Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
The British don't chop down trees willy nilly like we do. I saw some oak trees in Windsor older than the US.
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Sigh. Sadly not true.
The old/ named/ significant ones get preservation orders slapped on them.
There is a fight in Aylesbury at present to save a row of Horse Chestnuts which will effectively be ignored by the Council. A guess, but the last attempt to save them was over-ruled.
Bill Bryson says it's because we have such a surfeit of history we've become blase about living monuments. Or indeed any monuments.
Aylesbury Town Centre is a perfect case in point. The wholescale descruction of the perfect delineation of a hilltown from the Saxon period was necessary for progress. Wiping out centuries of information, moving brutally forwards.
Ending up, then as now, with a homogeneous High Street/ Shopping Centre culture. Except now it is failing. Nearby market towns were small enough to maintain their culture. To keep the individuality that drew people. To be too small for McDonalds or Tesco but have shops that sold local duck eggs.