Straw, bracken and the Wicklow whale: the exploitation of natural resources in England since 1500

Past & Present, May, 1998 by Donald Woodward

In January 1679 Sir William Petty, FRS, informed his friend Sir Robert Southwell, FRS, `that a whale of great bigness (and consequently worth) was cast up in Wicklow about 17 miles from this place [Dublin]'. Immediately the local people `began to break her up and divide her', but Petty believed that she would prove to be of little value partly because of `the want of all manner of utensils to make oil of her'. He was, however, impressed by the whale's gills which consisted of `about 200 small flakes of that substance or matter which we commonly call whale bone'. Many people `took one or two a piece out of curiosity, being of no real value or use we know of'. Petty's final comment is probably unique in seventeenth-century literature; he had discovered a natural product which appeared to have no practical use.(1) In contrast, early modern society was characterized by the ability to find some purpose for virtually every natural material and agricultural by-product.

The subject explored in this article is not entirely new. Other historians have written about the use of holly as a winter fodder for livestock, especially in the northern uplands, the exploitation of sedge in the Cambridgeshire fens and, on a broader canvas, the use of England's shrinking woodlands.(2) The collection of wild foods and herbs from hedgerows, commons and wastes has been the central theme of recent work by Richard Mabey; and Keith Thomas succinctly discussed the consumption of such items in Man and the Natural World. He also touched on a range of plants used for other practical purposes, including reeds for thatching and rushes for lights. Others -- such as the use of thistledown in pillows and cushions; of burdock leaves to carry butter to market; and of the abrasive horse-tail plant to scour pans -- were probably of more limited value, although they were all recommended by at least one contemporary herbalist or botanist.(3) These and other themes will be explored in the article that follows, but not by studying the contemporary advice literature heavily used by others; rather, evidence will be drawn chiefly from eyewitness accounts: from autobiographies, diaries, farm and estate accounts, letters, probate inventories and travelogues. These sources introduce us to a world in which almost every natural material was put to some practical use. There appears to have been no limit to the ingenuity of our early modern forebears in their exploitation of natural resources and agricultural by-products, and the story is considerably richer and more varied than previously suspected.

Paradoxically, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed both the high point of such practices and the build up of pressures which would ultimately lead to their abandonment. The drive to make more intensive use of all available resources came in part from the increase in population which led to a significant deterioration of the man:resources ratio following its dramatic improvement in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the aftermath of the Black Death. The squeeze placed on living standards by the price revolution of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, especially for those in the lower reaches of the social order, also played its part in the intensified use of natural resources. This led to greater competition for access to materials and, in some instances, to the development of more careful commercial exploitation; a good example of this was the increasingly painstaking management of woodlands and other resources such as gorse and bracken. The intensified utilization of natural resources also had the advantage of creating extra income for the thousands drawn into the activity.

The main subject matter of this article is the exploitation of materials which occurred naturally in the English countryside (such as bracken, gorse, moss or peat), together with various by-products of agriculture (such as feathers and straw). Straw was the by-product of grain production and feathers of white meat production. Large amounts of land and capital would not have been devoted to the production of feathers or straw alone; it was the production of grain and meat that made such secondary products available. In each case, naturally produced alternatives were available -- although not always in the desired quantity -- had these by-products not existed.

The discussion that follows is arranged in six major sections. The first deals with the gathering of wild foods and herbs which were needed to supplement monotonous and sometimes barely adequate diets. This is followed by separate discussions of the materials used for fuel and shelter which were so essential for survival, especially in northern climes. The fourth section chronicles the raw materials employed in the construction of household and farm furnishings. The penultimate discussion relates to the use of naturally occurring materials in industry to achieve a range of chemical reactions. Finally, a number of heterogeneous materials and their uses are revealed, although it is recognized that the list is by no means complete. The conclusion explores the various forces which have led to a massive reduction in the level of natural resource exploitation by the end of the twentieth century. They include: population growth and urbanization; rising levels of personal wealth; changing attitudes to traditional usages and use rights; the development of man-made substitutes; and improvements in transportation.