Environment Through Time

People have always interacted with their environment, sometimes gently shaping it to their needs, at other times radically altering it.

The Peak District landscape we see today is a result of humanity’s interaction with the rocks, soils, vegetation and wildlife over time.  We are able to interpret past environments and people’s impacts on them through analysing soils and peat and the pollen or plant remains preserved within them.

Pollen samples from peat bogs show that at the end of the last Ice Age the region became abundantly wooded with altitudinally zoned forests made up of different mixes of species at different heights.  On the higher ground to the north and west, woodland gave way to light scrub cover dominated by birch and juniper then to a more open mix of alpine plants.

Birch woodland on Big Moor gives an impression of how the uplands may have looked in the Mesolithic.

During the Mesolithic these were replaced with extensive blanket peat.

Blanket peat began to spread across the moorlands during prehistory.

It is thought that human activity, in tandem with the onset of a wetter climate approximately 7,500 to 7,000 years ago, is responsible for contributing to this peat formation by reducing tree cover.  It seems that woodland was repeatedly burnt, probably to produce clearings to attract large game animals to more abundant vegetation for easier hunting.  On high ground, in areas with high rainfall, this causes nutrients in the soil to be washed out, during which iron pan forms and the ground becomes waterlogged so encouraging peat formation.

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Prehistory

Later, there were probably dense forests in the boulder-clay dominated valleys, while the lighter woodland cover on the limestone plateau and Eastern Moors was cleared to create fields surrounded by woods.  These light and fertile soils were ideal for prehistoric ard and spade cultivation.

Peat seems to have continued to spread on higher ground and where drainage was poor.  By the end of the Iron Age much of the Eastern Moors and possibly parts of the higher limestone were covered in blanket peat and soils in some locations became exhausted.

Woodland has long been an important part in the Upper Derwent’s landscape.

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Roman - Medieval

The heavy boulder clays of the valleys were open to cultivation after the introduction of iron-tipped ploughs during this period.  It is likely that valley tree cover would have been reduced after this.  However it seems that woodlands have always been a significant part of the Derwent Valley landscape and were managed to supply fuel for lead smelting and charcoal production.

Caves form an important part of the limestone landscape and appear to have been used throughout prehistory as shelters, burial places and sites of votive worship.

There were long-lasting periods of good climate during the Roman occupation and the 11th-13th centuries AD.   At these times arable farming flourished in the region and even vineyards were established as far north of Yorkshire.  A worsening in the weather occurred during the 14th century when conditions became wetter and colder than they had been previously.  This change was contemporary with the spread of the Black Death and reduced the viability of arable cultivation across much of the region.

Lead mining has had a significant effect on the local environment surrounding mines and smelting sites by causing heavy metal contamination.  Livestock can be poisoned on lead rakes themselves.  A greater environmental effect of lead mining has been the lowering of the water table to drain deep mines.  Many areas on and around the limestone plateau have little natural watercourses or springs due to this.

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Post-Medieval

The environment of the limestone plateau changed dramatically as heath was enclosed and improved during the 18th and 19th centuries, which radically altered the environment.  Moorland and heathland were replaced with pasture, on which large quantities of lime were used as fertiliser during enclosure to improve land for better grass growth.

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Modern

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, pollution from nearby industrial cities was thought to affect the region’s ecology while at the start of the 21st century traffic fumes are a major pollutant.  Potentially the biggest changes to the region’s environment comes from global warming which could encourage new ecosystems and species to develop and so replace existing ones.

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What you can do

Click here for information on visiting archaeological sites in the Peak District.

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