The Lake District: Romance and War in England's Greatest Wilderness

The Lake District: Romance and War in England's Greatest Wilderness

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today's video is sponsored by ren discover  what your carbon footprint is and how you can   offset it with wren's environmental  explanations more on them in a bit it's probably one of the most romantic locations  in the entire world in the far northwest of   england just below the scottish border lies a  breathtaking landscape carved out by ancient   glaciers the lake district is today home to both  england's largest lake and tallest mountains a   sublime world of jagged peaks still waters  and ancient farbsteads both say national   park and a unesco world heritage site it's  also one of the uk's biggest tourist draws   bringing in some 18 million visitors a year but  there's far far more to the lakes than just some   pretty scenery for centuries wild and remote the  lake district in the 19th century found itself a   laboratory for social movements that would soon  transform the world it was here amid these deep   valleys that william wordsworth and other  poets helped forge british romanticism hear   that early attempts at landscape protection  birthed modern ideas of conservation here too   that some of the greatest ever children's stories  would be written both a physical landscape and a   geography of world-changing ideas this is the  lake district england's greatest national park   out on england's northwest coast amid the  mountains of cumbria lies one of europe's most   storied landscapes sprawling some 2 362 square  kilometers the lake district is both england's   largest national park and its most famous  recognized as a unesco world heritage site in 2017   it's home to england's tallest mountain scaffold  pike and lake windermere its largest lake it's   also home to a metric heck ton of tourists who  flock in their millions every year to see the   landscape that inspired everyone from william  wordsworth to jmw turner and beatrix potter but   what caused this region to form in such a perfect  way and how did it come to be so storied the   answer lies in a tale eons in the making the  first rocks that make up today's lake district   began to form some 500 million years ago in an  era officially known as the cambrian period but   which could just as easily be called the really  really really ridiculously old period at that time   the area that would become northwest england was  utterly different not only was it located south of   the equator it was also underwater over millennia  mud settling on the ocean floor hardened into what   would become the parks of skidor group this was  followed by a whole load of volcanic activity that   gave birth to the borrowdale group and then yet  more underwater shenanigans that would eventually   form the slate-rich environment of windermere  yet it wouldn't be until 100 million years had   passed that these rocks saw the light of day the  caledonian orogeny was the geological equivalent   of dillon going electrics a moment when everything  changed suddenly all these deep sea rocks were   just thrust out of the ocean not just above the  surface but way way up into the air the resulting   mountain range was so vast it would make mount  everest look puny since this video isn't titled   the lake district bigger the mount everest you  already know that this didn't last the mighty   mountains eventually got so worn away by erosion  that they wound up under water again at the bottom   of a shallow sea yet this was just a brief return  below the waves one last quick check-in with the   aquatic world to pick up some cool looking  marine fossils before returning to the surface   at the very end of the carboniferous period the  mountains emerged from the water once more over   the next 200 million years they would slowly drift  north becoming part of what is today britain and   settling into their current position finally two  million years ago the glaciers moved in landscape   altering monsters the glaciers tore through  these mountains carving deep channels as they   advanced and retreated when they finally vanished  they would leave behind deep lakes of melt water   lakes that would one day inspire a handful of  bipedal apes to write some of the most sublime   poems known to man but first those hairless  apes would have to settle this harsh and   unforgiving world the first humans to live in  the lake district are thought to have arrived   around 10 000 bc during a brief period of  warming since this period was so brief though   they were quickly driven away as the ice returned  it wasn't until some 7 000 years had passed that   people had settled here permanently in that  era the lakes looked little like they do today   instead this was a wild realm of deep bogs and  dense forests a kind of claustrophobic primeval   nightmare yet somehow humans got a toehold  in the landscape they began carving stone   axes from the mountain rocks axes that have been  uncovered at prehistoric sites all over britain   they began assembling great stone circles the  greatest of all still stands a castle rig slowly   under our influence this world began to change  it began to reshape itself yet it would take the   arrival of an infamous people to give the lakes  their current appearance a people whose name is   synonymous with both terror and beardy manliness  we're of course talking about the vikings for a region of the world best known today  for stuff like ikea it's almost surprising   that scandinavia produced the vikings yet produce  them it did and starting in the 8th century they   launched a series of raids in england that would  culminate in a wave of settlement among those   regions settled was the lake district the lake  district vikings originated in norway only slowly   colonizing the region after establishing various  settlements on the coasts of scotland and ireland   nor did they completely overrun the lakes  instead they began with the base of operations   in the region's southwest before gradually moving  inland yet it would be their habits more than   those of any previous settlers like the romans or  celts that created the lake district we know today   despite their reputations as manly conquerors the  norse were mostly farmers and it was performing   that they began clearing large swaths of  the lakes of trees and building dry stone   walls to divide up their holdings walls  just like those which is still used today   it was also the norse who introduced the  region's most influential residents its sheep   herdwick sheep are one of the lake district's  famous icons fairy-faced gray-walled creatures   they always seem to be smiling politely like  they can't wait to meet you though a local breed   they're descended from these original norse sheep  herdwick is a corruption of the norse word for   sheep pasture and their effect on the landscape  is incalculable the stark beautiful mountainsides   that come up when you google late districts well  they're only so bare because of the constant   presence of these genial fluff balls constantly  grazing the landscape trotting over it leaving a   mark unlike any other animal beyond the physical  the viking mark on the lakes was also social   including many local words fell comes from the old  norse for hill tarn the word for a small lake has   a norse origin as does the local term for stream  beck in fact it's thought that a local dialect   mixing norse in english was spoken here until  the 12th century but perhaps the most impressive   legacy that the vikings left behind was the system  of communal roaming over a quarter of the lake   district is common land meaning the herdwick sheep  can graze any part of it in centuries past this   ensured that shepherds had a freedom unthinkable  in other parts of england where land was often   enclosed by retaining the ancient right to graze  a certain number of sheep people were able to   move around the lakes almost at will this is all  the more impressive when you realize the viking   era only lasted a short period of time before the  second millennium a d had even begun the scottish   had conquered the region they in turn would lose  it following the norman conquest sparking off what   would become the defining feature of the lakes  the scots and english slugging it out to take the   place for themselves but even as the politics of  the area entered this depressing tug of war phase   the landscape continued to be formed by other  forces there was mining and quarrying industries   that left visible traces that could still be seen  today there was increased sheep farming for wool   production continuing the deforestation started by  the vikings by the time the region became peaceful   in the 17th century it looked a lot like it does  today but that doesn't mean anyone appreciated   it as late as the 18th century people tended not  to see the lake district as a place of raw beauty   but rather as a horrible ugly place stuffed with  sheep and weirdos the wildest and most frightful   region of any country daniel defoe wrote of it the  poet and libertas john dalton called the landscape   alarming so what changed what made  the general public go all the way from   whoa regarding the lakes for that we can thank one  of the most influential poets of all time now just   before we continue with today's video a quick word  from our fantastic sponsor ren ren is a website   focused on the effects of climate change and how  we can all individually combat it so you can head   over to the website and go through a quick free  questionnaire about what your consumption habits   are we're talking questions like how often do you  shop online how many times a week do we eat red   meat it takes about five minutes and when you're  done they've got lots of handy information and   graphs that can put your carbon footprint into  context but ren doesn't just stop there they're   constantly scouring the globe for reforestation  efforts and carbon capture projects that they   want to help and if you're so inclined you can opt  to after you've determined your carb of footprint   you can choose to donate a monthly sum that will  offset your own footprint by helping to fund some   of these environmental projects for instance  ren recently partnered with a california-based   biochar project that removes flowable biomass  from high-risk fire areas and pyrolyzes it they   mix the resulting biochar with compost and sell  it to local farmers helping to reduce the risk   of wildfires and climate change once you've made  a financial commitment you can begin receiving   a monthly update centered around rainforest  protection tree planting initiatives and carbon   capture projects brent knows that it's going to  take a lot of work to address climate change but   it's easier when we all contribute a little bit so  if this sounds like something you'd be interested   in checking out you can head to ren.com or you can  use my referral link in the description box below   and there's a special partnership between ren and  this channel they're going to plant 10 extra trees   for each of the first hundred people who sign  up using my link and now back to today's video the interesting thing about beauty is that despite  seeming so universal it is in reality incredibly   influenced by cultural cues for instance  wilderness in the 18th century was regarded   as scary inhospitable horrible and lots of other  adjectives you never want to use on a dating   profile on the continent james howell declared  the pyrenees uncouth huge monstrous excretences of   nature an attitude that was common while today a  mountain landscape might be considered the epitome   of beauty for old timey folk it was about as  enticing as a old crap sandwich yet as the   century dragged on there were signs that this was  changing in the german-speaking lands the stormon   drang movement was beginning to exalt a rugged  nature in britain the picturesque movement was   extolling the virtues of harmoniously balanced  vistas it was actually one of their writers the   scottish jesuit thomas west who would produce the  first travel guide to the lake district in 1772   pointing readers to ideal spots for sketching but  it would be the movement that grew out of these   earlier ones that really upended how we think of  the natural world the movement that emphasized   sublime beauty and saw wonder in the wildest  parts of nature romanticism and its greatest   british exponent would also become the lake  district's greatest advertiser born just outside   the boundaries of the modern national park in the  delightfully named cockermouth william wordsworth   was a native son of the lakes but while clear  cumbrian water practically ran through his veins   it wasn't until he moved to the grasmere area  in 1799 that his association with the district   really began settling into dove cottage with  his sister dorothy and with frequent visits from   samuel taylor coleridge wordsworth embarked on  a series of poems that would cement not just his   reputation but that of an entire region let's  see if you recognize this opening i wandered   lonely as a cloud that floats high uh vales  and hills when all at once i saw a crowd a host   of golden daffodils written in 1804 the poem is  arguably the most famous in the english language   inspired by a walk wordsworth took in the lakes  it immortalizes the region in a verse that almost   everyone knows by heart not that it was just this  one poem wordsworth lived in the lake district   until 1850 pending endless odes to the world  around him coleridge although moved away in 1804   was likewise inspired by the region as was the guy  who was basically the ringo of the lake's poets   robert southie even the great artist jmw turner  repeatedly visited the lakes around this time   painting the hypnotic sights he saw but it was  wordsworth who really brought the area to wider   attention with the publication of a guide to the  lakes originally written in 1810 as an anonymous   accompaniment for some engravings wordsworth  republished the guide under his own name in 1835.   in that instant he managed to do for the lake  district what the 1992 olympics did for barcelona   transformed it almost overnight into an  unmanageable tourist trap written in beautiful   prose guide to the lake struck a chord with a  public both primed by romanticism to see nature as   beautiful and utterly fed up of life in britain's  squalid cities so they did as wordsworth suggested   setting out for this magical area setting out to  become as inspired as the guy who'd written about   daffodils sadly for wordsworth he'd live long  enough to regret the effect that his guide had although wordsworth was ahead of the curve  when he declared the lakes should become   some sort of national property he was incredibly  unhappy with the idea that other people might   want to see it the trouble was the arrival of the  railways which the poet considered so unsightly   that ruined the area when the lake's first railway  line was proposed in 1844 wordsworth even wrote a   poem against it opening with the words and is no  nook of english ground secure from rash assault   sadly of him it turned out that the answer was a  resounding no the line was laid in 1847 a bitter   experience wordsworth would live to see still  it would have been even more bitter had he lived   beyond 1850 right through that decade and then on  into the 1870s railway tracks spread out across   the lakes like metal rods being laid by some great  iron tree as those lines spread people began to   use them pouring into a region that only a few  decades earlier had been viewed as dangerously   remote now this was far from a unique experience  all up and down britain the lowering price of rail   travel was combining with the emergence of a new  middle class and it turned weekend and seasonal   travel into a national pastime still the impact on  the lake district was dramatic around windermere   industrialists began to build mansions to project  their wealth elsewhere ordinary people flocked   to the towns to enjoy the countryside but while  bringing travel to the masses was great and all   there were people who were worried about the side  effects people like john ruskin like wordsworth   ruskin had rejected the first rail line arriving  in the lakes with all the enthusiasm of someone   opening up the door to find a tax inspector  just like wordsworth he decided to use his pen   to protest writing and campaigning against the  exploitation of this landscape and the thing is   exploitation was the key word at this point in  world history the idea of a protected landscape   was almost as alien as a dalek invasion while the  u.s would pass a law preserving yellowstone in   1872 it would take 18 years to create another  permanent national park while in britain even   stuff like stonehenge was available to buy and  sell but ruskin envisioned a word where societies   might preserve their greatest landscapes and as he  wrote on the subject more more people started to   agree ultimately this would become the seed for  the 1895 creation of the national trust one of   the biggest landowners in the lake district  and one dedicated to its protection but the   effects would be felt beyond the lakes along  with people like cannon hardwick rawnsley and   octavia hill ruskin was key in developing the  modern concept of conservation as unesco put it   when awarding the region world heritage status  in 2017 a key development in the lake district   was the idea that landscape has a value and that  everyone has a right to appreciate and enjoy it   as ideas go there are certainly worse and perhaps  fittingly for an idea that grew out of literature   it would in turn help influence some of  the greatest children's books of all time   beatrix potter was a writer who grew up in  london but fell in love with the lake district   while visiting and made the place her home it  was these now protected beasters that helped   inspire some of the most beloved tales from peter  rabbit to jemima puddle-duck but rather than just   benefiting from it potter made conservation part  of her life adding rhetorical ammunition to the   growing fight to preserve the lakes and even  learning how to breed herdwick's sheep she did   such a good job on this last point that she's  now credited with being one of the key figures   to saving the smiling herdwick from extinction a  pleasing trivia fact if there ever was one yet the   history of the lake district wasn't always one  of poetry and progress in the mid-20th century   the region would play a supporting role in one  of the darkest events of all time the holocaust in august 1945 europe lane ruins from france's  atlantic coast all the way to russia's western   flank entire cities had been wiped out the whole  countries had gone up in flames millions of   people had vanished inside death camps never to  return on the outskirts of war damaged prague a   small group of homeless children huddled jewish  survivors of one of history's worst genocides   liberated from nazi camps in occupied  czechoslovakia these children had nowhere   to go no community to return to no hope until the  people of the lake district threw them a lifeline   the brainchild of british jewish philanthropist  leonard montefiore the commission for the care   of children from concentration camps would take in  these children and re-house them near windermere   in the end some 730 would make it to britain not  exactly helped by a government that shockingly   demanded the uk's jewish community from the costs  still for the hundreds of children that made it   to the lakes the experience would be life-changing  known as the windermere children they stayed only   temporarily some as little as four months others  as long as six the idea was that they'd be given   space to recover learn a bit of english and  then sent out to live new lives around the   uk in the short time that they were there though  many developed deep connections with the region   the first place in far too long to show them  any kindness survivors such as eric hirsch later   recalled swimming in the lake's chilly waters  playing football in the shadow of the mountains   and just basically learning to live again from a  modern perspective the program was maybe somewhat   lacking with no emphasis on counseling or  therapy despite the horrors that these kids   had seen nonetheless it seems to have worked here  in the clear air of the lake district so far from   the ghettos and camps of central europe some  730 orphans were able to find peace to start a   new chapter in their lives as hersh later said of  the lakes we felt alive again here i was liberated   i will always love this place perhaps the most  beautiful part is that locals seem to have largely   welcomed them in other interviews herschel talked  to feeling safe in windermere a feeling welcomed   despite his poor grasp of english as a postscript  to one of the darkest chapters in european history   the story of the windermere children certainly  offers a ray of hope a short poignant tale that   locals should be proud of and it really was short  in no time at all the project was wound down the   kids sent off to new foster families or into job  apprenticeships for the older ones and into new   lives as british citizens and so the story of the  lake district carried on by this time as the end   of the 1940s approached the conservation ideas of  raskin and wordsworth were starting to seem less   radical and more like common sense back in 1932  the mass trespass of kinder scouter hill and the   peak districts had awoken britain's the fact that  they lived in a country where the rights of a few   rich birks shoot grass were held higher than  those of the masses to enjoy the countryside   come 1949 the clamor for change was so great that  the government finally passed the national parks   and access to the countryside act allowing the  creation of britain's first national parks and   while the peak district home of kinder scout  would symbolically become the first park the   lakes wouldn't be far behind on may 9 1951 the  lake district officially became britain's second   national park originally covering 2 292 square  kilometers its boundaries would be extended   in 2016 to its current size today the lake's  easternmost extremity directly borders another   national park the yorkshire dales together the two  marked the largest stretch of protected wilderness   in the whole of britain so that's the story of the  lake district from how it formed to the effect it   had on the world of literature and conservation  but it's not quite the end as we march into the   third decade of the 21st century parts of this  landscape are under pressure like never before when we look at an ancient landscape it's  tempting to think that it will be around forever   that there's no way anything could ever change  it sadly this view is about as misguided as   that of the first sailors chowing down on dodo  meat and laughing about how they could wipe out an   entire species of bird i mean go on how could that  ever happen the problem is that changing economics   and tourist habits are piling new pressures  on the lake district pressures that taken   individually might be survivable but together  could spell the end of the region as we know it   perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in  the world of sheep farming the upland grazing   that from viking times helped shape this romantic  world is currently described as being in crisis   thanks to cheap imports from new zealand and  elsewhere the average shepherd in the lakes   now has an annual income equivalent to just  thirteen thousand dollars a poor wage even for   a teenager working the tiller mcdonald's because  of this fewer and fewer young people are taking up   the reins of this profession as hill farms then  begin to fade and go bust over the coming years   a vital part of the fabric of this region could  be lost forever with no herdwick sheep to keep the   hillsides bare and no one to repair the dry stone  walls the national park stands to lose a great   deal of what makes it so charming add in a surge  in house prices forcing locals to move out of the   area and you begin to see the acute challenges  that the region faces now it's important to note   that not everyone agrees that things are at crisis  point the last few years have seen a real boom in   rewilding the lake district the practice of  returning tracts of land to something like   their original state before humans came along  on the one hand that's great for biodiversity   proponents say it will transform the lakes into  a place where long vanished species can thrive   on the other hand rewilding necessarily means  removing traces of human intervention and for   sheep farmers or just people who want to preserve  the version of the lakes that once inspired   wordsworth this process is akin to destruction we  don't have any easy answers for these challenges   and since no one lives in the region it seems  unfair to come down on either side of this   really local argument still what we can say is  that it would be a real shame if the future of   this landscape was one of division or collapse  instead of appreciation for its role in history   here after all is a place that has inspired people  for centuries that still bears the traces of long   dead civilizations that remains perhaps above  all else a place of unparalleled beauty while   we can't know for sure what the future will bring  we do know one thing that the lake district has a   special place in the history of england and the uk  as a whole a place that's deserving of recognition so i really hope you found this video  interesting if you did please do hit   that thumbs up button below don't forget to  subscribe and as always thank you for watching you

2022-02-03 01:12

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