ABSTRACT
This chapter considers signs of a 'heritagisation' of the countryside environment and what the concomitant dangers are, as organisations and people involved in different branches of conservation increasingly need to recognise its money-spinning potential. Daniel Defoe's description of part of the countryside of Norfolk, from his 'Tour through the eastern counties of England' of 1724, confounds one of the persistent local East Anglian stereotypes of the landscape as stretching in broad empty sweeps towards a wide horizon. The Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 brought the UK more into line with European conventions on wildlife conservation, providing additional legislation for transnational issues such as protection for migratory birds. Roy Armstrong, 'open air' museum founder, was influenced by the Scandinavian idea of the open air museum – notably, in Norway, with the re-erection of medieval stave churches in the fjords outside Oslo in 1885, and Skansen Open Air Museum in Stockholm, which was founded in 1891.
