mission to save Britain's rarest tree

Linked to it in the report is one of an ornithological success in the same county of Wiltshire in the reintroduction of the Great Bustard to Salisbury Plain. This ongoing project seems now to be establishing breeding pairs literally on the ground in Cranborne Chase. The article can be read at Bustards nest found in Cranborne Chase for first time


No comments: