ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the main disputes involving trees in Victorian and Edwardian society, considering why these conflicts occurred, how they played out and their relationship to wider contexts of urban development, class tensions and social change. Conflicts and disagreements about urban trees in Britain and Ireland are not a new phenomenon. Although Victorian and Edwardian towns, especially industrial and manufacturing centres, tend to be depicted as smoky and relatively dirty places with considerable environmental problems, major programmes of tree planting were undertaken whilst trees and plants continued to survive and in some cases flourish, in a semi–wild state, in places such as incorporated woodlands, river banks, waste ground and allotments, providing rich ecosystems. Victorian urban greening was not, however, an inevitable and universally welcomed process. In many ways, some parts of the urban environment, especially close to major manufactories or in densely–populated areas, were not, of course, conducive to tree planting and urban arboriculturists faced problems such as pollution, density of buildings, busy streets, dust and dirt, poor soils and lack of light. Tree planting and management plans and practices were the focus of disputes for various reasons.
