Tag Archives: Britain

(1860s) Poetry of the Lancashire Cotton Famine

https://cottonfaminepoetry.exeter.ac.uk/database/listfiles.html

This database from the University of Exeter brings together poems written in response to the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861-65.

The crisis was caused by the American Civil War and, as well as poems from British local newspapers, poems published in America are included commenting on the relationship between the US, Britain, cotton, and slavery.

Whilst not technically Three Acres And A Cow canon, it is a great resource and useful to get a sense of the way language is used in this period of history.

Whose Britain Is It Anyway? (90 mins)

Compelling 2006 BBC documentary by Dan and Peter Snow about land rights in the UK. Section on how much of central London is still owned by aristocrats is excellent.

The richest 0.6% of the population own 46% of the UK’s land

This information comes from Kevin Cahill’s comprehensive analysis of land ownership in Britain, Who Owns Britain (Canongate, 2002).

Graphic by http://inequalitybriefing.org/

land

This Land Is Our Land by Marion Shoard

This Land Is Our Land
by Marion Shoard

The definitive book on land both past and present, although it has sadly not been updated since the 80’s.

It gets a bit heavy going in places but the first third, which is a history from Roman times to the present, is totally gripping and a must read for anyone interesting in land and land rights.

I had to take quite a few breaks whilst reading it as sections of it made me really angry and/or sad.