ABSTRACT
The changes in the rural areas of England and Wales, both in terms of agricultural production and social and economic structure, which have been discussed in the last two chapters, had effects well outside the country districts. As the countryside became more and more a site of leisure and of living rather than simply working, the nature of the countryside, its appearance and the relationship of farming to the ‘natural world’ became more central for the urban world as much as the rural. Also, the use of the country as a place of leisure raised questions about access to the countryside. All these problems had, as we saw in Chapter 6, been present in the inter-war period. However, in the years after 1945 they took on a new importance and intensity, which was to move from relatively smallscale actions, like the Mass Trespasses and the eccentric and marginal practices of a few ‘humus’ farmers, to the centre stage of rural and urban life.
