ABSTRACT
The countryside evokes popular images of rural idyll. However, this romantic vision no longer provides an accurate picture of the state of rural areas, if indeed it ever did. For rural Britain has always been subject to change - from the prehistoric clearances of the native woodlands, through the parliamentary enclosures to the introduction of modem agricultural practices in this century. But the changes of the post-war years have been perhaps the most far reaching of our history in terms of their nature and scale. The declining importance of farming as a source of income and employment in recent years has undermined the simple equation between the rural economy and the agricultural sector. The social composition of many villages has been transformed by incomers who commute to nearby towns and cities for their work. And European Union (EU) policy is playing an increasingly important role in both the regulation of the countryside, through environmental and other directives, and the promotion of rural development through structural assistance and other programmes.
