Wordsworthian Tree Planting and the English Lake District
| Dates: | 9 March 2023 |
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| Times: | 17:00 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Talk |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| How much: | Free |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Adults, Current University students, General public |
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| Speaker: | Anna Burton |
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William Wordsworth was a keen planter of trees—from the Dove Cottage garden to the grounds at Rydal Mount, to landed estates, friends’ houses, and the local churchyard—he planted a variety of deciduous and evergreen specimens ‘under his own eye & principally if not entirely by his own hand’. This talk will explore the cultural and environmental significance of Wordsworthian tree planting in the English Lake District. It will consider how and why tree planting was meaningful to the Wordsworths as a public, private, and multi-generational endeavour; how William cultivated a reputation as a tree planting authority in the region; and what this living heritage contributes to our existing understanding of both the poet and the environs in which he lived. For generations, tree planting in Cumbria has been undertaken for a variety of purposes. Trees are planted in the edges and hedges of farmland, for agro-forestry and timber, for biodiversity, rewilding, and flood defences, and to retain the national park’s ‘picturesque’ appearance. The pressing nature of the climate crisis has highlighted an urgent need to plant more trees, and respectively, this has meant that tree cover and planting in the Lake District has become a significant environmental and socio-political issue. In building a picture of Wordsworth as a planter and care-taker of trees, this talk will also reflect on how the poet’s arboricultural perspectives might correlate with, and add to, current discourses surrounding tree planting in the region today.
note the change of date.
This event forms part of the 'Forests' research activities organised by CIDRAL (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Arts and Languages)
Speaker
Anna Burton
Role: Lecturer in English Literature
Organisation: University of Derby
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
A7
Samuel Alexander Building
Manchester
