Kate Taylor

A GIS-based reconstructive model of the agricultural environment of the South Downs during World War II using aerial photography and the National Farm Survey

Author

Dr Kate Taylor

Date

2009

Project Type

PhD

Subject

Geography

Datasets

Historic OS Maps (Mainly 1:10560 County Series 2nd revision), 1st Land Utilisation Survey (LUS) field sheets, LUS published maps (6 inch and 10 mile), National Farm Survey maps and forms for individual farms in the study area, 1940 Luftwaffe aerial photograph, 1947 RAF aerial photographs

Related Subjects

Historical Geography; Agricultural Studies; Human Geography

Sources: Digimap, LSE, University of Sussex Geography Resource Centre, East Sussex Records Office, The National Archive, Vision of Britain website

Dates/Editions: All available.

Scales: All available.

Key Words

WWII; Aerial Photography; National Farm Survey; GIS

Publishing Institution

School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Kingston University

Summary

The Second World War was a pivotal period for British agriculture. For the first time, the State intervened in agriculture in order to increase food production. This State intervention has continued in various forms ever since, and the result, arguably, has been an accelerated rate of change in the British landscape.

The key aim of this study is to reconstruct the agricultural landscape of part of East Sussex between 1935 and 1959. The 1935 data will be taken from the maps produced by Dudley Stamp’s land use survey. Luftwaffe aerial photographs from August 1940 will be used, together with RAF aerial photographs from 1947 and 1959. In addition, National Farm Survey records will help to identify the types of land use in the areas of interest. The use of GIS as a tool for the integration of these disparate datasets is a crucial and innovative aspect of the study.

The first objective is to provide a baseline (1935) against which subsequent changes can be measured. In addition, the use of the 1935 maps will enable the pre-war landscape in the study area to be characterised. If this is the period of the “rural idyll”, what did that actually look like?

A second objective is to identify and quantify changes in the study area over time. Much previous study of British agriculture has been qualitative in nature, whereas this study aims to quantify specific changes at farm scale.

Much debate during the last two decades has centred on the concept of “productivism” and beyond, whilst little attention has been paid to the pre-productivist era. Therefore this study will attempt a definition of pre-productivism. By identifying specific changes over time, a clear transition into “productivism” and beyond may be defined, and a pre-productivist baseline may be established against which to measure future changes.

Results/Outcome

Taylor, K. A GIS-based reconstructive model of the agricultural environment of the South Downs during World War II using aerial photography and the National Farm Survey. Diss. PhD thesis, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Kingston University, 2009.