| Book Review | Environmental History, 11.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to Enviromental History online. About 214 words from this article are provided below; about 388 words remain.

If you are a individual subscriber to Environmental History, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Environmental History, you can:: • get subscription information here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of Environmental History (8.1-present).
Instititutions can:: • get subscription information here to receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | Environmental History, 11.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Martin Mere: Lancashire's Lost Lake. By W. G. Hale and Audrey Coney. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005. xvi + 264 pp. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $25.

The coastal lowlands of Lancashire in northwest England are an environment of intensive agriculture, much of it market gardening on reclaimed peat moss. This book charts the story of one of these moss lands, the former lake of Martin Mere, fifteen miles north of Liverpool behind the coastal resort of Southport. The authors combine a digest of published work with the fruits of archival research and oral history to trace the environmental history of Martin Mere from the last glaciation to the present. The initial chapters discuss the evolution of the mere from the retreat of the ice to the medieval period. It is a complex history, in which sea level changes and their impact on the water table played a major part in determining the ecology of the mere basin as it fluctuated between open water and marsh. Archaeological evidence for early human activity and documentary evidence for the use and management of the fenland resources in the medieval centuries are used to paint a vivid picture of the exploitation of the rich pre-drainage environment: the mere yielded fish, wildfowl, reeds, and pasture.

. . .

There are about 388 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.