Unlocking Landscapes: London’s historic Great North Wood with Chris Schüler

I’m delighted to be able to post the first episode of my podcast, Unlocking Landscapes.

This episode is with author Chris Schüler about his upcoming book The Wood that Built London. It’s about London’s historic Great North Wood, which I have posted about many times on this blog.

It’s a long episode, but that’s because it’s local interest, with a lot of detail to fit in. I hope it’s useful to people with an interest in London’s history, city woodlands, and nature in general.

You can subscribe to the podcast via the links below:

• Apple podcasts
• Google podcasts
• Podbean
• Spotify
• YouTube

In this episode we talk about the following things:

• What inspired Chris to write the book and how he went about it
• How the Great North Wood (GNW) was managed
• How the GNW differs from other southern English wooded landscapes such as the Sussex Weald
• The violent history of the GNW
• How the plague impacted people living in the GNW
• The GNW’s celebrities
• Some of the now rare species recorded in the GNW centuries ago
• The concerns about invasive species are not as new as we think
• The attempts to eradicate hedgehogs and polecats
• How the GNW will be viewed in 100 years

Links to references:

• Mapping the Great North Wood – Chris Schüler’s historical film about the GNW
• Mapping the Great North Wood screening and Q&A
• London Wildlife Trust’s Great North Wood project
• London Wildlife Trust’s Sydenham Hill Wood & Cox’s Walk
• Chris Schüler’s website
• Along the Amber Route: St. Petersburg to Venice
• Follow Chris on Twitter
• Greenspace Information for Greater London
• Ornithological Notes from a South London Suburb
• A history of Croydon’s wildlife – Mathew Frith, London Wildlife Trust

Thanks for reading/listening

Tag: Unlocking Landscapes