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Wetlands as Remembrance Spaces: Contemplation, Ceremony and Commemoration

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English Wetlands

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Abstract

In this chapter we explore the importance of English wetlands to humans as places for contemplation, ceremony and commemoration. In the opening section, we provide an overview of the types of remembrance practices associated with wetlands, including tree planting events, memorial benches, bird hide plaques, as well as intimate personal performances such as poetry, artwork and scattering ashes. We explore how pre-modern uses of wetlands, as liminal threshold spaces where life and death converge, sit alongside these modern practices of remembrance. Looking at our three case study sites in detail, we explore the differing ways these spaces have been marked by human memorial practice over time. Labyrinths, turf mazes, raised wooden trackways, earthworks and henges from antiquity are considered alongside the recent past, represented by pill boxes, peat workings and military-industrial artefacts. These all lead us to examine aspects of heritage and legacy within wetland spaces and how they are shaped by the repurposing of space by neoliberal capitalism but also offer opportunities for a more civic commons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

    Mary Gearey & Andrew Church

  2. Real Estate and Land Management, Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester, UK

    Neil Ravenscroft

Authors
  1. Mary Gearey
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  2. Andrew Church
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  3. Neil Ravenscroft
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Correspondence to Mary Gearey .

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Gearey, M., Church, A., Ravenscroft, N. (2020). Wetlands as Remembrance Spaces: Contemplation, Ceremony and Commemoration. In: English Wetlands. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41306-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41306-4_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41305-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41306-4

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